Van Oost's pictures of children count among the most remarkable in his oeuvre and contribute to the innovations in child imagery that appeared in this period, such as Rembrandt's Portrait of the artist's son, Titus (Pasadena, Norton Simon Museum) and Frans Hals' Laughing boy (The Hague, Mauritshuis). In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, artists began depicting children less as miniaturized adults, and instead sought to capture youthful features studied from life, such as the rosy cheeks, expansive forehead and large eyes seen in this portrait. In Bruges, Van Oost capitalized on this celebration of childhood, creating numerous portraits of young people, whose parents used them as a means to express pride in their offspring. With its stark background and varied textures, this painting bears a particular resemblance to Van Oost's Portrait of a boy, aged eleven in the National Gallery, London. As the sitter in the London picture is thought to be Van Oost's son, the intimacy of the present portrait suggests that it too depicts a young boy the artist knew well, capturing so skillfully his innocence and naturalness of youth.
We are grateful to Dr. Katlijne Van der Stighelen for endorsing the attribution on the basis of photographs.