© 2017 The Leiden CollectionSelf-Portrait
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Self-Portrait

ca. 1629–30

Jan Lievens(Leiden 1607 – 1674 Amsterdam)oil on panel
42 x 37 cm
signed with initials in dark paint, upper rightcorner: “IL”
JL-105Currently on view at: The National Museum ofChina, Beijing

How To Cite
DeWitt, Lloyd and Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. "Self-Portrait." In The Leiden Collection Catalogue. Edited byArthur K. Wheelock Jr. New York, 2017.
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© 2017 The Leiden CollectionSelf-Portrait
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When Constantijn Huygens (1596–1687), secretary to the prince ofComparative Figures

Orange, traveled from The Hague to Leiden in October 1628 to meet Jan
Lievens and Rembrandt van Rijn (1606–69), he discovered two young
artists whose striking personalities and artistic predilections heperceptively characterized in the diary entry he wrote shortly thereafter. Asfor Lievens, Huygens celebrated him as a prodigy and admired his“vigorous, untamable spirit” and “acute and profound insight into allmanner of things,” even as he lamented the young artist’s stubbornnessand excess of self-confidence. He admired Lievens’s work ethic and his
choice of “audacious themes and forms.” If Huygens felt that Rembrandt
was superior to Lievens in his “inventiveness, his sure touch and livelinessof emotions,” he also felt that Lievens was the better of the two in paintingthe human countenance, where “he wreaks miracles.”[1]In this striking Self-Portrait, which Lievens probably began shortly afterFig 1. Jan Lievens, Portrait ofRembrandt van Rijn, ca. 1628, oil
on panel, 57 x 44.7 cm,
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, on
loan from a private collector, SKC-1598

Huygens’s visit, one can understand entirely the power of the young
artist’s forceful personality. Unlike Rembrandt, who in his early selfportraits of around 1629–30 often stared directly at the viewer but with partof his face obscured in shadow, Lievens sought no such effect. Hispiercing eyes gaze to the right, suggesting an active and searching mind.
He further enlivened his image by painting his long, flowing brown hair withstrikingly free and spontaneous brushstrokes. The light that falls from theupper left also illuminates his smooth skin, broad cheek bones and strongfeatures, which he defined with carefully controlled strokes. He defined theproper right eye socket with a rhythmic sequence of parallel brushstrokes
that indicate both structure and reflective light. The delicacy of his touch isalso evident in the way he has articulated the fine hairs of his pencil-thinmoustache.
The remarkable expressive qualities of this Self-Portrait raise manyFig 2. Lucas Vorsterman after Sir
Anthony van Dyck, Portrait of Jan
Lievens, ca. 1632, engraving onlaid paper, 24.4 x 15.6 cm,
National Gallery of Art,
Washington D.C., 1990.125.1.59

questions about Lievens’s artistic aspirations at this early stage of hiscareer. They demonstrate a level of personal refinement and elegance
entirely unexpected from the bold Caravaggist paintings he was making inthe late 1620s. They also differ from the careful descriptive modeling of histronies and other bust-length images from the same period, including hisportrait of Rembrandt (fig 1). One cannot help but think that the characterof this painting, which has unmistakable affinities to Van Dyck’s fluid style,owes something to the Leiden artist’s desire to evolve his style in a mannerthat would appeal to a courtly culture, whether in The Hague or London.[2]© 2017 The Leiden CollectionSelf-PortraitPage 4 of 8Constantijn Huygens, who was the arbiter of taste at the Dutch court,
greatly admired the paintings of Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony vanDyck. Indeed, Van Dyck came to The Hague to paint the portraits of Prince
Frederick Hendrick and his consort Amalia van Solmes shortly after
Lievens painted this Self Portrait.[3] While in The Hague he also painted aportrait of Lievens, an indication of their mutual esteem. The portrait, now
lost, is known today through an engraving that Lucas Vosterman(1595–1675) made for the Iconographia (fig 2).[4]The Van Dyckian character of this Self-Portrait led earlier scholars to date
this work around 1632–34, when Lievens was in England; nevertheless, aFig 3. X-radiographof Self-Portrait (JL-105)

date of 1629–30 is probable for both stylistic and technical reasons.[5]Dendrochronological examinations have revealed that Lievens used an
oak panel made from the same tree that supplied the panel for
Rembrandt’s Samson and Delilah in Berlin, which dates ca. 1629–30.[6]This evidence indicates that Lievens and Rembrandt purchased theirpanels from the same panel maker, and perhaps that they even purchased
their panels jointly.
X-radiographs indicate that Lievens made transformative revisions to hisappearance during the course of the painting’s execution (fig 3). Lievens
eliminated a hat, probably a painter’s beret, that he initially had placed
tilted slightly forward on his head, and in its place added freely rendered,flowing locks at the left, perhaps in emulation of English or Flemish courtly
hair styles. These changes strengthened his presentation into a dashing,almost aristocratic young man who peers out past the viewer, although hehad already left behind his Leiden persona in anticipation of the career hehoped would soon unfold at the court of King Charles I in London.
- Lloyd DeWitt and Arthur K. Wheelock Jr.

