Bearded Old Man with a Brown Cloak

1631 · Private collection

portrait

This character study of the head of a bearded man is particularly notable for its refined flesh tones and the subtlety of the colouring. At the end of his Leiden period, Lievens painted a series of head and shoulder or half-length studies of bearded old men. These can be compared to Rembrandt's paintings from the same period.

About the Artist

Jan Lievens

1607 – 1674

Jan Lievens (or Lievensz.), Dutch painter of portraits and religious, allegorical and genre subjects. He was a friend and contemporary of Rembrandt and a pupil of Lastman in Amsterdam. Then shared a studio with Rembrandt in Leiden in the later 1620s: many works of this period show one influencing the other. Lievens went to England, probably in 1632 after Rembrandt moved to Amsterdam, but he was in Antwerp by 1635, where he was influenced by the courtly style of Van Dyck. He returned to Holland in 1639 and became a successful painter of portraits and allegories. Raising of Lazarus is a good example of his works.

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