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Lot Essay
The Verellen painting (19¼ x 25¼in., 49 x 64cm.) was described as 'Four heads of Shepherds' and is almost certainly to be identified with the present lot, which Jaffé (op. cit.) dates to circa 1620. He notes that all four heads were studied from the same model, and that the reverential attitude of the lower head at the right suggests that Jordaens may have had an Adoration of the Shepherds in mind.
This sketch is similar in its intensity and method of execution to other studies executed by Jordaens circa 1620-1, such as the Two head studies of Abraham Grapheus in the Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Ghent; the Job in the Detroit Institute of Arts; and another Study for the head of Abraham Grapheus in the Musée de la Chartreuse, Douai (see the catalogue of the exhibition, Jacob Jordaens, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp, March 27-June 27, 1993, pp. 96-103, nos. A21-3 respectively, all illustrated in color).
In these sketches, Jordaens uses a heavily loaded brush and applies the paint with short, powerful strokes. In both the Detroit Job and the Douai Grapheus as well as the present lot, Jordaens painted the panel alla prima, a technique developed in the sixteenth century by Titian, and subsequently mastered by Rubens. Professor d'Hulst, in the 1993 exhibition catalogue cited above writes of the Detroit Job, 'The chiaroscuro betrays the influence of Caravaggio. Unlike that Italian master and his Northern European imitators, however, the contrasts are not caused by an unspecified or artificial light source, but by the strong, natural light of the sun, thus creating an outdoor effect' (op. cit.).
This sketch is similar in its intensity and method of execution to other studies executed by Jordaens circa 1620-1, such as the Two head studies of Abraham Grapheus in the Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Ghent; the Job in the Detroit Institute of Arts; and another Study for the head of Abraham Grapheus in the Musée de la Chartreuse, Douai (see the catalogue of the exhibition, Jacob Jordaens, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp, March 27-June 27, 1993, pp. 96-103, nos. A21-3 respectively, all illustrated in color).
In these sketches, Jordaens uses a heavily loaded brush and applies the paint with short, powerful strokes. In both the Detroit Job and the Douai Grapheus as well as the present lot, Jordaens painted the panel alla prima, a technique developed in the sixteenth century by Titian, and subsequently mastered by Rubens. Professor d'Hulst, in the 1993 exhibition catalogue cited above writes of the Detroit Job, 'The chiaroscuro betrays the influence of Caravaggio. Unlike that Italian master and his Northern European imitators, however, the contrasts are not caused by an unspecified or artificial light source, but by the strong, natural light of the sun, thus creating an outdoor effect' (op. cit.).