3-049-523 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Self-Portrait as a Hunter. A hunter and his dog are sitting at the foot of a tree. The man is nonchalantly holding a dead partridge and a hunting rifle. Though it may appear an innocent scene, for Dutch seventeenth-century viewers it had erotic connotations. The words ‘jagen’ (to hunt) and ‘vogelen’ (to catch birds) also referred to courting and making love.