Abraham Bloemaert

Jaap Bolten, Abraham Bloemaert c.1565 - 1651, The Drawings, Leiden 2007, vol. I, p. 281, cat. no. 829, reproduced vol. II, p. 329

There are two nearly visible creases, formed during the manufacture of the paper, which run up from the lower edge in to the figure's forehead. There are some pale brown stains in the center of the left edge and between the two heads below and some smaller stains for fixing running up the right edge. All these are visible in the illustration. There are two touched in losses in the hair of the man at the upper left. The paper is slightly deeper and grayer than the illustration. The drawing is laid down on a thin sheet. In an ebony-colored Dutch style frame.
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Jaap Bolten (loc. cit.) dates this impressive sheet of head studies to 1605-10.  He also notes that Bloemaert used these studies as the basis for various heads in other compositions -- paralleling rather neatly the process encouraged by the publication of the Tekenboek, a complilation of prints after drawings such as this by Bloemaert, published after his death by his son, Frederik, and intended to be used as a drawing manual and a repertoire of figures and poses.

In fact, three of the four heads were used for figures in lost designs by Bloemaert for prints by Swanenburg, all executed in around 1610, and all depicting subjects of repentence. The head in the upper left of the present sheet appears as St. Paul in the engraving, The Apostle Paul, repenting, and returns in one of the sheets in the Cambridge Album. The head in the upper right also relates to a sheet in the Cambridge Album, as well as to the figure of Judas in the engraving, The Repentence and Death of Judas Iscariot, while the head in the lower right was used for the print of The Tax-Gatherer Zaccheus, repenting.¹ 

1. For full information on the prints and related drawings, see Bolten, loc. cit.