Author Description

Jan van Mieris was trained by his famous father Frans, and worked in the tradition of the Leiden 'fijnschilders'. Art historian and former owner M.J. Ripps about his Self-Portrait: "The theme of the artist with the tools of his trade to hand has a robust tradition on both sides of the Alps. In the middle sixteenth-century artists such as Catherina Sanders van Hemessen (c. 1500 - 1566) and Sofonisba Anguissola (c. 1532 - 1625) memorably depicted themselves with brushes, palette, and Mahlstick, as did leading artists of the subsequent generations. Jan van Mieris' self-portrait is in dialogue with that of his father Frans, and engages a tradition that ultimately reaches back to Rogier van der Weyden (1399/1400 - 1464) and forward to Rembrandt van Rijn (1606 - 1669) - critical reference points with which the elder and younger Mieris would have been well acquainted. And by placing themselves at a ledge, father and son invoked a pictorial tradition with roots in Raphael's iconic portrait of Castiglione. In this little self-portrait, thus, grand traditions are encapsulated in miniature."