BOTH, Andries
(b. ca. 1612, Utrecht, d. 1641, Venice)

The Poor Painter in His Studio

c. 1635
Engraving, 330 x 247 mm
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

This engraving, executed by Nicolas Viennot (active 1630s) after the design by Andries Both, depicts the shabby studio of a down-at-heels painter. Dressed in rags, unshaven, and with a bulbous drinker's nose, he makes excuses for himself in the accompanying French poem by claiming that his art is superb but the times are against him. His wife and children know better, saying that the family is in trouble because he cannot resist the bottle and the pipe.