© 2017 The Leiden CollectionSelf-Portrait
Page 5 of 8Endnotes
1. For Huygens’ text, see Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., ed., Jan Lievens: A Dutch Master
Rediscovered (Exh. cat. Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art; Milwaukee, Milwaukee Art
Museum; Amsterdam, Museum Het Rembrandthuis) (New Haven, 2008), 286–87.
2. By April 1629 Lievens had already considered going to London to paint at the court ofCharles I. See Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., Jan Lievens: A Dutch Master Rediscovered , ed.
Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. (Exh. cat. Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art; Milwaukee,Milwaukee Art Museum; Amsterdam, Museum Het Rembrandthuis) (New Haven, 2008), 9.
3. For a discussion of Van Dyck’s presence in The Hague, see Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. et al.,Anthony van Dyck (Exh. cat. Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art) (Brussels, 1990),
236–38, no. 59.
4. A unique impression of the very sketchy first state of the print in the Institut Néerlandais,
Paris, depicts Lievens without a moustache. It seems unlikely, as some have suggested, thatthe appearance of the moustache in the second state indicates that Lievens grew hismustache only after Van Dyck had drawn or painted his model. It is more probable that
Vosterman merely overlooked the existence of this slight growth on Van Dyck’s model.
Vorsterman probably made his revisions after Van Dyck had seen the first state.
5. See Rüdiger Klessmann, Jan Lievens: Ein Maler im Schatten Rembrandts (Exh. cat.
Brunswick, Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum) (Brunswick, 1979), 100, no 32.
6. The dendrochronological examination of these works was undertaken by Dr. Peter Klein,
Ordinariat für Holzbiologie, Universität Hamburg. For the dating of Rembrandt’s painting,see Stichting Foundation Rembrandt Research Project, A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings ,vol. 1, 1625–1631, ed. Josua Bruyn et al. (The Hague, Boston, and London, 1982), 249–57,
cat., A24.

Provenance(Possibly sale, Sotheby’s, London, 22 July 1953, no. 116 [£1,400 to Welker]; [Alfred Brod
Gallery, London, 1957].
Private collection, England [Thomas Agnew and Sons, London, 2006; Johnny van Haeften,Ltd., London, 2006].
From whom acquired by the present owner in 2006.

© 2017 The Leiden CollectionSelf-Portrait
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Exhibition History
London, Alfred Brod Gallery, “Winter Exhibition,” 6 December 1957–4 January 1958, no. 32.
Brunswick, Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum, “Jan Lievens: Ein Maler im Schatten
Rembrandts,” 6 September–11 November 1979, no. 32.
Washington, National Gallery of Art, “Jan Lievens: A Dutch Master Rediscovered,” 26
October 2008–11 January 2009; Milwaukee, Milwaukee Art Museum, 7 February–26 April
2009; Amsterdam, Museum Het Rembrandthuis, 17 May–9 August 2009, no. 18 [lent by thepresent owner].
Washington, National Gallery of Art, on loan with the permanent collection, August
2009–August 2012 [lent by the present owner].
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, on loan with the permanent collection, September
2012–April 2013 [lent by the present owner].
Washington, National Gallery of Art, on loan with the permanent collection, June 2013–June
2016 [lent by the present owner].
Paris, Museé du Louvre, “Masterpieces of The Leiden Collection: The Age of Rembrandt,”
22 February–22 May 2017 [lent by the present owner].
Beijing, National Museum of China, “Rembrandt and His Time: Masterpieces from The
Leiden Collection,” 17 June–3 September 2017 [lent by the present owner].

References
Winter Exhibition. Sales cat. London, Alfred Brod Gallery. London, 1957, no. 32.
Schneider, Hans. Jan Lievens, sein Leben und seine Werke . Haarlem, 1932; reprint with asupplement by R. E. O Ekkart, Amsterdam, 1973, 352, no. S371, fig. 56.
Klessmann, Rüdiger.

Jan Lievens: Ein Maler im Schatten Rembrandts . Exh. cat.

