Master Art

The attribution of the present sheet - previously given to the 17th century Neapolitan painter Giovanni Battista Beinaschi - to Lucas Franchoys the Younger is due to Martin Royalton-Kisch, who made the suggestion in 1988. Only a handful of drawings by Franchoys are known, a few of which are drawn in black (sometimes oiled) chalk and white chalk on blue paper. The influence of the draughtsmanship of both Rubens and Van Dyck is evident in the few drawings and oil sketches by Franchoys that survive.

Among stylistically comparable drawings by Lucas Franchoys the Younger is a study of the head of a bearded man, also in oiled black chalk, in the Frits Lugt Collection (Fondation Custodia) in Paris. Also similar is a study of the head of a man with long hair, drawn in black chalk on blue paper, in the collection of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.