Head of a Young Man
c. 1617/1618
Artist, Flemish, 1599 - 1641
This boldly brushed head is typical of the dynamic figure studies Anthony van Dyck made in the late 1610s while he was active in Peter Paul Rubens’s workshop. As in his other works from that time, Van Dyck used the play of light across the young man’s form to enhance his physical and psychological character. Van Dyck applied paint thinly in the shadows, but accented the face with bold impastos, particularly on the forehead, and merely indicated the man’s wavy, reddish brown hair with rapid brushstrokes. Head studies such as this often served as models for figures in larger compositions, and, indeed, Van Dyck used this study as the model for an apostle in a painting of Christ Healing the Paralytic (Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Munich), and Rubens used him as a soldier in his The Interpretation of the Victim (Sammlungen des Fürsten von und zu Liechtenstein, Vaduz), a scene from his tapestry series about the Roman consul Decius Mus.
Van Dyck painted this head study on paper, but it was later mounted to a wood panel after his death. At this time, the head was also worked up to a greater point of finish and the panel was expanded, presumably so that the painting could be sold as a bust-length portrait. The painting is now framed to reveal only the original paper support as Van Dyck intended.
Artwork overview
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Medium
oil on paper on panel
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Credit Line
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Dimensions
overall: 51.2 x 41.4 cm (20 3/16 x 16 5/16 in.)
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Accession
1953.3.2
Artwork history & notes
Provenance
Possibly Josephus Augustinus Brentano, Amsterdam; possibly (his estate sale, at his residence, Amsterdam, 13 May 1822, no. 96).[1] Lord Clifton. Edouard Warneck, Paris.[2] (Galerie Dr. [Kurt] Benedikt & Co., Berlin) and (Van Diemen & Co., New York), 1928-1929.[3] Adolph Caspar Miller [1866-1953], Washington, D.C.; bequest 1953 to NGA.
[1] Susan Barnes, Nora De Poorter, Oliver Millar, and Horst Vey, Van Dyck. A complete catalogue of the paintings. New Haven and London, 2004: 28. The painting was purchased by "Segault." The identification of this work with NGA 1953.3.2 is uncertain since its dimensions are smaller than than those of the Gallery's painting.
[2] The provenance references to Lord Clifton and Edouard Warneck, which are noted in the catalogue of the Eighth Loan Exhibition of Old Masters, Paintings by Anthony van Dyck Detroit Institute of Arts, 1929: no. 1, have not been confirmed. The painting is not among those sold by Lord Clifton at Christie's in London on 24 July 1922, nor was it included in either of the old master sales of the Warneck collection, held in Paris on 10-11 May 1905 and 27-28 May 1926. However, it is known that Warneck favored small-scale paintings such as this one.
[3] The painting was in Berlin with Benedikt in 1928, according to Roger-A. d'Hulst and Horst Vey, Antoon Van Dyck: Tekeningen en olieverfschetsen, exh. cat., Antwerp and Rotterdam, 1960: 53. Benedikt was the co-owner of Van Diemen, but also opened his own gallery in Berlin in 1928 with an exhibition of old master paintings. The painting was exhibited at the New York branch of Van Diemen in 1928, and lent by Van Diemen to an exhibition in Detroit in 1929. The Berlin branches of Van Diemen and its affiliated galleries were liquidated by the Nazis at sales held at the Graupe gallery in Berlin on 25 January and 26 April 1935, but the painting was not in either of those sales.
Associated Names
Exhibition History
1928
Paintings by Rubens and Van Dyck, Van Diemen Galleries, New York, 1928.
Loan Exhibition of Old Masters, Art Institute of Chicago, 1928-1929, no cat.
1929
Eighth Loan Exhibition of Old Masters. Paintings by Anthony Van Dyck, Detroit Institute of Arts, 1929, no. 1, repro.
2013
Rubens: Inspired by Italy and Established in Antwerp, The Bunkamura Museum of Art, Tokyo; Kitakyushu Municipal Museum of Art; Niigata Prefectural Museum of Modern Art, 2013, no. 43, repro. and fig. 18.
2016
Van Dyck: The Anatomy of Portraiture, The Frick Collection, New York, 2016, no. 4, repro.
2019
Van Dyck, Bayerisches Staatsgemäldesammlungen - Alte Pinakothek, Munich, 2019 - 2020, no. 3.6, repro.
Bibliography
1929
"Loan Exhibition of Old Masters at Chicago." Art News 27 (Jan. 1929): repro.
1931
Glück, Gustav. Van Dyck: des Meisters Gemälde. Klassiker der Kunst in Gesamtausgaben 13. Revised 2nd ed. New York and Stuttgart, 1931: 526, under no. 64.
1960
d'Hults, Roger-A., and Horst Vey. Antoon van Dyck, tekeningen en olieverfschetsen. (Exh. cat. Rubenshuis, Antwerp, and Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Rotterdam.) Antwerp, 1960: 53, under no. 17.
1962
Vey, Horst. Die Zeichnungen Anton van Dycks. 2 vols. Brussels, 1962: I: 104, under no. 35.
1965
Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 48.
1968
National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 40, repro.
1970
Jaffé, Michael. "Some Recent Acquisitions of Seventeenth-Century Flemish Painting." Report and Studies in the History of Art 1969 (1970): 22-23, repro., as Jordaens.
1975
European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 122, repro.
1980
Larsen, Erik. L'opera completa di Van Dyck. 2 vols. Classici dell'arte 102-103. Milan, 1980: 2:133-134, no. A92, repro.
1985
National Gallery of Art. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Washington, 1992: no.147, repro.
1988
Larsen, Erik. The Paintings of Anthony van Dyck. 2 vols. Freren, 1988: 2:A21, as "a free study from the nineteenth century, done probably in Germany by a Romantic artist."
2004
Barnes, Susan J. Van Dyck: A Complete Catalogue of the Paintings. New Haven and London, 2004: no. I.11.
2005
Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr. Flemish Paintings of the Seventeenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 2005: 22-25, color repro.
Wikidata ID
Q20176965