Jordaens was Antwerp’s most important artist at that point, following Rubens’s death in 1640 and that of Van Dyck in 1641. Johannes Meyssens (1616–1670) published a portrait of Jacob Jordaens in his Images de divers hommes d’esprit sublime, a print now considered an iconic image of the artist. It reproduced a painted self-portrait by Jordaens that can be seen today at the Staatsgalerie in Neuburg-an-der-Donau.
The work being shown in the Rubens House, is a studio replica, with finishing touches by Jordaens. Acquisition of the portrait enables the museum and the King Baudouin Foundation to show Jordaens the way he really was, self-confident but modest. It also makes the Rubens House the only museum north of the Alps that can show self-portraits of Rubens, Van Dyck and Jordaens.