JAN ANTON GAREMYN (1712-1799)

STUDY OF A SCOWLING BOY
Dated l.m. 6 O...[?] 1743, bears collector's stamp l.l. [L.837]
Red & white chalks on laid paper
25.5 x 20 cm
 
PROVENANCE:
E. Calando, Paris (d. c.1899) [Lugt 837];
Private collection, Spain
 
 
 
 
 
Jan Anton Garemyn (sometimes spelled Garemijn) was born in Bruges, and was sent off to writing school at the tender age of just four, where his marginalia and doodles were quickly spotted by his teachers. Encouraged by these early signs of artistic promise, his parents placed him under the care of Rochus Aerts, a sculptor, before putting him into the bruges drawing Academy at nine, which he attended for three years. Subsequent teachers included Hendrik Pulinx and Lodewijk Roose, and Garemyn himself became a teacher and headmaster at the same drawing school in 1765, holding that position for a decade. 
 
Garemyn was a prolific draughtsman and painter, and worked across many genres, producing portraits, genre scenes, landscapes, and a number of important Religious commissions (the latter of which included altar-pieces in prominent churches in both Bruges and nearby Courtrai). He was also commended as a decorative artists, and was tasked with designing triumphal arches for local processions and festivals. 
 
Above all, Garemyn was a gifted draughtsman, excelling in characterful figure studies such as the present work, whose contorted faces were no doubt influenced by earlier masters such as Teniers, Van Ostade and particularly Jacob Jordaens. Several other of these sheets bear the same distinctive large-lettered handwriting to their margins with a date, indicating that they were drawn from life and not merely genre pieces. His earliest, sadly now lost, self-portrait drawing is said to have been inscribed by him ‘Nulla dies sine linea’ (‘No Day without a Line’), a testament to his relentless work ethic and practice.