Lot 200: MICHAEL SWEERTS

BOY TOUCHING HIS HEAD

11 1/2 by 8 3/4 in.; 29.2 by 22.2 cm.

oil on panel, transferred to canvas

Amsterdam, P. de Boer Gallery, 1937, no. 101;
Stockholm, Nordiska Museet, Barnet i konsten, September 20-October 12, 1941, no. 291;
Göteborg, Rohsska museet, Spetsar, gamla och nya, utländska och svenska, 1942, no. 281;
Karlsstad, Värmlands Museum, 1943, no. 31.

E. Trautscholdt, Thieme-Becker, vol. XXXII, Leipzig 1938, pp. 348-50;
R. Kultzen, Michael Sweerts, dissertation, Hamburg 1954, no. 83;
R. Kultzen, Michael Sweerts, Ghent 1996, pp. 71, 123, cat. no. 110, reproduced, plate 110 (as present location unknown).

Merveldt. et. al Sale, Cologne, Kunsthaus Lempertz, June 11, 1928, lot 224;
Anonymous sale, Stockholm, Bukowski, April 4-7, 1973, lot 188.

This charming work forms part of the rather large group of children's portraits which Sweerts executed throughout his career. Sweerts executed portraits in his days in Rome although his portraits of children seem to date from his subsequent activity in Brussels from 1656 - circa 1658/9, or later. Though he listed this painting in his 1996 monograph on Sweerts, Kultzen only tentatively accepted the work as autograph. However this hesitation was almost certainly due to the fact that he had not seen the work in person. Since that time however, Kultzen has inspected the work first hand, and modified his unsure attribution of the work in favor of a full and certain attribution to Sweerts. He dates the work to the artists period of activity in Amsterdam circa 1658/9 - autumn of 1661. Kultzen notes that Sweert's preference for depicting children, ``seems to be explained partly by the fresh simplicity of the children's faces. Uninhibited and untouched by experience, their malleable features offer an ideal opportunity of applying set rules of portraiture.'' In discussing the present work, Kultzen notes that the pose of the boy ``recalls the pose of a model in a drawing class'' and adds, ``Sweerts manipulates the light to bring out the plasticity of the figure, a favorite technique of his. This is particularly striking in the unexpectedly light area in the right background.''

We are grateful to Peter Sutton for confirming the attribution to Sweerts, based on recent first hand inspection.