Wigbold Slicher and Elisabeh Spiegel

Portrait of Wigbold Slicher and Elisabeth Spiegel as Paris and Venus.

Biblical couple in a landscape

In his early years Bol used the style of painting as used by Rembrandt. From this time dates this masterpiece called Biblical couple. The landscape on this painting he used from his master in Dordrecht Jacob Gerritz Cuyp.

Self portrait with baret

Self portrait of Ferdinand Bol on the age of thirty years, Four years before he had left Rembandt to work for himself, but the style of his master Rembrandt is evident.

Portrait of Michiel Adriaansz de Ruyter

Michiel de Ruyter (1607-1676) is one of the most famous admirals in Dutch history. De Ruyter is most famous for his role in the Anglo-Dutch Wars of the 17th century.

Aeneas at the Court of Latinus

This busy scene is actually a prize giving ceremony. The man standing n the platform is Aeneas, a Trojan prince and the legendary founder of Rome. On his long voyage Aeneas kept up morale among the men by organizing occasional competitions. Here he rewards one of the captains who has just won a race between the ships. A slave presents the prize, magnificent suite of armor. Aeneas' fleet is anchored in the distance.

Consul Titus Manlius Torquatus Beheading His Son

A dramatic scene: a father ordering his son to be beheaded because he disobeyed an order. The father, on the platform, is the Roman consul Titus Manlius Torquatus. He had ordered that no officer should engage the enemy. When his son, Titus Manlius, failed to obey the consul had to punish him. The dead youth is ling in the foreground. The blood flows from his neck as the executioner displays the severed head to the astonished onlookers.

Elisabeth Jacobsdr. Bas

An old woman is sitting quietly in her hair. On the table beside her is a book. She is wearing a kind of two-piece: a black dress and matching coat trimmed with fur, which is draped elegantly over the chair. In her hand is a handkerchief. This type of costume was fashionable around 1640 but the large ruff and the cap with wing flaps were out-of-date by this time. Nevertheless, the older generation tended to ignore the shims of fashion and continued to wear these garments.

Maria Rey, Wife of Roelof Meulenaer

A woman is standing timidly, her hands folded, on a terrace. Behind her is a balustrade that culminates in a classical column. The terrace looks out over a wooded landscape. The woman is wearing a triple starched collar, wide around the neck, a black cap with pearls, bracelets around her wrists and pearl earrings. In her hand she has a fashionable fan.

Roelof Meulenaer

The man is looking straight at the viewer, self-assured, even a little disdainful. He is leaning against a balustrade over which his cloak is draped. In the background is a wooded landscape, suggesting perhaps that the man, Roelof Meulenaer, is on the terrace of a Country estate. His pose, hand on hip, turning outward, is a gesture normally reserved for royalty.

Self Portrait

Bol present himself as the archetypical man of quality holding a rattan cane in his right hand as he leans nonchalantly on a statue of sleeping Cupid. Posed in a full-bottomed wig and an expensive house coat before a stately column on a base, it is a form of presentation which does not differ from the way in which Bol portrayed his rich clientele.

The canvas is still in its original lime wood frame with auricular carving and festoons which Bol undoubtedly ordered himself.

The Peace Negotiations between Claudius Civilis and Cerealis

Standing on opposite sides of a demolished bridge are two warriors. They re negotiating across the divide. The man on the right is Cerealis, recognizable as a Roman from the standard with an eagle behind him. His men are pictured higher up. The man opposite him is Claudius Civilis, a Batavian. His followers are refreshing themselves in the river in the foreground. Fame (Fama) floats in the sky above. She is crowning the two leaders with laurel wreaths.

Venus and Adonis

The story of Venus and Adonis is taken from the tenth book of Ovid's Metamorphoses. Venus, the goddess of love, becomes enamored of the beautiful young huntsman, Adonis. In Bol's painting Venus and the young Cupid try in vain to prevent Adonis from going hunting, as the goddess has had a premonition that the hunting party will have fatal consequences, and indeed the hunter is killed by a wild boar.

Pharaoh's daughter finds Moses in a rush basket

Portrait of a man, sitting with outstretched right hand

Allegory on education

Margarita Trip (1640-1714), her sister Anna Maria Trip (1652-1681) teaching. To the left two Putti a great book. In the background a peacock and a fountain with a putto on a dolphin. Right the shield of Minerva.

