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Head of a Woman

Creator

Flemish Artist · 1593–1678

From the time of Peter Paul Rubens's death in 1640 until 1660, Jacob Jordaens was in greater demand than any other artist in northern Europe. He remained Antwerp's leading figure painter until his death. Unlike most of his contemporaries, Jordaens never went to Italy; he was born and lived his whole life in Antwerp, where he and his friend Rubens shared the same teacher. In the 1620s Jordaens buil

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Date: about 1635
Medium: Black and red chalk, brush and dark brown wash with white gouache heightening
Culture: Flemish
Department: Drawings
Institution: Getty Museum

To create a dynamic composition out of a single head, Jacob Jordaens used two colors of chalk plus bodycolor and a wash. The young woman's broad face fills the sheet squarely, with her eyes demurely cast down and lips pursed. Bold red chalk hatching suggests the ruddy color of her cheeks, while curving strokes of black chalk layered with lines of wash form her wispy hair. Dark areas of wash around her eyes give them depth. Throughout his career, Jordaens made many such studies of heads drawn from life, of his wife and of other women.

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