Jacob van Loo

(Sluis 1614–1670 Paris)
Portrait of a boy,
indistinctly signed and dated lower left: F.../1646,
oil on panel, 45.9 x 38.8 cm, framed

Provenance:
sale, Dorotheum, Vienna, 20 October 2015, lot 290

We are grateful to Claus Grimm for suggesting the attribution of the present painting to the young Jacob van Loo. The artist came from Sluis in Zeeland and moved to Amsterdam in 1635, where he became familiar with the works of Rembrandt and Frans Hals. In 1654 Jan Vos regarded Jacob van Loo as one of the most important painters of his time besides Rembrandt and Bartholomeus van der Helst. Van Loo was a painter of genre scenes and portraits of Amsterdam patricians, including the present portrait of a boy, which is dated 1646. The subdued colours and the brushwork, as well as the costume and the figural expression, largely correspond with the group portrait of the Meebeeck Crywagen family in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.