Brunswick, Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum. Brunswick, 1979, 100–1, no. 32.
Michalkowa, Janina. “Nie tylko w cieniu Rembrandta, O. Brunszickiej Wystawie janaLievensa.” Biuletyn Historii Sztuki 42 (1980): 206.
Sumowski, Werner. Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler in vier Bänden. 6 vols. Landau, 1983,3:1804, 1912, no. 1273.
Brown, Christopher. “Jan Lievens in Leiden and London.” Burlington Magazine 125(November 1983): 668, 670, no. 15.
Bruyn, Josua, Haak, Bob, Levie, Simon H., Van Thiel, Pieter J. J., and Van de Wetering,© 2017 The Leiden CollectionSelf-Portrait
Page 7 of 8Ernst, eds. A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings . 5 vols. The Hague, Boston, London, 1982–,
4:166 n. 196, 649.
Gudbrod, Helga. Lievens und Rembrandt: Studien zum Verhältnis ihrer Kunst . Frankfurt amMain, 1996, 186 n. 8, 316.
Van de Wetering, Ernst. “Rembrandt’s Beginnings: An Essay.” InThe Mystery of the Young
Rembrandt. Edited by E. van de Wetering and Bernhard Schnackenburg. Exh. cat. Kassel,
StaatlicheMuseenKassel,Gemäldegalerie

AlteMeister,SchlossWilhelmshöhe;

Amsterdam, Museum Het Rembrandthuis. Wolfratshausen, 2001, 44, 56 n. 76.
DeWitt, Lloyd. “Evolution and Ambition in the Career of Jan Lievens (1607–1674).” Ph.D.
diss. University of Maryland, 2006, 73–74, no. 31.
WheelockJr.,

ArthurK.

“Self-Portrait.”

InJan

Lievens:A

Dutch

MasterRediscovered. Edited by Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. Exh. cat. Washington D.C., National Galleryof Art; Milwaukee, Milwaukee Art Museum; Amsterdam, Museum Het Rembrandthuis. NewHaven, 2008, 116–17, no. 18; 99, under nos. 9–10; 114, under no. 17.
Gifford, E. Melanie. “Lievens’ Technique: Wonders in Smeared Paint, Varnishes, and Oils.”
In Jan Lievens: A Dutch Master Rediscovered. Edited by Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. Exh. cat.
Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art; Milwaukee, Milwaukee Art Museum; Amsterdam,Museum Het Rembrandthuis. New Haven, 2008, 44, 47, 52; 148, under no. 34.
DeWitt, Lloyd. “‘I believe I have already mentioned Lievens’ character in passing…’:
Personality as the Key to the Career and Artistic Vision of Jan Lievens.” InJan Lievens: ADutch Master Rediscovered. Edited by Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. Exh. cat. Washington D.C.,
National Gallery of Art; Milwaukee, Milwaukee Art Museum; Amsterdam, Museum Het
Rembrandthuis. New Haven, 2008, 283; 146, under no. 33; 148, under no. 34.
Van der Goes, Bernadette. “De herontdekking van Jan Lievens.” Collect: Kunst & Antiek
Journal 14, no. 4 (April 2009): 34–35.
Korevaar, Gerbrand. “Jan Lievens ontsnapt aan Rembrandts schaduw.” Museum
Tijdschrift 22, no. 4 (June–July 2009): 23.
Coutre, Jacquelyn N. “Vanquishing the Shadow: Jan Lievens Comes to Light after 250Years.” Dutch Crossing 33 (October 2009): 135–51, no. 2.

Technical Summary
The support, a rectangular composite panel, is made up of two vertically grained oak planks fromthe Baltic-Polish region, of which board 2 originates from the same tree as boards 2 and 3 from
Rembrandt’s Samson Betrayed by Delilah in Berlin-Dahlem.[1] The vertical panel join is left ofcenter and passes through the inner corner of the figure’s proper right eye. The panel has been
thinned and has no bevels. All four edges may have been trimmed before three wood additions© 2017 The Leiden CollectionPowered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

Self-Portrait
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were added: an L-shaped addition along the right side, a short piece along the left side of thelower edge, and a piece along the left side. The enlarged panel has been cradled.
A double ground, a lightly toned chalk-glue lower ground followed by a lead-based upper groundthat remains visible under the chin, has been applied to the central plank. In the X-radiograph,
the ground applied to the three wood additions appears less radio-opaque.
A brown monochrome sketch is visible as lines in the shadowed portions of the eyes and along
the jawline. Modifications were made to the left jawline and chin in a second black paintedsketch.
The paint appears to have been applied in two stages along the face: in a blended handlingalong the shadowed side and in a more vigorous handling along the lighter side. In the Xradiograph, the two stages can be seen along the mouth. Subtle scratches and tiny crosshatches
break up the highlight along the bridge of the nose and the proper right eye.
Minor compositional changes include the lengthening of the figure’s hair, which gave it a morecourtly appearance.
The painting is signed with initials in dark paint along the upper right corner but is undated.
The painting has not undergone conservation treatment since its acquisition in 2006 and remains
in a good state of preservation.[2]Technical Summary Endnotes

1. The identification of the wood is based on Peter Klein’s May 1993 dendrochronology
report. Berlin-Dahlem inventory number B 812-A, RRP Corpus I A 24.
2. Entry based on 2007 examination report by E. Melanie Gifford, Scientific Department,
National Gallery of Art, Washington.

© 2017 The Leiden Collection