.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
This unpublished drawing by Jordaens resembles other early chalk studies that combine robust black chalk contours for the figure, hatching to create shadow on the body and in the background, and the use of white chalk not only to highlight but to form and provide volume to the prominent musculature. Also characteristic are the touches of red chalk, for example in the hair.
The drawing is especially close in style and technique to A seated male nude facing right in the British Museum (R.-A. d'Hulst, Jordaens Drawings, London, 1974, I, p. 114, no. A21, II, fig. 21), Both drawings, which are dated circa 1617-20 by Professor Hans Vlieghe, cannot be related to any known painting by Jordaens although similar muscular nudes appear in a few of the artist's early works (see for example, the figure seen from behind at the center of Paul and Barnabas at Lystra, circa 1616, Hermitage, Saint Petersburg or Moses striking water from the rock, circa 1618, Staatliche Kunsthalle, Karlsruhe, R.A. d'Hulst, Jacob Jordaens, London, 1982, figs. 32 and 53.).
We are grateful to Professor Hans Vlieghe for confirming the attribution to Jordaens.
The drawing is especially close in style and technique to A seated male nude facing right in the British Museum (R.-A. d'Hulst, Jordaens Drawings, London, 1974, I, p. 114, no. A21, II, fig. 21), Both drawings, which are dated circa 1617-20 by Professor Hans Vlieghe, cannot be related to any known painting by Jordaens although similar muscular nudes appear in a few of the artist's early works (see for example, the figure seen from behind at the center of Paul and Barnabas at Lystra, circa 1616, Hermitage, Saint Petersburg or Moses striking water from the rock, circa 1618, Staatliche Kunsthalle, Karlsruhe, R.A. d'Hulst, Jacob Jordaens, London, 1982, figs. 32 and 53.).
We are grateful to Professor Hans Vlieghe for confirming the attribution to Jordaens.