KUPECKY, Jan
(b. 1667, Bazin, d. 1740, Nürnberg)

Self-Portrait

c. 1690
Oil on canvas, 25,5 x 20,5 cm
Szépművészeti Múzeum, Budapest

Two other versions of this picture are known, both of larger dimensions. In Bratislava's Slovenská národná galéria there is a painting with the signature Kupecky pin 1709, and there was another version, sold in 1902 at a Viennese auction, which has since disappeared and is known only from reproductions.

The composition of the three pictures is essentially the same. The Bratislava painting was originally listed in the catalogues as Kupecky's self portrait, and on the basis of an engraved copy of the young Kupecky's self-portrait, made by Johann Gottfried Saiter and Johann Jacob Haid, this attribution seems acceptable: the shape of the face, the mouth and the chin show a clear similarity. The represented person seems to be about 25 years old, and if the picture really is Kupecky's portrait, it could have been painted in Italy around 1690.