Produced with the aid of a mould and fired.

…; donated by Jonkvrouw C.I. Six and Jonkvrouw H.M.A.F. Six, ’s-Graveland, to the museum, 1972

Object number: BK-1972-116

Credit line: Gift of Jonkvrouw C.I. Six, 's-Graveland and Jonkvrouw H.M.A.F. Six, 's-Graveland

Lambertus Zijl (1866-1947) made a name for himself with his innovative architectural sculpture designs for a number of building projects overseen by the architect H.P. Berlage: the office of the Dutch life insurance company ‘De Algemeene’ on the Damrak in Amsterdam (1892-1894), followed by two offices of ‘De Nederlanden van 1845’, in Amsterdam and The Hague (1894-1896).¹¹For Zijl’s artistic career, see, for instance: A. Pit, ‘Der Holländische Bildhauer Zijl’, in Dekorative Kunst: Illustrierte Zeitschrift für angewandte Kunst 1 (1897), pp. 72-74; Th. van Reijn in Op de hoogte 24 (1927), pp. 222-25 and idem, Prisma der kunsten 1 (1936, Aug./Sept.), pp. 177-82; R.W.P. de Vries Jr, Lambertus Zijl, Bussum, 1946; A.M. Hammacher, Beeldhouwkunst van deze eeuw en een schets van haar ontwikkeling in de negentiende eeuw, Amsterdam, 1955, pp. 18-22; M. Broekhuis, ‘Ideologie in steen’, in Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek 34 (1983), pp. 195-226; M. Broekhuis et al., Lambertus Zijl 1866-1947, Zwolle 1990; Y. Koopmans, Muurvast & gebeiteld: Beeldhouwkunst in de bouw 1840-1940, Rotterdam 1997, esp. pp. 342-44. Zijl’s prominent role in the Amsterdam stock exchange building on the Damrak (1898-1903) – marking the apex of his collaboration with Berlage – led to the realization of more figurative works of architectural sculpture on a more monumental scale, all inspired by the ideas of the Dutch poet Albert Verwey.²²M. Broekhuis, ‘Ideologie in steen’, in Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek 34 (1983), pp. 195-226. In his autonomous sculpture, Zijl leaned towards impressionism. In his applied work, however, he developed a style derived from a concise, geometrical reduction of form, well suited to Berlage’s robust and austere architectural design.

Zijl also applied a freer style in his portraits, including the present profile self-portrait.³³For Zijl’s portraiture, see I. d’Hont in M. Broekhuis et al., Lambertus Zijl 1866-1947, Zwolle 1990, pp. 181-87. The face is composed of several clearly delineated surfaces that overlap and meet, in which the modelling strokes made with the sculptor’s hands and tools form a manifest part of the portrayal. Zijl was sixty at the time he made the self-portrait, coinciding with an exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam (18 June-10 July 1926) organized in his honour by the Nederlandse Kring van Beeldhouwers (Dutch Sculptors’ Association). The self-portrait was apparently made to be reproduced in a small edition: a bronze version is preserved at the Drents Museum, while a terracotta copy in the Museum het Prinsenhof in Delft is identical to the Rijksmuseum relief. Both were made by the Delft ceramics factory De Porceleijne Fles.⁴⁴Delft, Museum het Prinsenhof, inv. no. PDA 1222. My thanks to David de Haan, Museum het Prinsenhof Delft (written communication, 7 November 2017).

The portrait’s previous identification as the architect H.P. Berlage can be definitively rejected: both the bronze cast in Assen and the Delft relief are documented as Zijl self-portraits; in the latter case by an old newspaper photo affixed to the reverse. Comparisons with other portraits of Zijl additionally confirm the identification’s certainty.⁵⁵Cf. M. Broekhuis et al., Lambertus Zijl 1866-1947, Zwolle 1990, figs. 1 (photo from c. 1925) and 299 (profile portrait from 1922, by Rudolf Bremmer).

Frits Scholten, 2026

A.M.W.J. Hammacher et al., Nederlandse zelfportretten van Vincent van Gogh tot heden (Introduction), exh. cat. Dordrecht (Dordrechts Museum)/Arnhem (Arnhems Gemeentemuseum) 1966, p. 67; M. Broekhuis et al., Lambertus Zijl 1866-1947, Zwolle 1990, fig. 9 (bronze version)

F. Scholten, 2026, 'Lambertus Zijl and De Porceleijne Fles, Self-Portrait, , 1926', in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/20061775