Hendrick de Keyser

This expressive bronze of a crying child relates stylistically to the work of the Dutch sculptor Hendrik de Keyser (1565-1621). Steering away from the classic putto aesthetic, de Keyser introduced realistic emotions in his portraits of children, as displayed by his Bust of a Crying Child in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (inv. no. M.84.37), as well as his marble Head of a crying boy in the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen in Dresden, and the crying putti on the tomb of William of Orange in Delft, arguably his most significant commission. While the expression and subject of the present statue evoke the spirit of de Keyser, the modelling and facture of this bronze vary from his known works, indicating that the present statuette is the work of a follower.

RELATED LITERATURE

C. Avery, ‘Hendrick de Keyser as a sculptor of small bronzes’, reprinted in C. Avery, Studies in European Sculpture, London 1981, p. 175, figs. 18 and 19; F. Scholten, ‘Hendrick de Keyser’s Honey Thief’, The Rijksmuseum Bulletin, Amsterdam, 2015, pp. 52-64