Self-Portrait
The painter himself, arm on a stone window frame and palette in hand, in a self-portrait using Gerrit Dou's favorite window-frame composition. Full commentary ↓
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Self-Portrait is an oil painting by Gerrit Dou (ca. 1665) in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. It measures 48.9 × 39.1 cm.
In the pictureInside an arched stone window frame stands a man in a blue beret, holding a palette and brushes. A red curtain is drawn back above the frame; on the left is a flowering potted plant, on the right a birdcage and a grapevine, and on the sill lie a book and a red carpet. The lower part of the window frame is carved with relief decoration.
BackgroundDou repeated the composition of placing a figure within a stone window frame dozens of times. The frame acts as a frame within the picture, so the viewer is in effect looking into the room from outside the window. In his self-portrait he presented himself not as a laboring craftsman but as a cultivated painter surrounded by a curtain, carpet and books. Each prop, such as the birdcage and the grapevine, is a device to show off his fine brushwork.
Puzzle tipThere are many props, so each piece has a clue. Set up the border first with the gray stone pieces of the window frame, then fill in by color: the red curtain and carpet, the blue cap, the green vine and the flowerpot. The face and palette pieces anchor the center. It works fine at up to 300 pieces.
- Artist
- Dutch, Leiden 1613–1675 Leiden
- Classification
- Paintings
- Medium
- Oil on wood
- Dimensions
- 48.9 x 39.1 cm
- Credit line
- Bequest of Benjamin Altman, 1913
Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art ↗
In these collections: Portrait and Self-Portrait Puzzles
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