Head of a Cavalier (Pieter Berensteyn?)

Artist Esaias van de Velde, I (Dutch, 1587 - 1630)

Datec. 1612

MediumBlack and white chalk over brush and gray wash

DimensionsSHEET: 16 1/4 x 13 1/4 in. (41.2 x 33.6 cm)
FRAMED: 27 3/16 x 24 5/16 in. (69.1 x 61.8 cm)

ClassificationsDrawings

Credit LineMuseum purchase, 1978

Object numberSN970

In this work, a confidant young man wears a brimmed hat with plume and a wide lace collar. With only a fraction of his right eye visible, the sitter, tentatively identified as the wealthy Dutch merchant, Pieter Berensteyn, is almost in profile. This, paired with the bust-length format, suggests that the work was a study for a more finished portrait. The portrait is a relatively rare genre in the work of Esias van de Velde, who was known primarily as a landscape painter. Familiar to his work, however, is the expressiveness of line and careful modulation of tonality, accomplished here through the wash technique and stumping. Also characteristic of Van de Velde's work is a sense of liveliness and spontaneity, here achieved through vigorous crosshatching and freely sketched strokes of black chalk throughout the hair and lace.

On View

Not on view