Oil on panel, 'Bust of a man with a goatee and wearing a hat', manner of Adriaen Brouwer, probably 19th century

A bust of a man with a goatee and reddened nose, wearing a rough brown mantle over a white shirt, and a hat pulled down low over his face

Bequeathed by Rev. Alexander Dyce

Bequeathed by Rev. Alexander Dyce, 1869

The Reverend Alexander Dyce :
South Kensington Museum Art Handbooks. The Dyce and Forster Collections. With Engravings and Facsimiles. Published for the Committee of Council on Education by Chapman and Hall, Limited, 193, Piccadilly, London. 1880. Chapter I. Biographical Sketch of Mr. Dyce. pp.1-12, including 'Portrait of Mr. Dyce' illustrated opposite p.1.

Science and Art Department of the Committee of Council on Education, South Kensington Museum.A Catalogue of the Paintings, Miniatures, Drawings... Bequeathed by The Reverend Alexander Dyce. London, 1874. A 'Note' on page v comments, 'This catalogue refers to the Art portion of the Collection bequeathed to the South Kensington Museum by the Reverend Alexander Dyce, the well-known Shakespearian scholar, who died May 15, 1869'. The Catalogue. Paintings, Miniatures, &c. by Samuel Redgrave notes of the 'Oil Paintings', 'The strength of Mr. Dyce's valuable bequest to Department of Science and Art does not lie in [this] portion ... which is in its nature of a very miscellaneous character. The collection was made apparently as objects offered themselves, and without any special design.' Dyce's main interest was in literary subjects, and this is reflected in many of the paintings he bequeathed to the V&A

Historical significance: Adriaen Brouwer (b. 1605/6-1638) was a Flemish painter active in the northern Netherlands. He was a pupil of Frans Hals in Haarlem but is recorded in the Antwerp Guild of St Luke as an independent master 1631–2. Brouwer made a significant contribution to peasant genre painting in the first part of the 17th century. His interior settings and unsentimental representations of coarse facial expressions and strong emotions were important thematic innovations. Brouwer’s works contain deliberate references to moralizing literature, which elevated low-life genre painting to a new intellectual level. His paintings were highly regarded in his lifetime, particularly by Rembrandt and Rubens, who owned six and seventeen of his works respectively. This work appears to imitate Brouwer’s work from the 1650s when he began painting peasants and burghers in the act of relishing the small pleasures, such as excessive drinking and gambling, permitted by their modest experience. The work is probably a nineteenth century imitation of his manner. The man’s face has the typical ‘beak-nosed’ shape and pointed chin of Brouwer’s figures and looks much like Brouwer’s studies of different facial expressions/reactions such as the oval Man with Bread and Sausage in the Liechtenstein Collection, Vaduz (Knuttel, fig. 100)

This work is typical of Genre Painting, a style which represented the lower or peasant classes of society that became increasingly popular throughout the 17th century in the Netherlands. These pictures usually depict scenes of everyday life, set in domestic interiors or in the open countryside. Some bear metaphorical meaning or moralising messages, but others may just be intended as representations of daily events. In both cases they are associated with health, pleasure and liberty. The leading figures of the Haarlem school in this field were Adriaen Brouwer (1606-1638) and Adriaen van Ostade (1610-1685).

Acquired as 'in the Dutch manner' this work was described as 'style of Adriaen van Ostade' by Kauffmann in 1973 but appears to have much more in common with the physiognomies and figural studies by van Ostade's contemporary Adriaen Brouwer.

A bust of a man with a goatee and reddened nose, wearing a rough brown mantle over a white shirt, and a hat pulled down low over his head. Adriaen Brouwer (b. 1605/6-1638) was a Flemish painter active in the northern Netherlands. He was a pupil of Frans Hals in Haarlem but is recorded in the Antwerp Guild of St Luke as an independent master 1631–2. Brouwer made a significant contribution to peasant genre painting in the first part of the 17th century. His interior settings and unsentimental representations of coarse facial expressions and strong emotions were important thematic innovations. Brouwer’s works contain deliberate references to moralizing literature, which elevated low-life genre painting to a new intellectual level. His paintings were highly regarded in his lifetime, particularly by Rembrandt and Rubens, who owned six and seventeen of his works respectively. This work appears to imitate Brouwer’s work from the 1650s when he began painting peasants and burghers in the act of relishing the small pleasures, such as excessive drinking and gambling, permitted by their modest experience. The work is probably a nineteenth century imitation of his manner. The man’s face has the typical ‘beak-nosed’ shape and pointed chin of Brouwer’s figures and looks much like Brouwer’s studies of different facial expressions/reactions such as the oval Man with Bread and Sausage in the Liechtenstein Collection, Vaduz (Knuttel, fig. 100).

DYCE.44