Ferdinand Bol

Ferdinand Bol was born in Dordrecht to Balthasar Bol, a prosperous surgeon, and is thought to have been apprenticed to Jacob Gerritsz. Cuyp (1594–1651), the father of the landscape painter Aelbert Cuyp, who was at that time the most prominent and versatile artist in Dordrecht. When Bol was nearly twenty years of age, he eschewed the customary trip to Italy expected of a young painter and left for Amsterdam, where he entered Rembrandt’s studio. Bol was apprenticed to his famous master between 1635 and 1641, and, unsurprisingly, this was to be a formative influence upon his subsequent career. Upon the death of his father and the ensuing receipt of some funds, Bol established himself as an independent artist at the age of 25, and his first signed and dated works appear from 1642 onwards. Bol was certainly one of Rembrandt’s most talented pupils, and, it is said, was also his favorite. His early portraits from the 1640s were naturally executed in the style of Rembrandt and it was only in 1649, with his first major commission for the group portrait of the Four Regents of the Amsterdam Lepers’ House (Amsterdam, Historical Museum) that Bol began to break away from his master’s influence, though throughout his career his signature style and lyrical personality is imbued in his male and female sitters. 

The present work was once owned by Georg Weifert, a Serbian industrialist and banker of German descent. He is also considered the founder of the modern mining sector in Serbia. Weifert was an important patron and supporter of humanitarian and cultural institutions. Today, his portrait adorns the 1000 Serbian dinar note.