Can You Beat This Beard? Bearded Men in Paintings

According to some fashion experts, beards reached their peak 10 years ago. However, this is not just some seasonal trend. Long, short, trimmed, or rugged, beards are here to stay! If you haven’t grown your own yet, here are beards in paintings for some inspiration!

19th-Century Style

William Henry Hunt was an English painter and one of the creators of the English watercolor school. He was born in London and spent most of his life there. He chose simple subjects but dedicated a lot of attention and detail to them, which made them appear very special – as you can see here. This unknown bearded man looks so pensive that he might be a doctor or a professor. They say that a beard doesn’t make a philosopher, but a talented painter certainly does…

Picasso Style

This is an option for brave people: if you want to be like Pablo Picasso’s man, you’ll need to make your beard both curly and straight, dye it green, blue, and yellow, and shape it as only a Cubist could. Then you’ll need to invest in a few plastic surgeries, a cap, and a pack of cigarettes. This is the style of the future.

Time-Consuming Style

This is the most impressive beard by far. It must have also caught Anthony van Dyck’s eye when he picked it for a study. For a long time, this picture was attributed to Peter Paul Rubens but now we know that it comes from a young Van Dyck. The painted surfaces are too textured and the forms are too soft for Rubens, who preferred to emphasize modeling and excelled at drawing. As you can see, it takes time to find a true attribution and to grow a real beard.

Dutch Style

This old man looks so sad! Even his rich and fluffy beard doesn’t make him happy. He’s probably thinking of the days behind and the not-so-bright future ahead of him. However, if we focus on the beard, we’ll find a fantastic rendering of the texture and a few tints of ginger in his white hair. Not only is Rembrandt a master of depicting the personalities and emotions of his models, he’s also an absolute king of beards!

Expressionist Style

Your beard should speak for you; it should express your originality and unique nature. Maybe you should dye it green, as the Russian Expressionist Alexej von Jawlensky suggested here. He worked in Germany and was a member of Der Blaue Reiter group in Munich. He also knew Henri Matisse, whose Fauvist influence you can see in Jawlensky’s style. In this picture, one can also find traces of Russian folk art in the disegno and the decisive black contours.

So which of these beard paintings do you like the most?