Getty Museum

Head of an Old Man

Creator

Dutch Artist · 1596–1644

From an early age, Jacques de Gheyn III was destined for an artist's career. His grandfather was a successful draftsman and glass-painter, and his father, Jacques de Gheyn II, was an illustrious draftsman, engraver, and painter. As a boy, de Gheyn studied classical subjects while also receiving careful artistic training from his father, who appears to have been his only instructor. By 1616 de Ghey

More on Getty ULAN

Date: about 1616
Medium: Pen and brown ink
Culture: Dutch
Department: Drawings
Institution: Getty Museum

Portraits like this led Jacques De Gheyn III's biographer to declare that he had a "predilection for elderly, wrinkled models." De Gheyn III portrayed this unknown individual in profile, with his thin forelock, long nose, and full beard successively cascading down the left side of the drawing. Using a wide variety of thick and thin pen lines, dots, dashes, and calligraphic hatching, De Gheyn conveyed the textural effects of the sitter's hair and rough, aged skin. Though no certain connection has been found, historians have suggested that De Gheyn may have made this work in preparation for his series *The Seven Wise Men of Greece,* published in 1616.

View at Getty Museum ↗

The authoritative record is held by Getty Museum. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.

Get printable QR codes

Open QR codes for this object page and the museum record. They stay collapsed until needed.

Open this page

See at Getty Museum

Related across collections

Semantically similar works from Getty Museum and other institutions.