Portrait of Abraham Bloemaert

This is the earliest known portrayal of Abraham Bloemaert. He is forty-two years old, and the father of four children. He is calm and amiable in appearance, or, as Karel van Mander described him in 1604, a man of quiet and pleasant character. Although not portrayed as a painter, the countless engravings made after the painting indicate that the man depicted here is in fact Bloemaert. It was painted by his friend and colleague Paulus Moreelse, with whom he established a drawing academy in Utrecht in 1612. Moreelse was Utrecht’s most prominent portraitist of his time.