Youth Making a Face

Niederländische Malerei 1625–1644, circa 1632/1635

A young man with tanned, peachy skin sits at a table pulling his mouth wide with both hands in this vertical painting. On the far side of a wooden table, he faces us with elbows splayed wide. He has hooked the first finger of each hand into the corners of his mouth to stretch his open lips into a long, goofy line. He has wide-set eyes and a wide nose. His brown hair sticks out from under a tall, fuzzy brown hat, which has a knife secured by the blade in a loop to our left. The man’s iron-gray jacket has coffee-brown sleeves with the white of his shirt showing at the cuffs. A putty-gray jug accented with washes of rust-red and a glass filled with an amber liquid sit on the table before him. Soft light from the upper left gleams white on these smooth surfaces. A dark mass visible under the table is presumably the tops of his legs. The top right corner of his wooden chair is visible over his right shoulder, on our left, and he is set against a dove-gray background. The scene is loosely painted so brushstrokes are especially visible in the man’s face and hands.
Artista
Niederländische Malerei 1625–1644
Datazione
circa 1632/1635
Tipologia
Dipinto
Tecnica
Olio su tavola
Dimensioni
13,7 × 10,5 cm
Collezione
National Gallery of Art, Washington
Licenza
Pubblico dominio, CC0

Descrizione dell’immagine

A young man with tanned, peachy skin sits at a table pulling his mouth wide with both hands in this vertical painting. On the far side of a wooden table, he faces us with elbows splayed wide. He has hooked the first finger of each hand into the corners of his mouth to stretch his open lips into a long, goofy line. He has wide-set eyes and a wide nose. His brown hair sticks out from under a tall, fuzzy brown hat, which has a knife secured by the blade in a loop to our left. The man’s iron-gray jacket has coffee-brown sleeves with the white of his shirt showing at the cuffs. A putty-gray jug accented with washes of rust-red and a glass filled with an amber liquid sit on the table before him. Soft light from the upper left gleams white on these smooth surfaces. A dark mass visible under the table is presumably the tops of his legs. The top right corner of his wooden chair is visible over his right shoulder, on our left, and he is set against a dove-gray background. The scene is loosely painted so brushstrokes are especially visible in the man’s face and hands.

Niederländische Malerei 1625–1644