Jan Asselijn

Jan Asselijn was small, and one hand was withered, which earned him the nickname Crabbetje, little crab, among the fraternity of Dutch painters in Rome. When Rembrandt etched his portrait back in Amsterdam, he placed him beside an easel with the hands kept out of view.

Like many young Dutchmen, Asselijn had gone south to paint the warm light of the Italian countryside, and he carried that golden, Italianate landscape back north. His single most famous canvas, though, is a swan. It rears up with wings spread, hissing over its nest at a dog swimming toward the eggs.

He painted it around 1650 with no politics in mind, as far as anyone can tell. Later owners supplied the politics: they lettered 'Holland' onto an egg and 'enemy of the state' beside the dog, turning the swan into Johan de Witt, the statesman who led the Dutch Republic and was killed by a mob in 1672. It was the first painting bought for the Dutch national collection, in 1800, the seed of the Rijksmuseum.