Self-Portrait

One of Van Dyck’s earliest known works, as well as his first known self-portrait, this painting is dated, on the basis of his appearance, to the first half of the 1610s, when he was about fifteen. The thick application of the paint is different from that of the other early self-portraits. Despite the bold execution, the artist probably considered the painting a finished work. Within decades of his death, it was acquired for the celebrated Viennese collection of the second Prince of Liechtenstein.