Self-Portrait with Vanitas Symbols

1651 · Stedelijk Museum De Lakenhal, Leiden

portrait

In this vanitas still-life, the border between the two genres of the still-life and the portrait are blurred. On the one hand, there are several portraits (as painting within the painting) forming part of a still-life arrangement on the table. The arrangement includes, among other things, a skull, an extinguished candle, coins, a wine glass on its side, a pocket watch, roses, a pearl necklace, a pipe, books and sculpture.

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About the Artist

David Bailly

1584 – 1657

Dutch painter, pupil of his father, Pieter Bailly from Antwerp and the copper engraver Jacques de Gheyn. He studied portraiture with Cornelis van der Voort in Amsterdam. He made numerous trips abroad and worked for many princes including the Duke of Brunswick. Apart from portraits, he painted still-lifes such as the famous vanitas painting of 1651. Bailly taught his nephews Harmen and Pieter Steenwijck.

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