Three studies of the head of an old man

These three studies of the head of an old man from around 1650 are among Jordaens' most celebrated preparatory works. The practice of painting multiple views of the same model—frontal, profile, and three-quarter—allowed Jordaens to explore character and expression from different angles for use in larger compositions. Jacob Jordaens, the most productive and commercially successful painter in Antwerp after Rubens's death in 1640, dominated Flemish painting through the middle decades of the seventeenth century. His mastery of large-scale multi-figure compositions, his ability to orchestrate warm golden light across complex scenes of festivity and narrative, and his characteristic combination of Flemish earthiness with Baroque compositional ambition made him the natural heir to Rubens's tradition in the Southern Netherlands. His enormous output served the aristocratic, ecclesiastical, and civic patrons who continued to commission ambitious paintings even as the Flemish economy contracted in the later seventeenth century.

The triple head study demonstrates Jordaens' extraordinary ability to capture the same individual from multiple viewpoints with consistent naturalistic observation, warm flesh tones, and bold, assured brushwork.