This is one of Flinck’s latest portraits, painted two years before his death in 1660. It retains its Rembrandtesque overtones with a sharp but introspective gaze, but in every other respect it shows just how international Flinck’s work had become. The elegant positioning of the hands owes a debt to Van Dyck (q.v.) whose portraits remained a role model throughout Europe in the middle years of the seventeenth century. The landscape background harks back to the Renaissance tradition and is occasionally found in the work of Rembrandt’s contemporaries such as Jan Lievens.

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