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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.

The National Gallery, London

London

Title

Self Portrait

Date

about 1638

Medium

Oil on canvas

Measurements

H 96.2 x W 77 cm

Accession number

NG2864

Acquisition method

presented by Charles Fairfax Murray, 1912

Work type

Painting

The National Gallery, London

Trafalgar Square, London, Greater London WC2N 5DN England

View venue

Artist or maker

Jan Lievens

1607–1674

View profile

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