Hendrick van Steenwijck the Younger

This depiction of Hendrick van Steenwijck the Younger, a painter of imaginary architectural views, is one of Van Dyck’s most accomplished portrait drawings. Deep shadows enhance the sitter’s strong features, long curls and facial hair, the nervous line of the lace ruffs around his wrists, and the strong gestures of his hands. Although blank, both in the drawing and in Paulus Pontius’s faithful engraving after it, the sheet of paper must refer to Van Steenwijck’s mastery as a perspectival draftsman. A fellow native of Antwerp, Van Steenwijck probably sat for Van Dyck in London, where the former had been based since 1615.