Rombout Verhulst is best known for his many tomb monuments, but he made also portrait busts, garden sculptures and small-scale works in ivory. His portrait oeuvre is rather small, which demonstrates that there was only a limited market for portrait sculptures in the Dutch Republic. One of his best-known portraits is the marble bust of
Jacob van Reygersbergh dated 1671, now in the
Getty Museum in
Los Angeles. A terracotta study for this work is in the Rijksmuseum and it differs from the marble version only in details. This portrait bust shows Verhulst's virtuosity and the naturalism of his style. He removed any tendency to idealize the sitter in this work. In his terracotta portraits he was able to create a living presence through his sensitive handling of the physiognomy and a correct evocation of the sitter's personality. In addition to the monumental commissions he completed, Verhulst made small-scale ivory carvings, a specialty for which his home town Mechelen was particularly known. A small ivory
Virgin and Child held in the
Rijksmuseum shows his skill in this regard. He has carved the thick, wavy locks of hair of the chubby Christ Child and the heavy drapery with such realism that they appear almost tangible. Although his style was indebted to Artus Quellinus, he did not completely adopt Quellinus' classicist tendencies. Verhulst's work is warmer in conception and executed with greater refinement and therein resembles more that of the Antwerp sculptors from the circle of
Peter Paul Rubens, including
Johannes van Mildert and Lucas Faydherbe. His work was usually more realistic than that of Quellinus and is less dramatic. ==Selected works==