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We are grateful to Prof. Christopher Brown for confirming the attribution to Van Dyck, upon first-hand inspection of the work.

Few artists contributed so profoundly the history of art than Sir Anthony Van Dyck. His dramatic compositions and lyrical society portraits made him one of the most desirable artists of his day with a network of patronage spanning countries and courts across Europe.

This striking head study was painted by Van Dyck early in his career in around 1620 and is a notable example of his ineffable capacity to capture character in rapidly executed oil strokes. Head studies such as this were painted by Van Dyck and then later used for reference when painting larger multi-figured compositions. The intensity and complexity of Van Dyck’s early compositional designs meant that a wide variety of head studies showing different facial expressions were required. Despite this, relatively few preparatory oil studies from this period survive, although a number of manuscript inventories from the 17th Century attest to their popularity, such as that of Canon G. van Hamme, which records ‘Twenty little pieces by the knight Van Dyck, being head studies in various manners…’.

The present study was used by Van Dyck for reference when painting the head of Daedalus in Daedalus and Icarus (c. 1620) (The Art Gallery of Ontario) (Fig.1) and was probably painted just prior. A comparison between the present work and the finished head of Daedalus reveals the extent to which Van Dyck relied on preparatory studies and how he would adjust them in order to create a specific character in a larger composition (Fig.2). Numerous elements of the present work were conveyed in the final head. Note, for example, the strong highlights on the temple, around the left eye and within the ear. Although not as briskly painted in the final work (as befitting a more refined, final work), these areas show a clear reliance on the present study which was presumably held or placed nearby when the larger composition was being painted.

Through the addition of hair to the head of Daedalus, Van Dyck has made him appear younger than the man who posed for the present study, who was perhaps an artist’s model or member of the household staff. The head in the finished work was intended to be shown with a beard, so when painting the study there was little need to describe the lower jawline with anything more than a series of quick yet informative brushstrokes. In areas such as this, where a complex area of anatomy is described cohesively in just a few spirited strokes, we can fully appreciate the remarkable talent of the young Van Dyck.