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Portrait of the Artist
This exhibition is in the past. View our current exhibitions.
PIETER GERRITSZ VAN ROESTRATEN (HAARLEM C. 1631-LONDON 1700)

A Vanitas

c.1666-1700

RCIN 402604

A skull, coins and pocket watch on a silk ribbon allude to the transience of earthly pleasures, while a book open at a print of a laughing Democritus is inscribed with the lines 'Everyone is sick from birth / vanity is ruining the world'. Most intriguing however is the suspended glass sphere, in which can be seen the distorted reflection of a studio, with paintings on the wall and the tiny figure of the artist himself at an easel.

Cat. 105

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