拍品专文
These eight portraits belong to a series of one hundred and fifty five portraits that were originally set in a cabinet offered for sale at the auction held at the artist's house in Rotterdam two years after his death. The cabinet was unsold and remained with the artist's descendants. Benisovich (loc. cit.) notes that the portraits were dispersed in New York during the 1940s. A group of twenty was offered at Christie's, Amsterdam, 10 November 1997, lot 153.
The inspiration for the series probably came from Arnoud van Halen (1673-1732) who, in the first decade of the eighteenth century, painted a series of portraits of Dutch poets, called Panpoeticon Batavum (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Inv. nos. A1738-A4626).
The inspiration for the series probably came from Arnoud van Halen (1673-1732) who, in the first decade of the eighteenth century, painted a series of portraits of Dutch poets, called Panpoeticon Batavum (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Inv. nos. A1738-A4626).