Portrait of Aegje Hasselaer (1617-64)

1640

Object data

oil on panel

support: height 69.7 cm × width 60 cm
outer size: depth 9.5 cm (support incl. frame)

Inscriptions

signature, date and inscription, centre right: Ætatis. 22. / A.º 1640. / M. Miereveld.

Technical notes

The support consists of three vertically grained oak planks and is bevelled on all sides. The light-coloured ground layer is plainly visible at the unpainted top and bottom edges. There is much visible brushmarking, although less than in the pendant.

Scientific examination and reports

technical report: M. van de Laar, RMA, 8 September 2004

Condition

Good.

Conservation

H.C. Coen, 1983: complete restoration

Provenance

? Commissioned by or for the sitters; ? their daughter, Brechje Hooft (1640-1721), Amsterdam;¹ ? her eldest son, Jan van de Poll (1668-1745), Amsterdam; ? his son Harmen Hendrik van de Poll (1697-1772), Amsterdam; ? his wife Margaretha Trip (1699-1778); her son Jan van de Poll (1721-1801), Amsterdam;² his grandson Jan van de Poll (1777-1858), Amsterdam, 1802 (stored with other family portraits in his aunt’s house, Herengracht 479 in Amsterdam); his son Jan Stanislaus Robert van de Poll (1805-88), Arnhem (stored with 25 other family portraits in his sister-in-law’s house, Herengracht 450 in Amsterdam); by whom donated to the museum together with 34 other family portraits, November 1885³

Object number: SK-A-1251

Credit line: Gift of Jonkheer J.S.R. van de Poll, Arnhem

The artist

Michiel Jansz van Mierevelt (Delft 1567 - Delft 1641)

According to Van Mander, Michiel Jansz van Mierevelt or Miereveld (he used both forms) was born in Delft on 1 May 1567. He was the son of the successful goldsmith Jan Michielsz van Mierevelt, and received his early training in Delft from two otherwise unknown artists, Willem Willemsz and a pupil of Antonie Blocklandt whom Van Mander simply calls Augustijn. Van Mierevelt became a pupil of Blocklandt’s in Utrecht, presumably in 1581 at the age of 14, for a period of two years and three months. From Blocklandt he learned to handle paint and became accomplished in the art of history painting. After his master’s death, Van Mierevelt returned to his native town, where he joined the painters’ guild in 1587 and served as warden in 1589-90 and 1611-12. He married twice, in 1589 and 1633.

Much to the regret of his father, Van Mierevelt abandoned history painting in favour of the more lucrative genre of portraiture, first adhering to the style of his fellow townsman Jacob Willemsz Delff. However, few of his early portraits have survived, even fewer of his history paintings, and none at all of the kitchen pieces reported by Van Mander. In general, Van Mierevelt’s portraits show great attention to detail and little compositional adventure. His later paintings, however, are more animated, loosely painted productions.

Van Mierevelt’s enormous output (Houbraken says 5,000 portraits, Von Sandrart 10,000) began in earnest with the 1607 commission from the Delft authorities to portray the stadholder, Prince Maurits.⁴ In the same year, he became the official painter to the Stadholder’s Court in The Hague, a position he enjoyed for about a quarter of a century until Honthorst usurped it. In addition to his base clientele in The Hague and Delft, his workshop was regularly frequented by aristocrats and patricians from other Dutch and foreign cities. The large demand was met in part by Van Mierevelt’s assistants, who included his sons Pieter (1596-1623) and Jan (1604-33). The inventory of his shop reveals that he kept a supply of replicas of his most famous sitters on hand. His inventions were also disseminated through the reproductive engravings made by his son-in-law, Willem Jacobsz Delff (1580-1638). Van Mierevelt’s most important pupils were Paulus Moreelse (c. 1571-1638), Willem van der Vliet (c. 1584-1642), Daniel Mijtens (c. 1590-1647) and Anthonie Palamedesz (1601-73). Van Mierevelt died a wealthy man in 1641. His lucrative workshop was taken over by his grandson, Jacob Willemsz Delff (1619-61).

Jonathan Bikker, 2007

References
Van Mander 1604, fols. 281-82; Von Sandrart 1675 (1925), pp. 124, 171-72; Houbraken I, 1718, pp. 46-49; Obreen I, 1877-78, p. 4; Havard I, 1879, pp. 11-82; Obreen III, 1880-81, p. 263; Havard 1894; Bredius 1908 (documents); Gerson in Thieme/Becker XXIV, 1930, p. 539; Montias 1982, pp. 38, 370; Ekkart in Amsterdam 1993, pp. 310-11; Ekkart in Turner 1996, pp. 485-86

Entry

Born and raised in Amsterdam, Henrick Hooft was a son of Hendrick Haek (who later changed his name to Hendrick Willemsz Hooft) and Haesgen Houtloock.⁵ He studied in Leiden and married Aegje Hasselaer, the daughter of the Amsterdam merchant Dirck Hasselaer and Breghje Overrijn van Schoterbosch, on 5 February 1640 in Amsterdam. Hooft was Commissioner of Matrimonial Affairs in his native city between 1645 and 1654. He served as civic magistrate in 1656-57 and 1659-60, and as burgomaster in 1662, 1664, 1672, 1677 and 1678. Through his second marriage, to Maria van Walenburg (?-1679), Hooft became Lord of Oud-Carspel, Koedijk, Schoten and Schoterbosch in 1667.

There can be little doubt that these portraits of Henrick Hooft (see SK-A-1250) and his first wife Aegje Hasselaer (shown here) were commissioned on the occasion of the couple’s wedding in 1640. The sitters are shown half-length and in three-quarter profile. Painted toward the end of Van Mierevelt’s life, this portrait pair is astonishingly vivacious in comparison to the artist’s earlier output. The sitters’ dress creates this sense to a degree, especially Hooft’s unbuttoned doublet and the slit in the sleeve revealing a piece of lace (jabot) and his shirt. Certain passages, such as the sitters’ hair and faces, and Hooft’s shirtsleeve, are also quite painterly. While Aegje Hasselaer has been set before an indistinct, dark background, Hooft is silhouetted against a light background producing the kind of vibrant effect that Adriaen Hanneman and Cornelis Janssens van Ceulen would later often exploit.

Although they bear the 1640 dates of the prototypes, the copies of Van Mierevelt’s portraits made by Nicolaes Maes are obviously much later.⁶ Aegje Hasselaer is shown in a gown dating from around 1675, which indicates that not only were these copies made after her death in 1664, but even after Henrick Hooft had remarried. The latter is shown wearing pseudo-antique dress.

Jonathan Bikker, 2007

See Bibliography and Rijksmuseum painting catalogues
See Key to abbreviations and Acknowledgements

This entry was published in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, I: Artists Born between 1570 and 1600, coll. cat. Amsterdam 2007, no. 190.

Literature

Korevaar in Amsterdam 2002, pp. 126-27, no. 27a-b

Collection catalogues

1887, p. 111, nos. 933, 934; 1903, p. 175, nos. 1591, 1592; 1934, p. 188, nos. 1591, 1592; 1960, p. 206, nos. 1591, 1592; 1976, pp. 384-85, nos. A 1250, A 1251; 2007, no. 190

Citation

J. Bikker, 2007, 'Michiel Jansz. van Mierevelt, Portrait of Aegje Hasselaer (1617-64), 1640', in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.9106

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