Portrait of Pieter Brueghel the Younger.

2 engravings, 14,6 x 21 cm, one on parchment and one on paper (trimmed just outside the platemark or borderline).

1 loose, 1 stuck by corners under passe-partout.

Magnificent portrait of Pieter Brueghel the Younger, surnamed "Hell-fire Brueghel" from Anthony van Dyck's "Iconography" or "Icones Principum Virorum", initially conceived as a series of portraits of befriended artists. We have two different states: a rare impression on vellum in the first state, before all lettering and before the borderline, and a later state printed on paper with borderline, but that cannot be identified because of its being trimmed.
Brueghel's personality traits are brilliantly characterised as he is represented half-length, turning slightly to the right and looking towards the viewer. Although van Dyck made a careful preparatory drawing (which is kept in the Duke of Devonshire Collection in Chatsworth) he indicated the body and background by outline only, regarding it thus as finished. An exceptional piece of portrait etching that before van Dyck scarcely existed!
Ref. Hollstein VI: 2. - New Hollstein (Van Dyck), 3.