Self-Portrait

Pieter Christoffel Wonder

plate etched 1812–14 · Etching on machine-made wove paper · Drawings and Prints

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.

Artist

Pieter Christoffel Wonder

Date

plate etched 1812–14

Medium

Etching on machine-made wove paper

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Purchase, Peco Foundation, 2023