Bilderdijk as a jurist

This portrait of Bilderdijk was made a few months before his exile in 1795. It shows him as a lawyer. He wears a toga, and the title of the book on the left, close to the curtain, is Jus canonicum [Canon law]. There are also a few objects on the table – such as a drawing pen, a compass and a rolled-up drawing – that refer to the fact that Bilderdijk was a director of the Hague Drawing Academy and also practiced drawing himself. Related to this is the niche that contains a statue of Apollo, the god of the fine arts.

The painter was Cornelis van Cuylenburg, who was also a director of the Academy and may have taken the initiative for the portrait himself. Bilderdijk was not happy with the portrait. He thought it was very stiff and suggested, in his opinion, not only that he had a paralyzed foot (which he actually did, hence the somewhat cramped posture), but also that he had a hunchback and a crippled hand.