Self-portrait
Ferdinand Bol, 1669
This self-portrait by Ferdinand Bol shows the painter in an embroidered robe, leaning on a small sculpture of Cupid. The presence of the figure of love, together with the sumptuous garment, invites a more personal reading of the work. It is thought to have been painted to mark the artist's second marriage to Anna van Erckel in 1669, the year that appears in its date. This link to a family event rests on the documentary record, though it cannot be considered firmly established.
The later history of the canvas is more uncertain. It is probably the self-portrait listed in the probate records after the death of Elbert, the artist's unmarried son, although the person who inherited it is unknown. It resurfaced at an auction in 1818 and was later acquired by Albertus Brondgeest, whose heirs passed it on to its present owner. Today it is held at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, where it forms part of its collection of seventeenth-century Dutch painting.
- Painter
- Ferdinand Bol
- Date
- 1669
- Medium
- oil paint, canvas
- Dimensions
- 127 × 102 cm
- Museum
- Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
- Genre
- self-portrait
- Depicts
- Ferdinand Bol, banyan
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