Self Portrait
Artist: Jan Lievens (Dutch, 1607 - 1674)
Original Dimensions: 37 7/8" x 30 3/8"
Location: National Gallery of Art, London
About Artwork: (Early 1650s) "There is a swagger, even an arrogance, in the bearing of this man who meets our eye so directly and seems so at ease with himself. This is a self portrait, and going by what his contemporaries said about the artist – Jan Lievens – we shouldn’t be surprised at his self-confident air. An English ambassador, Sir Robert Kerr, wrote a letter describing him: ‘he thinks there is none to be compared with him in all Germany, Holland, nor the rest of the 17 Provinces [of the Low Countries].’ Lievens' dress is that of a man of wealth and fashion, and the landscape behind suggests the formal grounds of a country estate. The aristocracy were among his most important customers: he was demonstrating that he could paint them in a suitable style. But the confidence of his pose suggests that he may have considered himself their social equal too." - (National Gallery of Art, London)

Panel content
Panel content