Unknown Flemish Artist
Study of a Standing Man in Armor, ca. 1650
Pen and black ink, brush and gray and brown ink, with white, gray, and yellow gouache, and black and red chalk
16 3/4 × 10 1/4 in. (42.6 × 26.1 cm)
Fogg Museum, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge; Gift of The Honorable and Mrs. Robert Woods Bliss
This detailed drawing is the most impressive of three studies of armor, all by the same hand and previously thought to be by Van Dyck. Although he regularly represented his military sitters dressed for battle, no related studies of armor by Van Dyck have survived. The rich technique, including colored gouache, distinguishes this drawing from Van Dyck’s portrait studies. Still, it can be situated in the artist’s larger circle, as it once belonged to Prosper Henry Lankrink, an assistant to the portraitist Peter Lely, who was also one of the most important early collectors of drawings by Van Dyck.