About this work
Jacques de Gheyn II was a Dutch painter and engraver whose career bridged the stylised forms of northern Mannerism and the Baroque naturalism of Rembrandt. It is thought this sensitive drawing depicts the artist’s son Jacques de Gheyn III (1595–1641) at about twelve years of age. While the boy’s face is carefully modelled using the engraver’s vocabulary of dots and delicate hatching, the torso is summarily drawn, imparting a sense of spontaneity and animation to the drawing. Jacques de Gheyn III was a painter, engraver and collector who owned Rembrandt’s Two old men disputing, which is now in the NGV Collection and is displayed opposite.