Studio of Anthony van Dyck, Youth and Age Oil on canvas, 22.3 x 18.3 in. (56.6 x 46.4 cm.) New York Private Collection This remarkable painting (Fig. 1), lacking in provenance, is of the 17th century, and of a hand plausibly attributable to Anthony van Dyck. Antoon van Dyck (later anglicized to Anthony van Dyck), was born in Antwerp in 1599 and is considered, along with Hans Holbein and Diego Velazquez, to have been one of the great court portraitists of his time.1 Van Dyck is known primarily for his portrait paintings of the Stuart court in England but was also an ambitious painter of religious and mythological subjects.2

The painting shows the bust of a young man, juxtaposed with that of a weathered old man. This contrast of youth and age, innocence and experience, is thematically consistent with the Vanitas genre of paintings that was widely popular in 16th and 17th century Netherlands. Though generally associated with still-life, these paintings portrayed symbols and allegory that suggest the transience of life and exhorts the viewer to reflect on their own mortality and impermanence. Common elements were skulls (memento mori), flowers, rotting fruit, and burning candles.3

We propose that this painting may possibly be a self-portrait of artist as a young man, placed alongside his own imagined future self (a kind of inverse of David Bailly’s famous Self-Portrait with Vanitas Symbols (Fig. 2), which was executed later in the artist’s life). The face of the younger man shows great likeness to the blond youth in van Dyck’s self-portraits of 1620-21 and 1622-23 (Figs. 3-4).

Research: M.S.

1 Cust, Lionel Henry. "Van Dyck, Anthony." Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 58. London: Smith, Elder &, 1904. p. 269. 2 Cust, p. 269 3 "Vanitas." Encyclopædia Britannica. October 25, 2015. Accessed June 25, 2019. https://www.britannica.com/art/vanitas- art#ref837540. Fig. 1

Studio of Anthony van Dyck, Youth and Age Oil on canvas, 17th Century 22.3 x 18.3 in. (56.6 x 46.4 cm.) New York Private Collection Fig. 2

David Bailly, Self-Portrait with Vanitas Symbols Oil on panel, 1651 25.5 x 38.3 in. (65 x 97.5 cm.) Museum De Lakanhal, Leiden Fig. 3

Anthony van Dyck, Self-Portrait Oil on canvas, c. 1620-21 47.1 x 34.6 in. (119.7 x 87.9 cm.) The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Fig. 4

Anthony van Dyck, Self-Portrait Oil on canvas, c. 1622-23 45.9 x 36.8 in. (116.5 x 93.5 cm.) Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg Fig. 5

Anthony van Dyck, Time Clips the Wings of Cupid Oil on canvas, 1627 73.6 x 47.2 in. (187 x 120 cm.) Jacquemard-Andre Museum, Paris Fig. 6

Northern European School, Allegory of Youth and Old Age Oil on canvas, c. 1600 15 x 19.7 in. (38 x 50 cm.) Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto Fig. 7

Angelo Caroselli, Allegory of Youth and Old Age Oil on canvas, early 17th Century 25.9 x 31.5 in. (65.6 x 80 cm.)