Lot 348: LUCAS FRANCHOYS II

MECHELEN 1616 - 1681 HALF-LENGTH STUDY OF A BEARDED MAN HOLDING A STAFF Oiled black chalk, heightened with white, on blue paper 268 by 200 mm

Bears unidentified collector's mark, not in Lugt (VS in monogram, verso); Dr. and Mrs. Victor Bloch, their sale and others, London, Sotheby's, 12 November 1964, lot 99 (as G.B. Beinaschi), purchased by Ralph Holland

The attribution to Franchoys was suggested in 1988 by Martin Royalton-Kisch. Figure drawings by the artist are rare, but a Head of a Bearded Man, in the Lugt Collection, is very similar in handling to the present work, and other comparable sheets are in Amsterdam, Darmstadt and Frankfurt.1 1. Flemish Drawings of the Seventeenth Century from the Collection of Frits Lugt, exhib. cat., London, Victoria and Albert Museum, et al., 1972, no. 36, pl. 78