Oil on panel
Signed lower right: “P. Verelst”

Pieter Hermansz. Verelst wasa Dutch Golden Age painter who was active in Dordrecht, The Hague and laterLondon. He was trained by Gerard Dou and Jacob Gerritsz. Cuyp, two artistsdeeply rooted in the naturalistic and Rembrandtesque traditions of Dutch painting.Born in Dordrecht, Verelst began his career there in the 1630s, but in 1643 hemoved to The Hague, where he joined the Guild of Saint Luke. Living near Janvan Goyen, he adapted his style to suit the city’s clientele, painting formalportraits in the refined manner of Adriaen Hanneman, alongside more informaltronies and genre scenes.

There is reason to believethat this painting might be a self-portrait. A work in The Leiden Collection,titled ‘Portrait of a Man’ (Possible Self-Portrait), shows strikingsimilarities in physiognomy to the man depicted here. Self-portraits werehighly popular among 17th-century Dutch and Flemish artists, who used them notonly to present their likeness to the world but also as demonstrations ofskill. Typically, such works were created with the aid of a mirror, resultingin a reversed image.