Deathbed Portrait by Dirck van Delen - The Phoebus Foundation

With Koen Fillet and Leen Kelchtermans, Head of Research and Publications at The Phoebus Foundation.

Pieter van Delen lived for only eight weeks and three days. Yet his image survived in a small death portrait painted in 1626. Who commissioned it, and who chose to portray him on his deathbed? A story of loss, remembrance, and an image created at the meeting point of farewell and love.

Death portrait of Pieter van Delen by Dirck van Delen (1626), showing the deceased child resting on a rolled textile, wrapped in white linen and wearing a laurel wreath.
Dirck van Delen, Deathbed Portrait of Pieter van Delen, 1626

Want to learn more about this story? Read our Phoebus Finding Extraordinary Deathbed Portrait by Dirck van Delen