Early Self-Portrait

Maulbertsch was about 26 and still making his name when this small head was painted, around 1750. The soft white cap, the brush in his hand and the rim of a palette below all announce the trade, the working dress painters of the day liked to wear in their portraits. The arrangement closely matches a self-portrait by Paul Troger, the older Austrian painter who later ran the Vienna Academy. Nothing on the picture names the sitter, so the Belvedere's case for Maulbertsch rests on the face. In church paintings at Sümeg in Hungary and at Schwechat in Lower Austria, he slipped his own features in among the figures. The upturned nose, high cheekbones and firm chin here match those hidden likenesses. Painted in oil on cardboard, it has been on loan from a private owner since 2007.