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The Artist with his Family
Mander III, Karel van (Dutch, 1607–1670)
1640
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Classification
- Painting
- Dimensions
- width 137.5 cm, height 163 cm, height 136.5 cm, width 111.5 cm
- Culture
- Dutch
- Museum
- SMK – National Gallery of Denmark
- Rights
- Public Domain Mark: SMK waives its rights in this photograph, as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed
View at the SMK – National Gallery of Denmark
About this work
This informal self-portrait shows the artist Karel van Mander with his family. His wife, Maria Fern, is shown with an open book, presumably the Bible, and lovingly clasping her mother’s hand. All three look toward the spectator with alert gazes. Family life was a favourite motif within Dutch and Flemish art in the 17th century. This makes the work typical of its day. The persons in the painting are depicted as distinctive individuals, full of life and character, and attention is focused on the figures’ emotional relationships with each other. Nothing in the painting points to van Mander’s profession as an artist, a fact that only serves to accentuate its focus on family life. Karel van Mander III (circa 1609-70) belongs to a Dutch family of painters. He arrived in Denmark in 1623 and finished his education here, after which he began working for Christian IV. Trips to the Netherlands and Italy made him familiar with the leading schools and movements of the time. Having returned to Denmark he became the favourite portrait painter amongst the royal household and the nobility. In van Mander they found an artist of international standing and calibre who knew how to successfully…
