Sir Anthony van Dyck, Two Studies of a Bearded Man.

Art Daily reports that Sotheby's New York just sold the painting featured here for a grand $7,250,500. Van Dyck (1599-1641) was the most prominent Flemish painter of the 17th century, after Peter Paul Rubens. Indeed, there are some who believe that younger Flemish painters owe far more to Van Dyck than to Rubens. An excerpt from Sotheby's catalogue notes that, "In Two Studies of a Bearded Man Van Dyck paints the same man in bust-length from two slightly different positions: one in three-quarter view looking down and the other full face, glaring out at the viewer. The sitter is an unidentified model whose domed forehead, deep-set eyes and full beard and hair make him an ideal type for a variety of figures in Van Dyck's early religious and mythological paintings, as well as for Rubens's studio compositions.... One of the most remarkable aspects of the present work is the way Van Dyck created two distinct personalities from a single model."