(Siegen 1577–1640 Antwerp)
Portrait of a Dominican Friar,
oil on panel, 58 x 48 cm, framed

Provenance:
sale, Sotheby’s, New York, 14 October 1999, lot 89;
where acquired by an American collector;
sale, Sotheby’s, New York, 29 January 2015, lot 33;
where acquired by the present owner

The present painting depicts the same Dominican friar - often presumed to be a friend of the artist - as that portrayed by Peter Paul Rubens (Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen, inv. no. KMS3884). Indeed, both the painting in Copenhagen and the present composition depict the head of the friar from different viewpoints, almost inverted. However, the light in both pictures falls from left to right, and there are also changes in the hair, expression, and the hood. Both these details and the fine execution of the two pictures present a quandary as they appear to have been made from separate sittings. Either they were made from separate sittings, which might account for the hair of the friar being curly in the Copenhagen picture and yet straight in the present painting, or the artist who painted the present lot may have decided to reverse the composition as an exercise.

The Statens Museum for Kunst also has a drawing by William Paneels which is a direct copy of the present painting. Paneels -who stood in as the head of Rubens’s workshop when the master was away on diplomatic business- is noted for his copies after Rubens, including the master’s anatomical studies (see J. Garff/E. de la Fuente Pederson, Rubens Cantoor. The Drawings of Willem Panneels, 2 vols., Copenhagen 1988, p. 68–69 and pl. 69). This further associates the work with Rubens’s studio.

We are grateful to Peter Klein who has authored a dendrochronological report on the two-board Baltic/Polish oak panel, giving the earliest felling date at 1612 and a probable date of creation from the 1620 onwards.