Who is the boy? [5]

Wenceslaus Hollar, profile head of boy, 1635, FAM SF

One frequently reproduced image is this, of an unnamed  young servant, etched by Hollar perhaps to advertise skill in shading.    Hollar's output was prodigious, so the date  on this impression 1635 is the only clue to further information.  Born in  Prague in 1607, after his father's death in 1630 Hollar travelled and worked in Germany and Flanders before joining the Earl of Arundel's entourage and moving to Britain.  

If the portrait was executed in 1635, it was probably drawn in Antwerp from a boy employed in a Flemish household.  A decade later, Hollar was again in the city, as a Royalist exile, seeking work where he could find it, and another impression was produced, with the date 1645.  A good number of prints are known, with and without dates.

Wenceslaus Hollar, profile head of boy, 1645

Hollar returned to England in 1652, where he worked for Charles II and died in 1677.  Around 1683 a mezzotint copy or spin-off was produced, depicting the sitter in reversed pose, with the added accessory of an ear ring. By which time, if still living, the nameless boy would have been in his sixties.

after Wenceslaus Hollar, NPG  D11877

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