Family group with a black man

Family group with a black man is an oil painting on panel created in 1631 by Willem Cornelisz Duyster. The work measures 56.5 cm by 73.4 cm and belongs to the portrait genre. It depicts a family scene featuring a Black man alongside other figures.

The painting has been part of the Rijksmuseum collection since its acquisition, remaining on display there. It was included in the exhibition Black in Rembrandt's Time, highlighting its historical and cultural significance.

Family group with a black man is held in the collection of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, where it has been catalogued as part of the museum's holdings of works by Willem Cornelisz Duyster. Painted in oil on panel in 1631, the work has been included in the exhibition "HERE. Black in Rembrandt's Time," which examined depictions of Black subjects in seventeenth-century Dutch art.

The painting measures 56.5 by 73.4 centimetres and is classified as a portrait depicting a family group that includes a Black man, consistent with the thematic focus of the exhibition in which it was shown.

The painting has remained in the Rijksmuseum’s collection since its acquisition, where it is catalogued as a portrait by Willem Cornelisz Duyster. Its presence in the museum’s 2021 exhibition “Black in Rembrandt’s Time” brought renewed scholarly attention to the work, underscoring its importance for studies of African representation in seventeenth‑century Dutch art. This exhibition highlighted the painting as an early example of a Black figure integrated into a domestic group portrait, contributing to ongoing reassessments of diversity in the Dutch Golden Age.

Willem Cornelisz Duyster, an Amsterdam‑born painter active during the Dutch Golden Age, completed the oil on canvas titled Family group with a black man in 1631. The work is part of the Rijksmuseum’s collection and exemplifies the artist’s occasional turn from his usual guardroom subjects to domestic portraiture.

At the time of its execution, depictions of Black individuals in Dutch art were rare, and they often appeared as servants or exotic figures. Duyster’s decision to place the Black figure within a family group marks an early instance of such representation, offering insight into the complex social fabric of 17th‑century Amsterdam.