Lot 55
  • 55

Attributed to Jan Lievens

Estimate
180,000 - 220,000 USD
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Description

  • Jan Lievens
  • Head of an old man
  • oil on panel

Provenance

Private collection.

Literature

W. Sumowski, Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler, Landau 1983, vol. VI, p. 3729, cat. no. 2365, reproduced p. 3975;
to be included in the forthcoming catalogue by B. Schnackenburg, Jan Lievens, friend and rival of the young Rembrandt.

Condition

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This panel is made from two pieces of oak joined vertically though the center. The join is still unbroken. The panel is flat and supporting a stable paint layer. The varnish is slightly dull, but it does not seem that the work is significantly dirty. There are a few retouches in the sitter's temple, but none others in the lighter colors of his face and beard. There are only a few retouches in the dark colors on the extreme right edge of his hair. There is a small group of retouches in his coat in the lower right. It seems that there are hardly any retouches in the remainder of the picture. The work is in beautiful condition.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

Catalogue Note

This forthright but sympathetic depiction of a bearded old man has been dated by Bernhard Schnackenburg to 1631-32, the end of Jan Lievens’s first period in Leiden, and will be included in his forthcoming monograph on the artist.1  Lievens developed remarkably quick as an artist and by the late 1620s and early 1630s, he had established himself as one of the foremost painters in Leiden and had earned the praise of Constantin Huygens and others.  It was also during this period that he was in competition with the other great talent in Leiden – Rembrandt – and became friends and rivals, competing for the attention of connoisseurs and patrons.

In addition to the more usual portraits and history paintings, both artists were very much engaged in painting tronies – head and shoulder studies of figures often in exotic dress.  The subjects were often, as in the present work, bearded old men, sometimes generically referred to as prophets.  However, these pictures should not be seen as portraits nor studies for figures in larger compositions saints, but independent works portraying character and temperament, in this case old age and the wisdom that comes with it.

The here model is the same as that in the picture from the Museum der Bildenden Kunst, Leipzig, with his long beard, strong nose and mole high on his left check, though at first glance he appears to be rather different.2  Both figures are portrayed from a similar angle, facing left but not quite in profile, with part of the sitter’s right eye visible.  Here the light comes in strongly from the left, shining on the man’s wide forehead and catching the white hairs on his head and beard, but leaving most of the composition in relative darkness.  The face is boldly painted, with short surface strokes creating creases and highlights, applied on top of a smoother skin tone beneath.  In the beard and hair LIevens scrapes the handle of the brush into the wet paint, defining individual hairs as well as enlivening the surface and creating a complicated pattern of light and dark.  It was a technique used by both Rembrandt and Lievens, one that relies on a strong, decisive approach to succeed. 

These tronies were much sought after and Huygens records that by 1631 a number were already in important collections and notes that they “are works of inestimable value and unrivalled artistry.  May their maker be preserved for us in the length of days.”3

Although both Sumowski and Schnackenburg have confirmed the attribution of the present work to Lievens (on the basis of digital images), several other scholars believe it is by an unknown artist in his circle.   

 

1.  B. Schnackenburg, email communications, 19 and 29 November 2014.

2.  See Sumowski, op. cit., vol. III, p. 1806, no. 1279, reproduced p. 1918.
3.  A.K.  Wheelock, Jr., Jan Lievens:   A Dutch Master Rediscovered¸ exhibition catalogue, New Haven and London 2008, p. 287.