‘Order of the Swan’

In this oil portrait of Bilderdijk, he is depicted with the ‘Order of the Swan’. Throughout his life, Bilderdijk testified to his genealogical obsessions. In Germany he called himself ‘Lord of Teisterbant’ because he considered himself a descendant of a certain seventh-century Count of Teisterbant, whose granddaughter was said to have been married to Elius, the mythological Swan Knight. The Swan Knight was so named because he sailed on the Rhine in a boat, pulled by a swan. Bilderdijk was so fascinated by this story that in 1788 he published the romance Elius and even named a son after him. He also depicted this special genealogy in various family coats of arms that he designed himself.