Object Image

Portrait of Geertruyt Spiegel with a Finch

This picture is one of five portraits painted by Dirck Santvoort of the daughters of the Spiegel family showing the girls as personifications of the five senses. Here, the four-year-old Geertruyt Spiegel represents Touch and holds a finch that pecks her finger. Santvoort, a friend of Rembrandt, specialised in portraits of children. He could be a rather stiff painter, but in this picture he seems relaxed, charmed by the little girl. Her family's wealth is evident in her fine clothes, the pearls in her hair and her gold jewellery, but what catches the eye is her open gaze and amusement at the bird's antics. She too is a bird-like creature, a child of nature.

Finches, and the goldfinch in particu...

1639
Oil on oak
62.7 x 50.0cm
NG3154
Image and text © The National Gallery, London, 2024

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