A Boy Blowing on a Firebrand

Gerrit van Honthorst · 1621–22

Medium

Oil on canvas

Original size

75.5 × 64.5 cm (30 × 25 3/8 in.); Framed: 100.7 × 88.6 × 5.4 cm (39 5/8 × 34 7/8 × 2 1/8 in.)

Currently held

Art Institute of Chicago

Movement

Baroque

Few paintings capture the drama of a single moment quite like this one — a boy's cheeks puffed, his breath coaxing a smouldering ember to life, the warm glow illuminating his face against near-total darkness. Gerrit van Honthorst was among the most celebrated Dutch followers of Caravaggio, and his mastery of artificial light — earned during years in Rome — earned him the nickname "Gherardo delle Notti," Gerard of the Nights. This work is a precise study in chiaroscuro: Honthorst uses the firebrand itself as the sole light source, letting the rest of the canvas fall into deep, rich shadow. The boy's skin, the ember's orange heat, and the surrounding dark are rendered with a naturalism that feels almost photographic. Honthorst was so admired for this technique that he was invited to the courts of both King Charles I of England and Christian IV of Denmark — extraordinary recognition for a painter from Utrecht. Our hand-painted oil reproduction is made on linen canvas using traditional oil pigments, faithfully recreating the tonal gradations and warm luminosity that make the original, now held at the Art Institute of Chicago, one of the finest examples of Dutch candlelight painting in existence.