Engel Jansz. Rooswijck Haarlem 1583/4 - 1649 Delft

Not much is known about the Haarlem-born painter Engel Jansz. Rooswijck, who worked variously in Copenhagen and Delft. His brother-in-law was Karel van Mander the Younger (c.1579-1623), whom he assisted on the tapestry series done for the Danish King Christian IV. Only one other painting, depicting Adam and Eve, signed and dated 1605, is currently known: sold Lucerne, Coray Stoop, 29 July 1925, lot 24. The present portrait could be a self portrait, as the eyes are positioned as if the sitter looks into a mirror while painting. If so, it is a very early recording of a Western painter as an oriental; a tradition that many painters as Rembrandt took on later in the seventeenth century.