Portrait of a Seated Cleric

The present sheet in black and red chalk with gray wash gives an intimate depiction of a cleric. The sheet has been attributed to Jan De Bray, who was a prolific draftsman, painter, and etcher, and who spent the majority of his life in Haarlem, with the exception of a couple of years (1686-88) when he lived in Amsterdam. He worked as a portrait painter for forty years, beginning in 1650. More than half of Jan's painted output consists of individual portraits and he also painted figural groups. Egbert Haverkamp-Begemann has observed that this drawing is likely by a Flemish artist working in the seventeenth century; however, he believes it is not by de Bray. Rather, Haverkamp-Begemann places it in the circle of Jacob Jordaens (1593-1678).