Lot 16
  • 16

Antwerp School, first half of the seventeenth century

Estimate
80,000 - 120,000 USD
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Description

  • Four studies of a man's head
  • oil on paper laid on panel

Provenance

Dr. Carl Meyer, Venice;
Thence by descent to his great-granddaughter, the present collector.

Condition

The following condition report has been provided by Kirsten Younger of Kirsten Younger Paintings Restoration, 37 East 67th Street, 2C, New York NY 10065, 212-288-4370, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. The painting is in good condition overall. It is painted on paper that has been laid down on a panel. The paper is slightly smaller than the panel so that it does not cover one and a half inches along the top and half an inch along the right edge. The texture of the laid paper is visible in raking light and there is a vertical line of creases in the paper between the two heads in the center. Along this vertical line, two overlapping slightly raised rectangular areas can be seen in raking light and there is another similar area at the right edge near the ear as if the paper was reinforced with paper patches before it was adhered to the panel. There is a smooth fill in this area at the right edge. The horizontally grained panel is made of two pieces of wood. The join is reinforced on the back with two small rectangular pieces of wood and it is slightly open at the left edge. A crack extends in from the left edge at the top corner, there is some old insect damage along the top edge near the right corner and a narrow section of wood has been cut from the lower right corner. The paint of the sketched heads is in good condition overall. The hair and beards are painted with clearly defined brush strokes of thickly applied light and dark paint that are intact. The glazes that create the modeling of the faces and hair appear to be well preserved. The grey paint of the background extends beyond the edge of the paper to the top of the panel and the composition has also been extended along the right edge. There are small areas of paint loss in the grey background where the paper and a transparent brown layer of paint can be seen. There are similar paint losses along the bottom edge. The several layers of old varnish are discolored and opaque and fluoresce yellow green in uv light. The area where the hand appears in the x-ray is covered with opaque varnish and paint. There are areas of darkened old retouches in the drapery and in the background. The varnish has been thinned on the light parts of the faces and on the shoulder of the figure in red. The red paint in the cleaned area is thinly applied over dark brown paint along the edge of the light collar. Several cleaning tests in the background reveal the cool tone of the paint.
"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 arresting group of oil studies of an old man from four different angles was completed in the first half of the seventeenth century.  The gentleman’s features have been rendered with the utmost detail, from the varied tones on his cheeks, to the soft wrinkles of his weathered skin, to the furrowed ridge at the top of his nose, to even the texture of his distinctive thick grey beard, captured with free and wispy strokes of white paint.  Such specific and meticulous features not only imbue the sitter with a degree of familiarity, but also suggest that these careful studies may have been completed in thoughtful preparation for another composition.  This sitter may have been a studio model, or perhaps even an acquaintance of the artist, whose likeness would have been recorded in various studies to later be possibly incorporated into multi-figure compositions. 

The practice of creating, keeping, and re-using studio head studies for later transcription or free adaptation was first developed Frans Floris in the Southern Netherlands.  The same practice was later embraced by artists such as Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony van Dyck and Jacob Jordaens, each of whom would have been very much aware of, and involved in, the production of figure studies for communal studio use.  These were often recycled in a sense, or used on numerous occasions, and seem to have functioned in certain cases as figure types that could be used repeatedly. 

An X-Ray image of the present work reveals the original presence of a hand below the head that is second from the right (fig. 1).