Self-Portrait

A lost self-portrait, listed as item 3 in the 1696 sale of the Dissius collection as “the portrait of Vermeer in a room with various accessories, uncommonly beautifully painted by him.” It sold for just 45 guilders, a price so low that scholars reject any idea that it was the large Art of Painting, which was still in the artist’s possession at his death. The figure of 45 guilders points instead to a smaller, more direct likeness. Pieter Roelofs has suggested that its composition may lie behind Michiel van Musscher’s 1670 Self-portrait of the Artist in his Studio, with Van Musscher substituting his own features. A rediscovered Vermeer self-portrait would be the single most consequential find in the study of the painter.