Lot 4: ADRIAEN THOMASZ. KEY

PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION ANTWERP (?) CIRCA 1544 - AFTER 1589 PORTRAIT OF A BEARDED MAN, BUST LENGTH, WEARING A CHAIN OF GUILD BUCKLES oil on panel 20 by 15 5/8 in.; 50.8 by 39.7 cm.

K. Jonckheere, Adriaen Thomasz. Key (c. 1545 - c.1589), Portrait of a Calvinist Painter, Turnhout 2007, pp.116-117, cat. no. A92, reproduced p. 232.

Anonymous sale, New York, Christie's, 12 January 1994, lot 98; There purchased by the present owner.

This striking portrait, published in Koenraad Jonckheere’s recent monograph, typifies the acutely observational style of Adriaen Thomasz. Key.1 The painter depicts the sitter’s flesh with vivid realism, building layers of grey glazes to denote the wrinkles and shadowing of the forehead and the creases of paper-like skin beneath the eyes. As Jonckheere notes, “through the extremely precise and detailed light effects the wrinkles of the skin acquire depth and the face character, all of which makes an astoundingly genuine impression”.2 Wearing a chain of brass guild medallions, the sitter would have been a prominent guild member and distinguished figure in Antwerp; the medallions display the monogram HG and the Habsburg eagle, likely the arms of the margraviate of Antwerp.3 1. See K. Jonckheere under Literature, op. cit. p. 117. 2. Ibid. 3. Ibid.