Portrait of Nicolaes (1618-1655), son of the painter, half length, wearing a gold embroidered blue jacket with slashed sleeves and lace chemise

The original, showing the artist's two eldest sons, is in the collection of HRH the Prince of Liechtenstein, until 1945 in Vienna, after that date in the Castle Vaduz (H. Vlieghe, Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard, XIX, vol.2, 1987, p.175, plate 200). An early copy has been in the Gemäldegalerie Dresden since 1742 (H. Vlieghe, op. cit., p.175, plate 202). Since the artist is known to have made numerous copies of pictures in the Gemäldegalerie Dresden during his studies at the Dresden Academy (H. Baudis, Rudolph Suhrlandt 1781-1862, exhibition catalogue, Staatliches Museum, Schwerin, 1987), it is most likely that the present copy was painted after the Dresden copy rather than after the Vienna original. As is further related by H. Baudis, op. cit., Suhrlandt sent some of his painted copies to the Mecklenburg-Schwerin court, to prove his talents. This led Friedrich Franz I to grant him a stipend for further studies in Vienna from 1803 onwards and subsequently led to his appointment as a court painter circa 1810.