Ambassador C. Pedersen Lerche with his Staff
José Antolínez
1662
The painter not only signed his work; he also included himself in the company around the table. He appears in the left-hand side of the painting. Antolínez addresses us directly with his firm gaze and a hand gesture that seems to invite us to become part of the assembly. The main character himself, ambassador C. Pedersen Lerche, is the blond man at the end of the table. He extends a hand to address the only figure that seems entirely out of place in this company – a young blonde girl who looks directly out at us as she plays with a small dog. This group portrait is inspired by the Dutch group portrait genre, where artists such as Rem-brandt would also occasional-ly imbue their compositions with life and movement by in-cluding a child running and be-ing noisy.
SMK – National Gallery of Denmark, Copenhagen · Image: SMK – National Gallery of Denmark, Public domain · Text: SMK – National Gallery of Denmark (text: Eva de la Fuente Pedersen), CC0