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Head of an Old Man

Head of an Old Man

Artist/Maker (Flemish, 1577–1640)
Date1600–1605
MediumRed chalk, with opaque white lead paint applied with brush, with later additions of zinc white on paper
DimensionsSheet: 7 7/8 × 6 1/8 in. (20 × 15.6 cm)
Credit LineR. T. Miller Jr. Fund
Object number1943.229
Status
Not on view
More Information
This is one of many drawings by Rubens from his early years in Italy that directly copy, or are indirectly inspired by, the work of earlier artists. In this instance, Leonardo da Vinci's physiognomic studies of old men likely served as the model for Rubens's objective description of an old man's sagging flesh and grizzled hair.
ProvenancePossibly Peter Lely (1618-1680) or Johannes Philippus Happaert (d. 1686).¹ Prosper Henry Lankrink (1628-1692), London (Lugt 2090). Jonathan Richardson, Sr. (1665-1745), London (Lugt 2184);² presumably his sale, London (Cock), 7 February 1747. Collection Paul J. Sachs (1878-1965), Cambridge, MA. (Richard Zinser, New York); purchased 1943 by Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH ¹Lankrink was assistant to the English court painter Peter Lely and may have acquired the Rubens drawing from one of his posthumous sales in London in 1662 and 1688. Lely acquired some drawings by great masters from the widow of Van Dyck and it is conceivable that this Rubens drawings was among them. See the entry on Lankrink in Lugt’s Les marques de collections des dessins et de stamps: http:www.marquesdecollections.fr. Lankrink also bought drawings from Happaert, a dealer of prints and drawings based in Antwerp, who bought a significant number of Rubens’s drawings at the 1657 sale of his collection, which has remained in family hands until then. See Anne-Marie S. Logan and Michel Plomp, Peter Paul Reubnes: The Drawings. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2005, pp. 38-39. ²It is reasonable to surmise that this drawing went from Lankrink’s collection to Richardson’s collection in one of the posthumous sales of Lankrink’s drawings collection in 1693 or 1694, announced in the London Gazette; see Lugt’s entry on Lankrink.Exhibition History
Loan Exhibition of Forty-Three Paintings by Rubens and Twenty-Five by Van Dyck
  • Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA (November 19, 1946 - December 22, 1946 )
Fashion or Function
  • Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (February 10, 1950 - March 8, 1950 )
Tekeningen van P. P. Rubens
  • Rubenshuis, Antwerp, Holland (June 16, 1956 - September 2, 1956 )
The Century of Shakespeare
  • Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (April 10, 1964 - April 30, 1964 )
Saving Face: The Portrait
  • Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (August 5, 1986 - September 28, 1986 )
European Master Drawings from the Allen Memorial Art Museum
  • Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (October 29, 2002 - June 9, 2003 )
On Line: European Drawings, 16th-19th Centuries
  • Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (September 18, 2007 - January 27, 2008 )
Collections
  • European
The AMAM continually researches its collection and updates its records with new findings.
We welcome additional information and suggestions for improvement. Please email us at AMAMcurator@oberlin.edu.