Anthony van Dyck (1599-1641)
Head of a young man (ca-1617-1618)
Oil on paper on panel (51.3 × 41.4 cm)
National Gallery of Arts, Washington
Museum' s Notice :
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.
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2017 - Men Portraits
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