Self Portrait seated at a table, turned to the right

Magriet van Boven and Sam Segal compare the present drawing to the young Spaendonck's portrait of his teacher Willem Jacob Herreyns, drawn circa 1770 in the same technique. They date the present drawing to the same period, when Spaendonck was studying under Herreyns at the newly founded Academy of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture at Mechelen. Shortly afterwards Spaendonck travelled to Paris to join his brother Gerardus. Like his brother, Cornelis was most famous for his drawings and paintings of flowers, notable for the Manufacture de Sèvres, and his drawn portraits are consequently rare.