LOT DETAILS

Materials:

Oil on panel

Size Notes:

66,4 x 54,8 cm ; 26? by 21 in.

Edition:

The technique used by the artist to render Jacques Boyceaus wonderful beard is all that is needed to confirm a wholehearted attribution to De Vries. He used the same approach, some years earlier, on one of his Parisian portraits, of an unknown goldsmith, recently acquired by the Muse du Petit-Palais (inv. PPP4980). However, another surprise is revealed by the X-ray, which explains how and when the portrait was transformed (fig.3): near the right edge of the composition, towards the centre, a monogram of interlaced letters AdV can be seen, below which is the inscription anno 1629. The portrait of Jacques Boyceau by Abraham de Vries, thought to have been executed during the artists last stay in Paris, in 1634 (see J. Foucart, 'Abraham de Vries en France', in Bulletin de la Socit de lHistoire de lArt Franais, 1980, p. 133), was in fact painted during his 1629 visit. Only five years later, after Huret had already produced his print or at least the preparatory drawing for it, the painter made significant changes to the composition, at Boyceaus request but for reasons that are still unknown to us.

Description:

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Markings:

Traces of a barely legible signature toward center left