Bust of a Young Man with Long Hair

Entry

Despite its clear monogram, in recent years this drawing was classified as by Dirck’s older brother Jan de Bray (c. 1627-1697). However, neither Von Moltke nor Giltaij mentioned it in their respective monographs on Jan, for it clearly has nothing to do with his draughtsmanship. Given the signature – which is in the same red chalk as the portrait – there seems no good reason not to reinstate the traditional attribution to Dirck de Bray, under whose name it was sold in 1883 and inventoried on its arrival in 1888.

Although there is no precise stylistic match among Dirck’s scarce drawings, he was a competent, if infrequent portraitist. This is attested not only by other drawings, such as the signed and dated Portrait of Pieter van der Wiel (1624-1666) of 166[6?], in the Special Collections, Universiteit Leiden (inv. no. PK-T-2514), copied after a drawing by Cornelis de Visscher (1628/29-1658) in the Albertina, Vienna (inv.no. 9953), but also from Dirck’s prints, such as his etched Self-portrait (e.g. inv. no. RP-P-1882-A-5970).² Even the subtle hatching seen in the present sheet would fit with the member of the De Bray family most closely associated with engraving and etching.

Dated 1676, the present portrait of a young man would have been made two years before Dirck became a monk. Only the paper, with its watermark probably from southern France, casts an element of doubt on the attribution, but, as can be seen with other drawings from the De Bray studio, paper from outside Holland was frequently used by members of the family (e.g. inv. nos. RP-T-1972-81 and RP-T-1972-82).

Annemarie Stefes, 2019