Jakob Smits

The Blond Child depicts a bust portrait of a child aged between 7 and 8. Portraits feature prominently in Jacob Smits’s work, including those of his children, his wife, his friends and commissioned portraits. This is likely to be his daughter, Marguerite, born in 1893. A powerful light illuminates the child’s profile, which stands out sharply against the darkness of the background. The three-quarter pose emphasises this contrast between shadow and light. Certain areas are of extreme luminosity. This work, which is one of Jacob Smits’s most remarkable, allows us to appreciate the Dutch tradition of light rendering of which he is the heir. The light of the Dutch is not as fluid and shifting as that of Turner or Monet. In Jacob Smits’s work, it is a chiaroscuro, akin to that of Rembrandt, for whom he has great admiration. Before transposing a particular lighting effect onto the canvas, he actually realises it in his studio. He does not imagine it directly on the painting. 

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