This portrait has generally been regarded as a self-portrait by Jan Lievens, presumably on the grounds of a certain resemblance to Lievens' features as recorded in Van Dyck's Iconographie. The style, however, suggests a Flemish painter such as Jan Cossiers.
Cossiers worked for Rubens in the 1630s, developing a free and fluent style. He painted genre subjects, and became one of Antwerp's leading religious painters.