Self Portrait, so-called Lobkowicz

Brandl’s self portrait is the first and most renowned of several surviving portrayals of this artist. Revealing a soberly matter-of-fact concept, a sure pictorial composition and calm modelling, this painting is an outstanding example of Brandl’s art of characterization shown already at the beginning of his career. The painter represented himself as a young cavalier, and his clothes, a proud pose and his palette with the brush distinctly reveal his artistic confidence. The canvas was created at the time when Brandl was employed by the High Judge, Wenzel Adalbert Count of Sternberg (1643–1708). At that time he largely developed his own activity, but simultaneously he was involved in numerous disputes with the painters’ guild. It seems probably that this self portrait reflects Brandl’s need to manifest his position of the court artist and accentuate his superiority over the guild masters.