A Portrait of an Artist at his Easel - Rafael Valls

Medium

Oil on Panel

Status

In Gallery Collection

Collect24 Art ID

C24-150544

Working away in his atelier we see a young artist absorbed in his work. In his right hand he holds a paint brush, his fingers close to the bristles to apply some minute detail. In his other hand he holds a maulstick to keep his right hand steady while his thumb hooks through a palette. Here two smears of paint, white and red, stand out brilliantly against the umber tones of his jacket and breeches. Codde has imbued the scene with a quiet immediacy, full of studied silence and concentration. The bare studio draws the viewer's attention on the artist, who in turn focusses on his painting. A line of light, apparently cut off by the edge of a window, illuminates the side of his head and falls side-on against the easel and canvas. The artist sits with his legs akimbo so he can position himself closer to his painting, lips pursed, his attention undivided. Pieter Codde painted several small works of artists and young men. These include one in the Museum Boijmans van Beunigen (inv. 1125), The Palais des Beaux-Arts, Lille (inv. 240), Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium (inv. 4411), and The Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg (inv. 3502). These young men have been represented wearing similar outfits of brown or black cloth, typical of professionals in the Netherlands. They all occupy spare rooms with rough wooden floors and sit informally on chairs positioned at oblique angles. The group can be dated to early 1630s. In the 1620s some artists in the Netherlands began to simplify larger 'merry company' compositions into smaller character studies which, in turn, developed into and overlapped with tronies.