Portrait of Caecilia van Beresteyn (1589-1661)

1640

Object data

oil on panel

support: height 70.8 cm × width 60 cm
outer size: depth 6 cm (support incl. frame)

Inscriptions

signature, date and inscription, centre left: Ætatis. 51. / A.º 1640. / M. Miereveld.
inscription, on the reverse: Vrouw Cicilia Paulusdogt.r van Berest.n geb. binne Delft 8 feb. 1589 sterft 29 9 b.r 1661 Begraven in den Briell. Troud’ op 4 feb. 1614 Met d’ hr. Cornelis Briel. raad & rentm.r gener. van d’ Graaflijke domeijnen van den Lande van Voorn & op 26 octob.r 1627 de tweede maal met d h.r Pieter de Witte. Burgem.r der Stad Z-Zee. 26 (Lady Cicilia Paulusdogt.r van Berest.n, b. in Delft, 8 Feb. 1589, died 29 November 1661. Buried in Brielle. Married, on 4 Feb. 1614, Mr Cornelis Briell, councillor and steward-general of the County domains of the Lande van Voorn, & on 26 October 1627, the second time, Mr Pieter de Witte. Burgomaster of the town of Zierikzee. 26)

Technical notes

The support consists of two vertically grained oak planks and is bevelled on all sides. The ground layer is difficult to see. The original paint layers have been smoothly applied with some impasto used for the costume details.

Scientific examination and reports

technical report: G. Tauber, RMA, 9 June 2003

Condition

Fair. A roughly applied overpaint covers the figure’s entire face and cap. The figure’s right shoulder has been extensively retouched. The varnish has discoloured and is blanched, except in the face and cap.

Provenance

? By descent through the families Briell, De Jonge van Ellemeet, Van Citters to Jonkheer Jacob de Witte van Citters (1817-76), The Hague; or ? by descent through the families De Witte, Ockerse, Van Gelre, De Witte van Elkerzee to Jonkheer Jacob de Witte van Citters (1817-76), The Hague; first recorded in the collection of the De Witte van Citters family, in the library of Kasteel Popkensburg, in the early 19th century;¹ bequeathed to the museum by Jonkheer Jacob de Witte van Citters, 1876, but given in usufruct to his sister Carolina Hester de Witte van Citters (1820-1901) and her husband Arnoldus Andries des Tombe (1818-1902), until 1903

Object number: SK-A-2067

Credit line: Jonkheer J. de Witte van Citters Bequest, The Hague

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.² 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

Caecilia van Beresteyn was born in Delft on 8 February 1589, the daughter of Paulus Cornelisz van Beresteyn and Volckera Claesdr Knobbert. In 1614, she married the widower Cornelis Cornelisz Briell, who served numerous civic functions in Delft, including that of burgomaster. Briell died in 1625, and Caecilia married Pieter de Witte (1588-1653), a member of a well-established Zierikzee regent family, two years later. The couple lived in Zierikzee, where Pieter de Witte was burgomaster, among other things.³

Mention of the identity of the sitter in the present portrait as Caecilia van Beresteyn can be traced back only to the early 19th century, when a ground plan was made of the library in Kasteel Popkensburg where the portrait hung.⁴ The number 26 painted on the reverse of the painting corresponds to this ground plan, and the inscription with the sitter’s biographical information that accompanies it probably dates to this period.⁵ The owners of Kasteel Popkensburg, the De Witte van Citters family, were descendants of Caecilia van Beresteyn, and the sitter’s age of 51 recorded on the painting does correspond to Caecilia’s in 1640. Although 25 years older, the sitter does resemble the one in the 1615 Portrait of Caecilia van Beresteyn by Van Mierevelt, that has as its pendant a portrait of her first husband, Cornelis Cornelisz Briell.⁶ Unfortunately, the 19 April 1660 inventory of Caecilia van Beresteyn’s estate does not list any paintings.⁷

Van Mierevelt also portrayed Caecilia van Beresteyn’s parents (SK-A-908 and SK-A-909) and, in 1635, her sister, Margaretha (1583-1639).⁸ The family resemblance between the present portrait and that of Margaretha van Beresteyn is astonishing. The composition of these two portraits is identical, the sitters being shown seated at half-length and turned in three-quarter profile to the viewer’s right. This orientation is usual for portrait pairs and raises the question whether the present painting had a pendant in the form of a portrait of Caecilia van Beresteyn’s second husband, Pieter de Witte. While no such painting is known today, it can be assumed in any case that the Portrait of Margaretha van Beresteyn did not have a pendant, as she was a widow at the time of its execution.

The heavily overpainted face and cap in this portrait make it difficult to judge whether it is an original by Van Mierevelt or a studio copy. An indication that it is, indeed, an original is the fact that no other versions or copies of the present portrait are known. The rendering of the sitter’s dress, moreover, is of high quality.

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. 188.

Literature

Van Beresteyn/Del Campo Hartman 1941-54, II, p. 52, no. 103

Collection catalogues

1903, p. 175, no. 1590; 1934, p. 188, no. 1590; 1976, p. 384, no. A 2067; 2007, no. 188

Citation

J. Bikker, 2007, 'Michiel Jansz. van Mierevelt, Portrait of Caecilia van Beresteyn (1589-1661), 1640', in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.9100

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