Self-Portrait

In December 1972 this picture passed through a London sale catalogued simply as Dutch School, 18th century, although the signature is painted on the stone ledge at the lower right, C. Troost ipse fecit 1739, Latin for made it himself. The Rijksmuseum bought it from a dealer the following year. It is a self-portrait built from layers of illusion. Troost's face appears inside a gilded oval, which the museum describes as a mirror, and a heavy curtain has been pulled half across it. On the ledge in front lie a palette with paint and brushes and a drawing on blue paper, all pushing the scene out towards us. The museum also points to the white frill at his throat, a fashionable jabot, laid in with a single stroke of white paint.