Portrait of Engel de Ruyter, son of Michiel de Ruyter (1649-1683)

The offering of gifts for building Salomon's Temple [detail]

Venus presenting Aeneas with armor from Vulcano's smithy

A Lady with a Fan

Both the style and the costume (particularly the collar) suggest a date in the second half of the 1640s. At that time Bol's portraiture still displayed the strong influence of Rembrandt's work.

An Astronomer

On the table is a celestial globe, and behind it a terrestrial one. The pose of the figure and his abstracted manner indicate that the painting may belong to the visual tradition of Melancholia, made famous by D rer's work, in which it was suggested that a scholar' research would inevitably lead him to an awareness of the futility of his endeavors in the face of death. The medallion in the centre of the man's belt may show a Roman emperor.

The Toper

Louise-Marie Gonzaga de Nevers (1611-1667), Queen of Poland

David's Dying Charge to Solomon

Jacob's Dream

In his later career Bol turned to a more courtly style anda lighter tonality, the faces of his models look rather pasty, and the highlights on the red velvet he loved to paint appear to have been dusted lightly with talcum powder. In a subject picture like the Jacob's Dream Bol captures something of the mood and tender character of Rembrandt's art of this period; but the elegant and noble attitude of the angel, with its long limbs and aristocratic gesture, is foreign to Rembrandt.

Portrait of a Man

Ferdinand Bol entered Rembrandt's studio about 1636-37 and left Rembrandt around 1642 when he began working independently in Amsterdam where he settled for the rest of his life. His early painted portraits are very similar to the commissioned ones Rembrandt made in the late thirties and early forties and in them he successfully incorporates aspects o the transparent chiaroscuro the older master develops during these years.

Governors of the Wine Merchant's Guild

Te many official commissions which Bol received for group portraits of governing bodies are evidence tat he was one of the most successful artists of his day.

Bacchus and Ariadne

Moses and Jethro

Esther and Mardochai

Portrait of an Officer

Portrait of a Scholar Sitting at the Table

Young Woman at a Window

Portrait of an Old Woman with a Book

Judah and Tamar

Elijah Fed by an Angel

The composition and style of this painting reveal the influence of Jacob Jordaens.

Portrait of a Lady

This painting is a bust-length version by Bol of the figure of a woman in his Couple in a Landscape, now in the Court of Justice, The Hague. The sitters of the double portrait have been identified as Hendrick Trip and his first wife, Cecilia Godin.

Petronella Elias (1648–1667) with a Basket of Fruit

Bol was a pupil of Rembrandt in the late 1630s, and followed his teacher's style until the middle of the century. During the 1650s Bol became established in Amsterdam society, enjoyed considerable success as a portraitist and history painter, and adopted a more colorful, fluid, and Flemish style. The elaborate silver basket in the present picture appears again in a double portrait of 1661 in Antwerp.

Moses with the Tablets of the Law

Portrait of a family, An allegory of Education

Portrait of a lady, half-length, in a white satin dress

The angel appearing to Elijah

Venus and Cupid

Man with a book

Crucifixion of Christ

Jacobus Bornwater Dordracenus Pictor painted me pingebat [Jacob Bornwater painter from Dordrecht me] 1554' states left below the picture. A signed and dated religious work from the 16th century is generally rare and in Dordrecht unique. In one painting are here different moments from the crucifixion of Christ unified. Bornwater painted a luxuriance on figures, animals and narrative details, in crisp colors. The picture was supposedly this middle pane of a three-paneled picture. It is stated in Matthijs Balens Beschrijvinge of the Stadt Dordrecht (1677). The panel was then possessed by the Heilige Geesthuis (Sacred Spirit house), a hospital that stood on the place where now the Dordrechts Museum stands.

St. Jerome in his study

The 4th-century Saint Jerome was one of the four Fathers of the Church, and is often represented in the Renaissance. He was famous for the Vulgate - the translation of the Bible into Latin - and is often depicted in his study.

Self portrait with his wife

Van der Burg was known to contemporaries as a gifted portraitist of important families. Van de Berg was also known as someone with a rather riotous living. This self-portrait at the age of 36, probably with his wife, shows his painterly qualities. The stylish decorative character and the colors are clearly 18th century.

Sleeping woman

Paradise landscape with Adam and Eve

Family portrait

A lute player