Family-Portrait

In The Hague, Netscher soon rose to become the town’s principal portraitist, and worked for a privileged class of clients at home and abroad. In the 19th century, this "Family-Portrait" was considered a self-portrait of the artist with his family; this conjecture has now been superseded, since it is not consistent with portraits of Netscher. Palette, brush and maulstick beside the right-hand putto in the frieze do indicate a family portrait of a painter, possibly that of a colleague. The parents are shown half-length, the little girl sitting on the sill has her back to viewers but is looking round at them. The peach in her hand symbolises the sincere love holding the family together. The motif of the window recess decorated with a frieze of putti dates back to the Leiden fine painters and Rembrandt’s pupil Gerrit Dou.

Ducke Astrid: Caspar Netscher, Family-Portrait, in: Ducke Astrid, Habersatter Thomas (Hrsg./Edi.): von | from 0 auf | to 100. Residenzgalerie Salzburg 1923-2023. Salzburg 2023, S./p. 186-187