Artwork
Youth Making a Face
Youth Making a Face is an oil painting by the Baroque artist Adriaen Brouwer. It dates from 1634 and is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
The painting depicts a young man in a genre scene who uses his fingers to pull down his lower lip and cheek, creating a grotesque facial expression.
The painting depicts a young man in a genre scene who uses his fingers to pull down his lower lip and cheek, creating a grotesque facial expression. This action, described in early inventories as a peasant opening his mouth with his fingers, captures a moment of spontaneous, informal behavior typical of Adriaen Brouwer's focus on lower-class life. The work represents a study of human expression and caricature rather than a narrative event, emphasizing the artist's interest in capturing fleeting, candid moments of everyday people.
The subject's direct engagement with the viewer through this exaggerated grimace highlights the informal and often humorous nature of 17th-century Flemish genre painting.
Technique & Style
Adriaen Brouwer's Youth Making a Face (1632) is executed in oil paint on a wooden panel support. The work measures 13.7 cm in height and 10.5 cm in width, classifying it as a small-scale genre scene. As a quintessential example of the artist's style, the painting depicts a peasant figure distorting his face by pulling his mouth open with his fingers.
This intimate format and the focus on a fleeting, expressive moment reflect Brouwer's characteristic approach to capturing everyday life and human physiognomy with directness and vigor.
History & Provenance
Dated to 1632, this oil painting on panel by Adriaen Brouwer likely entered the collection of Everhard Jabach in Paris during the seventeenth century. An inventory compiled in July 1696 lists a matching work described as a small wooden panel depicting a peasant opening his mouth with his fingers. The painting possibly belonged to Nicolaus Hudtwalcker in Hamburg by 1863, though it does not appear in the collection's 1889 catalogue.
In the twentieth century, the work was sold at Galerie Charpentier in Paris on July 12, 1950, as part of the Nathan Katz estate. It subsequently passed through the P. de Boer gallery in Amsterdam and was held by W. Reineke in Amersfoort by 1962. After residing in a private Dutch collection by 1982 and being handled by Noortman Ltd., the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., acquired the piece on June 9, 1994.
Youth Making a Face is held in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., where it is accessioned as 1994.46.1. The work entered the museum on 9 June 1994 after moving through several owners, including W. Reineke (by 1962), a private Dutch collection (by 1982), and Noortman Ltd. (London and Maastricht), following earlier ownership by Everhard Jabach and possibly Nicolaus Hudtwalcker.
Provenance records indicate a 1950 sale at Galerie Charpentier, Paris. No exhibition history is documented in the sources, indicating the painting has remained in storage or private view rather than being publicly exhibited.
Context
Youth Making a Face (1632) is documented in the 1696 inventory of Everhard Jabach’s collection, indicating its early appreciation among elite Dutch art collectors. Subsequent scholarship references the work in G. Parthey’s 1863 catalogue and notes its absence from the 1889 Hudtwalcker inventory, underscoring its contested attribution history. The painting entered the National Gallery of Art in 1994, where it remains on public view.
As an oil on panel genre scene, it exemplifies Adriaen Brouwer’s focus on peasant and tavern subjects, a hallmark of Dutch Golden Age genre painting. Its dimensions of 13.7 cm × 10.5 cm are recorded in the National Gallery’s catalogue, reflecting the modest scale typical of Brouwer’s intimate compositions.
Overview
Adriaen Brouwer's Youth Making a Face, an oil on panel created around 1634, exemplifies the artist's engagement with informal subjects. This work captures a spontaneous moment, depicting a young individual in a casual pose. As a Flemish painter of the 17th century, Brouwer was recognized for his contributions to genre painting and his particular interest in vivid, unidealized human expressions, a focus evident in this intimate portrait.
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Artist & collection
Artist
Adriaen Brouwer (c. 1605 – January 1638) was a Flemish painter active in Flanders and the Dutch Republic in the first half of the 17th century. Brouwer was an important innovator of genre painting through his vivid…
