Hugo van der Goes Making a Portrait of Mary of Burgundy

Wilhelm (Guillaume) Koller

ca. 1872 · Oil on wood · European Paintings

In the nineteenth century, new national museums and the emergence of art history as an academic discipline encouraged curiosity about art of the past. In response, many painters created fanciful scenes featuring their artistic predecessors. Here, Koller depicted the fifteenth-century Flemish artist Hugo van der Goes, shown on the right with his artist’s tools. Records on this painting are unclear, but he is most likely painting the portrait of ruler Mary of Burgundy, who is accompanied by her husband, Maximilian of Austria, and their son. Koller relied on costumes and scenery to make the imagined encounter convincing, enlivening it with details like the begging dog.

Artist

Wilhelm (Guillaume) Koller

Date

ca. 1872

Medium

Oil on wood

Department

European Paintings

Credit line

Bequest of Stephen Whitney Phoenix, 1881