Hendrick Goltzius: Painting with Colored Chalk

During the first half of the 1590s, Hendrick Goltzius created several large colored-chalk portraits of his artist friends, as well as two self-portraits. Mid-career, he traveled from Haarlem to Italy, encountering drawings and oil paintings that suggested new possibilities for employing color in portraiture. Already renowned as a graphic artist, Goltzius began to refashion himself as a master of color. I argue that these brilliant drawings provide valuable insight into his transition from linear expression to full-fledged oil painting in 1600. Equally important, they demonstrate an expansion of his technical prowess, using colored chalks (and washes) to evoke the presence and personality of sitters, especially through glowing flesh. Taken as a group, these presentation drawings gain resonance by representing a community of artists, bound by friendship and profession.