Article: Out of the shadows: far from playing second fiddle to Rembrandt, Jan Lievens was a virtuoso innovator in his own right throughout his long career, as an exhibition in Washington demonstrates.(EXHIBITIONS)

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On 6 December 2007, the London dealer Johnny Van Haeften purchased a newly discovered painting by Jan Lievens, Old Man Holding a Skull (Fig. 1), for 2.1m [pounds sterling] at Christie's, setting a record price for the artists work at auction. Soon thereafter, he arranged for a careful cleaning of this vanitas image-cum-portrait--according to an inventory dated 1640, the formidably solemn figure it depicts was the keeper of a Leiden almshouse--and the magnificent results, revealing the full vibrancy of the flesh tones and the bold handling of paint around the sitter's furrowed brow and knotty hands, were much remarked upon in March at the ...

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