Modelled and fired. Coated with a brownish-red finishing layer.

The reverse right corner of the integrally modelled socle is missing.

…; from the dealer Mogrobi, Amsterdam, fl. 200, to the museum, 1946

Object number: BK-16011

This small curious bust shows a laughing man dressed in women’s attire, consisting of a robe draped over the shoulders and a cap adorned at the top with a tuft of feathers. Despite his feminine garb, the clearly visible Adam’s apple and the coarse features of the man’s pimply face betray his true sex. The bust possibly depicts a character from a (farcical?) theatrical play. While actresses are known to have first made their appearance on theatrical stages in the Northern Netherlands starting in 1655,¹¹K. Luik, ‘Petticoat Parts’ en de functie van travestie in theater: Een Bachelorscriptie over mannen in vrouwenkleren op het Amsterdamse toneel ten tijde van de eerste actrices binnen het Nederlandse theater, 2016 (unpublished thesis, Nijmegen, Radboud University), p. 2. male actors still commonly played the roles of women – especially those of dubious reputation – well into the eighteenth century. The Rijksmuseum purchased the present bust on the Amsterdam art market in 1946. At the time, it was accompanied by a ‘small bust of a man with beret, of inferior quality’,²²borstbeeldje van een man met baret van geringere kwaliteit; J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, p. 249. a work that possibly formed its pendant (present whereabouts unknown).

Clearly aimed to appeal to the viewer’s sense of humour, this jocular work can be traced back to a small group of farcical busts in bronze and terracotta dating from the second half of the seventeenth century. The origin of this genre was likely Antwerp.³³Castle-Museum Sypesteyn in Loosdrecht holds in its collection two terracotta busts of jocular figures, both measuring c. 5 cm in height, inv. nos. 8648A and B; Limburg Antiquairs, The Hague, formerly held two terracotta busts in their possession (h. 39.5 cm); in 2008, Quist Antiquarian, Dordrecht, had a polychromed terracotta bust in its possession; in 2000-01, two bronze busts depicting jocular characters or actors were in the possession of the dealer Piva & C. sri in Milan; and in 1982, a pair of bronze busts depicting a jester and an old woman were in the possession of the dealer Faber Donoughe, New York. Photos in Object File RMA BK-1959-50-A/-B. Such works playfully toyed with social mores and values and the interchange of status and gender roles, in this instance, by the man’s cross-dressing. The bust displays certain stylistic similarities to works by the Antwerp/Leiden sculptor Pieter Xaveri (c. 1647-1673), to whom several other farcical busts are attributed (cf. BK-1959-50-A and -B). In this case, however, the (integrally modelled) socle type, the diagonal positioning of the man’s shoulders and the style of the drapery point to a later date of manufacture. Just as a highly similar terracotta bust of a young peasant girl held in a private collection, also noteworthy for her scarcely flattering countenance and heartily laughing mouth, the present caricatural bust probably dates from second half of the eighteenth century.⁴⁴O. Schmitt and G. Swarzenski, Meisterwerke der Bildhauerkunst in Frankfurter Privatbesitz, vol. 2, Bildwerke des 16. bis 18. Jahrhunderts vornehmlich Deutsche Barockplastik, Frankfurt am Main 1924, nos. 90 as ‘Deutsch (oder holländisch), 2. Hälfte 18. Jahrh.’.

Bieke van der Mark, 2025

J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 333, with earlier literature

B. van der Mark, 2025, 'anonymous, Bust of a Man in Women’s Attire, Northern Netherlands, 1700 - 1800', in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/20035776