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Lecture the Vanitasstilleven met portret van een jonge schilder analysed: unexpected discoveries and new stories

Sunday 30 April from 11.30 a.m. till 1 p.m.

Lecture by Emma Hermens


Nearly 400 years after it was created, David Bailly's Vanitas Still Life with Portrait of a Young Painter continues to fascinate art historians. The masterpiece raises all sorts of questions. Is it a self-portrait? To what do the various objects in the painting refer? And who after all is the mysterious female figure appearing against the back wall?

Museum De Lakenhal has joined forces with various experts for a comprehensive study of the painter and his work. Zo is voor het eerst het oeuvre van Bailly in kaart gebracht, en ontdekten we in zijn stilleven meerdere verborgen gezichten. In honor of the exhibition David Bailly - Time, Death and Vanity, we are organizing an in-depth lecture series in collaboration with Studium Generale Leiden, in which various researchers will take you through the latest insights and issues about this extraordinary Leiden painter.

On Sunday, April 30, Erma Hermens, professor at the Rijksmuseum Chair of Studio Practices and Technical Art History at the University of Amsterdam until 2021, will discuss in her lecture the material-technical research she conducted on the Vanitas Still Life with Portrait of a Young Painter. She did this using infrared photography, X-ray scans and paint samples no larger than a pinprick. This revealed many unexpected and hitherto unknown passages of Bailly's creative process. In her lecture, Erma will discuss the new stories as well as the new questions that emerged from this research. Everyone is welcome!

Practical information:

  • Date: Sunday 30 April
  • Time: 11.30 a.m. till 1 p.m.
  • Location: Auditorium Museum De Lakenhal
  • Language: Dutch
  • Price: Free. If you want to visit the museum after the lecture, you will need a valid entranceticket
  • Sign up: Not obligatory, but appreciated. The application form you can find here.

About the lecture series:

This lecture is part of the lecture program surrounding the exhibition David Bailly – Time, death and vanity, which we organise in collaboration with Studium Generale. The other lectures take place on:

To overview