Self-Portrait at the Easel

The date on this canvas is 1709, the year usually given for Kupecký's move to Vienna after some two decades of work in Italy, mostly in Venice and Rome. He signed it in Latin on the front of the small table at the lower left, Iohan. Kupezky Pinxit, Johann Kupezky painted this. He shows himself in the middle of the job, a brush raised in one hand, palette and a bundle of brushes in the other. On the easel behind him stands a portrait of another man, well advanced, wearing the full curled wig that was the fashion of the day. Kupecký wears a soft red cap and a fur-lined cloak, with a gold chain and a star-shaped pendant on his chest. Beside the signature, on the same table, sit small glass flasks and an open shell.