Bearded Man with a Beret

Jan Lievens

National Gallery of Art

Shown from the shoulders up, a bearded man with wrinkles lining his pale-skinned face looks up and to our left, toward a bright light source, in this vertical portrait painting. His shoulders are angled to our left, and he tips his head slightly back so his face turns toward us. He looks up from the corners of his gray eyes under bushy brows. A soft gray cap, pushed back high over the crown of his head, frames his face over a few tuffs of charcoal-gray hair on his high forehead. His brows are furrowed and his hollow cheeks ruddy. He has a silvery gray mustache, and his long, full beard falls to his chest. Lines have been incised in the gray and white paint of his beard to reveal an underlayer of rust orange. His slate-gray tunic is streaked with fawn brown to create highlights. The background is painted with blended strokes of leather brown and touches of golden orange, and it lightens around the man’s head.