Circle of Sir Anthony van Dyck

Anonymous sale, Vienna, Dorotheum, 16 October 2007, lot 6 (as by Van Dyck), where acquired by the present owner.

This head study can be related to the head of the bearded man holding a staff situated behind Christ in Van Dyck's Christ Crowned with Thorns, formerly  in the Kaiser Friedrich-Museum, Berlin, but now destroyed.  The model also appears as Saint Thomas in a panel from Van Dyck's series of Christ and the Twelve Apostles of around 1618-1620 sold New York, Sotheby's, 24 January 2002, lot 174, and now in a private collection.¹At the time of the Vienna sale the attribution to Van Dyck was supported by the late Prof. Horst Vey on the basis of photographs.

1. See S. Barnes, N. de Poorter, O. Millar, H. Vey, Van Dyck: A Complete Catalogue of the Paintings, Yale & London 2004, pp. 37, 74, cat. nos. I.22 and 1.63, reproduced.