Van Dyck's Study of Saint Jerome

In 2002, a collector named Albert Roberts paid $600 for a painting of St. Jerome at a small-town auction in New York State. He suspected it might be a Van Dyck, but a few years went by before he got it cleaned and authenticated. 

A study for Saint Jerome, Sir Anthony van Dyck (1599 – 1641)

oil on canvas, laid on panel, 37½ by 23 in.; 95 by 58.5 cm.

"Though the artist was about eighteen years old when he painted it (400 years ago), he was a precocious talent and already a master,” said Van Dyck scholar Susan Barnes in a statement. “Van Dyck painted his sketch from a living model, carefully rendering his furrowed, sun-weathered brow and time-worn body."

Anthony van Dyck, Saint Jerome with an Angel (circa 1618–20). 

Courtesy of the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen.

"His goal was to convey the sense of the saint as a real person—one with whom faithful viewers could identify and whom they could aspire to emulate.” Quoted from Artnet,

The study will be auction later this month on January 26 at the Sotheby's auction of master paintings. Previews of the show will be in New York, January 21-25, 2023