Ferdinand Bol Dordrecht 1616 - 1680 Amsterdam

"The following condition report has been provided by Henry Gentle, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. The original canvas is lined. The lining is old but stable, however, the tacking edge has degraded. The paint layer is stable. Thinness to the paint layer, through which original canvas texture can be seen, caused by abrasive action, is visible in the background, the shadows of hair and garments and the red glaze of the cloak. Pale discoloured retouchings to the face are visible. The paint impasto has been slightly compromised. Tonal improvement achieved with the removal of the varnish."
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

This bust-length portrait is close in style and conception to the group of so-called Self-portraits by the artist, all datable to the second half of the 1640s, and all of which were long thought to represent the artist himself, a theory which was rightly disputed by Albert Blankert in his 1982 monograph on Bol.¹  The conception of these paintings is based on the etched Self-portrait by Rembrandt of 1639, and his Self-portrait from 1640 in the National Gallery, London.²

All of the other portraits from this group show the sitter half-length and, in almost all cases, he is behind a wall on which he rests his right arm, mirroring Rembrandt's aforementioned prototype. The composition of the present work and the pose of the sitter are particularly close to Bol's tronie from 1646 in the Dordrechts Museum, Dordrecht.³

That this and Bol's other portraits from the 1640s are so dependent on Rembrandt's work is not surprising considering Bol worked in his studio from circa 1637 until circa 1641. Bol had first studied under Jacob Gerritsz. Cuyp in his town of birth, Dordrecht, probably until 1637 when he left for Amsterdam to join Rembrandt's workshop. His first dated work is from 1642 and it is highly probable that it was around this time that he left the Rembrandt workshop to become an independent painter.

We are grateful to Fred G. Meijer for endorsing the attribution to Bol on the basis of photographs.

1.  See A. Blankert, Ferdinand Bol, Doornspijk 1982, p. 58. For examples of such portraits see pp. 118-20, cat. nos. 60-65, reproduced plates 60-63, 65 and 70.
2.  Inv. no. NG 672; see H. Gerson, Rembrandt Paintings, London 1968, p. 337, reproduced fig. 238.
3.  Blankert, op. cit., p. 118, cat. no. 60, reproduced plate 60.