Flemish School, 17th Century

Seguier Collection (according to label on the reverse of the stretcher)

Stylistically, these three head studies in oil on paper clearly reflect the influence of Rubens, but also have a certain Italianate quality, which may indicate that they are in fact based on figures from an Italian painting or paintings.  The sheet may well be the work of one of the legion of Dutch and Flemish artists who, like Rubens, went to Italy in the early 17th century.  The artist has used as his support a sheet of accounts, apparently written in Dutch but largely indecipherable.  As a result either of the preparation of the sheet, or of its gluing down onto the canvas backing, the paper has become translucent and the handwritten accounts show through, creating a surprising visual effect.  Similar re-use of account book pages and other letters is, however, found in an interesting series of head studies by Annibale Carracci and his circle, and also in a splendid study of the head of a boy, attributed to Albert Eckhout.¹  The label on the reverse may perhaps refer to the collection of Chancelier Pierre Seguier (1588-1672).^{2 1.}  Sold, New York, Sotheby's, 21 January 2004, lot 62

^2.  For further information, see Yannick Nexon, 'La collection de tableaux du chancelier Séguier', Bibliothèque de l'École des chartes,  volume 140, numéro 2 (1982), pp. 189ff