Self-Portrait

1812–14

Not on view

This striking self-portrait by nineteenth-century Dutch painter and printmaker P.C. Wonder shows the artist in the act of drawing or etching his own likeness. His direct gaze (presumably into a mirror) conveys his intense concentration on his task. Light (perhaps from an open window) floods in from the left, illuminating his hand and one side of his face, reminiscent of the 1648 etched self-portrait of Wonder's Dutch forebear Rembrandt van Rijn (see 20.46.12). Traditionally dated 1814, the Wonder self-portrait may, according to the inscription on this impression, actually date to 1812, when the artist was 32 years of age.

Artwork Details

Title: Self-Portrait
Artist: Pieter Christoffel Wonder (Dutch, 1780–1852)
Date: 1812–14
Medium: Etching
Dimensions: Sheet: 12 7/8 × 9 1/2 in. (32.7 × 24.2 cm)
Plate: 3 5/8 × 3 1/4 in. (9.2 × 8.2 cm)
Classification: Prints
Credit Line: Purchase, PECO Foundation Gift, 2023
Object Number: 2023.83
Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

More Artwork

By Pieter Christoffel Wonder

In the same medium

From the same time and place

An old man in a fur coat sitting on a chair, Pieter Christoffel Wonder Dutch, Etching on wove paper — An old man in a fur coat sitting on a chair
Pieter Christoffel Wonder
1814

Hiawatha, Edmonia Lewis American, Marble, American — Hiawatha
Edmonia Lewis
1868

Imaginary View of Venice, houses at left with figures on terraces, a domed church at center in the background, boats and boat-sheds below, and a seated man observing from a wall at right in the foreground, from "Views" (Vedute altre prese da i luoghi altre ideate da Antonio Canal), Canaletto (Giovanni Antonio Canal) Italian, Etching; undivided plate, only state — Imaginary View of Venice, houses at left with figures on terraces, a domed church at center in the background, boats and boat-sheds below, and a seated man observing from a wall at right in the foreground, from "Views" (Vedute altre prese da i luoghi altre ideate da Antonio Canal)
Canaletto (Giovanni Antonio Canal)
Dedicatee Joseph Smith
1741

Minnehaha, Edmonia Lewis American, Marble, American — Minnehaha
Edmonia Lewis
1868

The Genius of Castiglione, Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione (Il Grechetto) Italian, Etching — The Genius of Castiglione
Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione (Il Grechetto)
Publisher Giovanni Giacomo De Rossi
Dedicatee Matthys van de Merwede, Lord of Clootwyck
ca. 1645–47 (published 1648)

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