Head of an Old Man

Abraham Bloemaert

National Gallery of Art

The head, shoulders, and chest of a pale-skinned man with gray hair and deep wrinkles creasing his face fill this vertical portrait painting. His shoulders angle slightly to our right, and he looks up and off in that direction. Light comes from our upper left, so the far side of his craggy face is in deep shadow. His brown eyes are deep-set sockets under a furrowed brow. He has a straight, prominent nose, and his thin lips are surrounded by wrinkles at the corners with more lines on his knob-like chin and between his nose and upper lip. Tendons and wrinkles stand out on his thick neck. Unruly locks of ash-gray hair stand up from his head over a pink-edged ear. His upper chest is bare within the gaping opening of his nickel-gray shirt, which is under a barn-red garment. The background is earth brown.