Jacques de Gheyn II

This drawing is an intriguing variant of the composition of De Gheyn's rather larger study in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.¹  Though clearly depicting the same tree, and the same seated youth in a hat, there are enough small differences in details between the two drawings, especially in the sketchily rendered background trees, that it is hard to see this as simply a copy of the Amsterdam drawing. Van Regteren Altena speculated that the boy seated by the tree could be De Gheyn's son, Jacques de Gheyn III, but it also seems possible that this drawing was actually made by the younger De Gheyn, seated alongside his father, in the woods.  

1. Inv. RP-T-1922-42(R); I.Q. van Regteren Altena, Jacques de Gheyn. Three Generations, The Hague/Boston/London 1983, vol. I, p. 152, cat. 998, vol. III, fig. 304