A home grown discovery
February 23 2012
Picture: Philip Mould
We've just sold this, so I thought I'd put it on the site before it disappears into a private collection: a newly discovered self-portrait by Michael Dahl (1659-1743). Dahl, born in Sweden, was probably Sir Godfrey Kneller's nearest rival in England in the late 17th and early 18th Centuries. We found this in a country auction catalogued, like so many Dahls these days, as attributed to Kneller. Like many self-portraits, it is unfinished. It is not as striking as Dahl's earlier self-portrait, which is one of the finest works in the National Portrait Gallery, but gives a good indication of what he was capable of. The hand is particularly good. Most artists are at their best, I find, when they're painting themselves.
