An Arie de Vois for Washington

The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., has acquired a self-portrait by the Dutch Golden Age painter Arie de Vois. The work, painted around 1660, depicts the artist in the guise of a hunter, a role that carried erotic connotations in 17th-century Netherlands—the Dutch words for 'hunting' and 'bird-catching' were slang for courtship and sexuality. This acquisition adds a rare and thematically layered example of De Vois's self-portraiture to the museum's collection.

This acquisition matters because it enriches the National Gallery's holdings of Dutch Golden Age painting with a work that reveals the period's sophisticated use of visual double-entendre. De Vois is less widely known than his contemporaries, and the self-portrait offers insight into how artists of the era constructed their public personas through allegory and humor. The purchase also underscores the museum's ongoing commitment to expanding its representation of 17th-century Dutch art beyond the most canonical figures.