Otto van der Waeyen in a Polish Costume

This 1656 portrait of Otto van der Waeyen in a Polish Costume at Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen depicts its sitter in the elaborate uniform worn by Polish cavalry—a fashion that had considerable prestige in the Amsterdam elite because of Poland's importance as a trading partner and because Polish costume's exotic richness distinguished it from the sober conventions of Dutch bourgeois dress. Portrait historié in exotic foreign costume allowed Dutch sitters to combine self-presentation with a note of cosmopolitan adventure, associating themselves with distant commercial horizons. Bol executed several such exotic-costume portraits, demonstrating his flexibility in serving clients' varied self-presentation strategies.

The Polish costume provides rich textural variety — fur, brocade, and metalwork — rendered with Bol's careful attention to material surfaces within a composition that celebrates both the sitter's personality and the exotic finery.