Self-portrait

In 1667 the young Cosimo III de' Medici, travelling through the Dutch Republic, asked several leading painters to send him their own portraits for the family's growing gallery of self-portraits in Florence. Bartholomeus van der Helst answered with this one. To an Amsterdam patron of the day he was an obvious choice, because in his own lifetime van der Helst outshone even Rembrandt as the most sought-after portraitist in the city, prized for elegant, flattering likenesses in the polished manner of Van Dyck. His sitters were the richest merchants and proudest civic guards of the Dutch golden age, and here he gives himself the same easy confidence, well dressed and composed. He was around 54 when he painted it and had only three more years to live. It was sent south while he was still at the height of his fame, and it has hung in the Uffizi ever since.