Portrait of Cornelis van Aerssen (1600/02-1662), Lord of Sommelsdijk

1658

Object data

oil on canvas

support: height 122.7 cm × width 98 cm
outer size: depth 7.5 cm (support incl. frame)

Inscriptions

signature and date, lower left, on the pillar: Anº 1658 / Adr: Hanneman. F:
inscription, upper left, on the banderole: Corn: Van Aerssen Heere van / Sommelsdijck van de ordre der / Ridderschap van Hollandt / etc. overleden: 1662 (Corn. van Aerssen, Lord of Sommelsdijk, of the order of the knighthood of Holland etc. died 1662)
coat of arms, top left: quartered. 1 and 4: a saltire chequered black and silver over a horizontal black bar, on a gold field. 2 and 3: three black martlets on a gold field. The coat is set in a chain with the medal of the French order of St Michael.

Technical notes

Support The plain-weave canvas has been glue-lined. All tacking edges have been preserved, though partially trimmed. Judging by the fine crack pattern along the left and right edges the bars of the original strainer were approx. 4-5 cm wide.
Preparatory layers The single, off-white ground extends up to the tacking edges. It consists of white pigment particles with a minute addition of red earth and splinters of charcoal.
Underdrawing No underdrawing could be detected with the naked eye or infrared photography.
Paint layers The paint extends up to the tacking edges. A first lay-in was made with a fluid, translucent deep dark brown that has remained visible in the shadows of the face and constitutes most of the moustache. The painting was built up leaving a large reserve for the face, hair and cap, and possibly the hand as well. A broad, blunt object was used to push the blue wet paint of the sky into ridges, laying bare the brown of the initial lay-in, thus creating some of the tree’s branches. The flesh tones were carefully blended for a convincing modelling. Infrared photography showed that the skullcap was originally placed lower on the sitter’s head. Due to the increased transparency of the paint pentimenti have developed in the white collar, which was initially a lace one, and in the little finger, which was originally curled in foreshortening.
Gwen Tauber, 2022

Scientific examination and reports

technical report: W. de Ridder, RMA, 20 August 1997
infrared photography: G. Tauber, RMA, 5 March 2008
paint samples: G. Tauber, RMA, nos. SK-A-1670/1-2, 5 March 2008
technical report: G. Tauber, RMA, 5 March 2008

Condition

Fair. The canvas has a few old, mended tears. The sky and foliage have turned brown. The varnish is severely discoloured.

Conservation

J.A. Hesterman, 1896: canvas lined; varnish improved

Provenance

? Commissioned by or for the sitter; ? by descent to his great-granddaughter, Elisabeth Louisa Pieck, née Van Aerssen (1714-after 1750), Brakel Manor, near Zaltbommel; ? her son, Anne Frans Willem Pieck (1736-c. 1780), with Brakel Manor; ? by whom sold to Wilhelmus Wilhelmus (1720-1771), with Brakel Manor, 1768; ? his niece, Maria Aletta van Dam, née Van Wageningen (1759-1828), with Brakel Manor, 1781; ? her son, Wilhelmus van Dam (1779-1858), with Brakel Manor, 1828, or bought by him; ? transferred to Huis Het Spijker, Brakel; ? his wife, née Ditmars van IJsselvere; transferred to The Hague, 1858; sale, C. Schiffer van Bleiswijk et al. [section dowager of W. van Dam van Brakel], The Hague (C. van Doorn), 14 December 1874 sqq., no. 79 (‘Cornelis van Aerssen, Heer van Sommelsdijk; beschr. in de ridderschap van Holland en West-Friesland, Gouverneur van Nijmegen, Kolonel bij de cavalerie. Overl. 1662.’), probably bought in; on loan from the dowager of Wilhelmus van Dam van Brakel to the Mauritshuis, The Hague, 1886-95;¹ her sale et al., Amsterdam (Lokaal De Zon), 29 October 1895;²…; from the dealer M.J. van Gelder, Amsterdam, fl. 272.30, to the museum, with two other paintings,³ through the mediation of the Vereniging Rembrandt, 12 December 1895⁴

Object number: SK-A-1670

Credit line: Purchased with the support of the Vereniging Rembrandt

The artist

Adriaen Hanneman (The Hague c. 1603/04 - The Hague 1671)

The age of 43 inscribed on Adriaen Hanneman’s self-portrait of 1647 means that his year of birth must have been 1603 or 1604. He was born into a family of Catholics. His father Jan held various official posts in the service of the county of Holland. In 1619 Adriaen enrolled in his hometown The Hague as a pupil of Anthony van Ravesteyn, a younger brother of the far better-known artist Jan van Ravesteyn. His earliest dated painting, which is in the style of his teacher’s circle, shows that he had finished his apprenticeship by 1625. The following year he left for London, where Daniel Mijtens, also from The Hague, was a leading portraitist. It is thought that Hanneman became his assistant, which is made all the more likely by the fact that there is not a single signed work from his English period until around 1632. After that Hanneman may have been active in the studio of Anthony van Dyck, who settled in London in the spring of 1632, for the Flemish master was of great inspiration to him. In 1630 he married Elizabeth Wilson, who probably died a few years later.

