Lot Essay
The iconography of this imposing work is similar to that of other Flemish family portraits of the period: the small dog at the woman's feet alludes to marital fidelity, as do the vines that wrap around the architectural columns -- they illustrate the motto 'Amicitia etiam post mortem durans' ('Friendship that lasts even unto Death') -- and the parrot, a traditional attribute of wedlock associated since the 17th century with the Virgin Mary. The same iconography can be found in Jacob Jordaens' Self-Portrait with Family (c.1621-22) in the Prado, Madrid.
The picture's date situates it in the same period as the second of the artist's two self-portraits with family, a comparable work also of 1634 (Hermitage, St. Petersburg). No other version of this composition is known.
Katlijne van der Stighelen published the present lot as a lost work by de Vos in her recent study of the artist, but upon examining a transparency of the recently rediscovered painting concluded that while its composition must be by the master, the picture was executed by another hand, probably in de Vos' workshop.
The picture's date situates it in the same period as the second of the artist's two self-portraits with family, a comparable work also of 1634 (Hermitage, St. Petersburg). No other version of this composition is known.
Katlijne van der Stighelen published the present lot as a lost work by de Vos in her recent study of the artist, but upon examining a transparency of the recently rediscovered painting concluded that while its composition must be by the master, the picture was executed by another hand, probably in de Vos' workshop.