Hanneman was back in The Hague around 1638, and shortly afterwards his wedding to Maria van Ravesteyn, a daughter of Jan van Ravesteyn, took place. It seems that he was doing well financially, for in 1641 he bought a house in Nobelstraat, a very respectable address. However, he did not start receiving really important commissions until exiles from England began arriving in The Hague to escape the Civil War and the unrest that followed the beheading of King Charles I in 1649. One of his clients was the future Charles II. Van Dyck’s influence on his painting made Hanneman an important Dutch representative of the international style that was highly popular in The Hague and elsewhere. He trained at least ten pupils. Given his reputation, he was the obvious person to become the first dean of the artists’ society Confrerie Pictura founded in 1656. As he had formerly done in the Guild of St Luke, he served several terms as its warden (1661-64 and 1667-69) and dean (1656-59 and 1664-66).

Hanneman’s output began to fall off after 1660, due to the return home of his English patrons after the Restoration, and the death of Mary Stuart, the dowager of Prince Willem II of Orange who had ordered many works from him, in that year. The artist was also experiencing competition from rising stars like Jan de Baen and Caspar Netscher. In 1669 he married for the third time, his new wife being Alida Besemer, but she died soon afterwards.

In addition to portraits, which make up the bulk of his oeuvre, Hanneman painted history pieces, although few have survived. In the Old Town Hall in The Hague there is an overmantel dated 1644 of an Allegory of Justice which was enlarged by Jacob de Wit during renovation in 1736.⁵ The Allegory of Peace in the assembly room of the States of Holland, now the residence of the First Chamber of the Dutch parliament, is from 20 years later.⁶ However, it is known from details of auctions and archival sources that Hanneman produced more works of this kind. His last picture bearing the year of execution is a 1669 likeness of himself. He died in July 1671 and was buried on 11 July in the Kloosterkerk in The Hague.

Richard Harmanni, 2022

References
C. de Bie, Het gulden cabinet van de edel vrij schilder const, inhoudende den lof vande vermarste schilders, architecte, beldthowers ende plaetsnijders van deze eeuw, Antwerp 1662, p. 412; J. van Gool, De nieuwe Schouburg der Nederlantsche kunstschilders en schilderessen: Waer in de levens- en kunstbedryven er tans levende en reets overleedene schilders, die van Houbraken, noch eenig ander schryver, zyn aengeteekend, verhaelt worden, I, The Hague 1750, pp. 24-28; P. Terwesten, Register off Aanteekeninge zo van de Deekens, Hoofdluijden en Secretarissen der Kunst-Confrerie Kamer van Pictura […], The Hague 1776 (unpub. manuscript in The Hague City Archives; copy in RKD), p. 6; F.D.O. Obreen, Archief voor Nederlandsche kunstgeschiedenis: Verzameling van meerendeels onuitgegeven berichten en mededeelingen betreffende Nederlandsche schilders, plaatsnijders, beeldhouwers, bouwmeesters, juweliers, goud- en zilverdrijvers [enz.], III, Rotterdam 1880-81, pp. 258, 277; ibid., IV, 1881-82, passim; ibid., V, 1882-83, passim; A. Bredius and E.W. Moes, ‘Adriaen Hanneman’, Oud Holland 14 (1896), pp. 203-18; A. von Wurzbach, Niederländisches Künstler-Lexikon, II, Leipzig/Vienna 1910, pp. 646-47; Schneider in U. Thieme and F. Becker (eds.), Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, XV, Leipzig 1922, p. 592; M. Toynbee, ‘Adriaen Hanneman and the English Court in Exile’, The Burlington Magazine 92 (1950), pp. 73-80; M. Toynbee, ‘Adriaen Hanneman and the English Court in Exile: A Further Note’, The Burlington Magazine 100 (1958), pp. 248-50; O. ter Kuile, Adriaen Hanneman (1604-1671): Een Haags portretschilder, diss. Utrecht University 1976, pp. 9-12, 27; Ekkart in J. Turner (ed.), The Dictionary of Art, XIV, New York 1996, pp. 139-40; Ekkart in E. Buijsen et al., Haagse schilders in de Gouden Eeuw: Het Hoogsteder Lexicon van alle schilders werkzaam in Den Haag 1600-1700, exh. cat. The Hague (Haags Historisch Museum) 1998-99, pp. 155-59; E. Löffler, ‘Illustrated Index on Painters Active in The Hague between 1600-1700’, in ibid., pp. 281-362, esp. p. 312; Ekkart in Saur Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon: Die Bildenden Künstler aller Zeiten und Völker, LXIX, Munich/Leipzig 2010, p. 129

Entry

The man portrayed here is Cornelis van Aerssen, Lord of Sommelsdijk, Spijk, Den Bommel and De Plaat, who was born in Paris in 1600 or 1602 as the son of François van Aerssen, the Dutch envoy to France, and Petronella Borre.⁷ Cornelis opted for a military career at an early age. In 1627 he was a captain of horse in the States army, and in 1641 he was promoted to colonel in the cavalry. He was also governor of Nijmegen from 1647 to 1652. After his father’s death in 1641 Cornelis was admitted to the knighthood of Holland. He called the wrath of the province’s States down on his head when he supported Stadholder Willem II in his attack on Amsterdam in 1650. The delegates were only prepared to grant him amnesty if he agreed upon his family’s permanent removal from the knightage roll, to which they had only been elevated in 1613 on the insistence of Prince Maurits. After 1650, in other words, Cornelis’s political and military careers were at an end. Nevertheless, he was one of the richest people in the Dutch Republic, with his wealth in 1654 being estimated at 960,000 guilders. No fewer than 16 children were born of his marriage to Lucia van Walta (?-1674), among them 11 daughters.⁸

Adriaen Hanneman has depicted Cornelis van Aerssen at knee length in this 1658 canvas, and in his capacity as a soldier, wearing armour and with a sword and a commander’s baton. At the time, though, he had long since retired. The artist probably first employed the device of a craggy background with a view through to a landscape in 1649, in his likeness of the English king Charles II, for example.⁹ Hanneman regularly adopted this motif in individual effigies and he undoubtedly borrowed it from his role model Anthony van Dyck.¹⁰ As far as the rocky surroundings are concerned there is a close relationship with the two portraits Thomas Wentworth commissioned from Van Dyck in 1636, so Hanneman could have seen them during his stay in London (1626-c. 1638).¹¹ The white paint on the undersides of the branches on the rock lend depth to the landscape beyond, while the fall of light from the left subtly illuminates the area behind the sitter’s head.

The coat of arms in the top left corner, with a banderole identifying who is depicted here, is of a later date. As it combines the Van Aerssen and Van Wernhout families, it could have been added after 1712, when Cornelis’s grandson François van Aerssen van Sommelsdijk (1669-1740) married Maria van Aerssen van Wernhout (1682-1761). The same applies to the coats, again with banderoles, on the two portraits of François van Aerssen Sr (1572-1641) and Cornelis Jr (1637-1688) – the father and the youngest son of the present sitter – painted by Michiel van Mierevelt and an unknown master respectively.¹² The latter likeness, as well as one of Cornelis Jr’s son François – the aforementioned grandson – by Mattheus Verheijden,¹³ was acquired at the same time as this portrait by Hanneman. The three pictures were once part of a series of nine knee-lengths that came up for auction in The Hague in 1874,¹⁴ and very probably belonged to Wilhelmus van Dam van Brakel (1779-1858). He was a collector who lived in a house belonging to Brakel Manor which was called ‘Het Spijker’, where he had installed a kind of private museum of works of art and objects relating to the history of the estate and its previous owners. One of them was the family of Willem Hendrik Pieck,¹⁵ who in 1732 married Elisabeth Louisa Van Aerssen (1714-after 1750), the daughter of the sitter’s grandson François.¹⁶ With her youngest brother the Van Aerssen van Sommelsdijk line died out in 1793. The portrait collection either passed to the manor by descent or was acquired by Wilhelmus van Dam van Brakel.

Richard Harmanni, 2022

See Key to abbreviations, Rijksmuseum painting catalogues and Acknowledgements

Literature

O. ter Kuile, Adriaen Hanneman (1604-1671): Een Haags portretschilder, diss. Utrecht University 1976, pp. 97-98, no. 54, with earlier literature; Kingma in K. Zandvliet et al., De 250 rijksten van de Gouden Eeuw: Kapitaal, macht, familie en levensstijl, Amsterdam 2006, pp. 42-43

Collection catalogues

1903, p. 117, no. 1104; 1934, p. 119, no. 1104; 1976, p. 259, no. A 1670

Citation

Richard Harmanni, 2022, 'Adriaen Hanneman, Portrait of Cornelis van Aerssen (1600/02-1662), Lord of Sommelsdijk, 1658', in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.8618

(accessed 15 November 2024 07:07:04).