Portrait of Philips Willem (1554-1618), Prince of Orange

c. 1608

Object data

oil on canvas

support: height 122.3 cm × width 108.3 cm
outer size: depth 5.5 cm (support incl. frame)

Inscriptions

signature, right, on the base of the column: M. Miereveld

Technical notes

The plain-weave canvas support is composed of two pieces of fabric, and has been lined. The seam is to the left of the figure’s right hand. Cusping is present only at the top of the painting. The canvas was prepared with a red ground layer. The paint layers were smoothly applied with little visible brushmarking or impasto.

Scientific examination and reports

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

Condition

Fair. There is a pronounced crack pattern in the face and hands. The darker passages are slightly abraded. There is an area of discolouration at the figure’s left shoulder, probably due to the use of smalt. The varnish is very discoloured.

Conservation

W.A. Hopman, 1874 - 1974: varnish regenerated
L. Sozzani, 1999: retouchings adjusted; revarnished

Provenance

...; ? estate inventory, Stadholders’ Quarter in the Binnenhof, The Hague, 1632 (‘Een schilderie van prins Philippe Guillaume hoochloffel. mem. door Mr. Michiel gedaen’);¹ ? estate inventory, Huis Honselaarsdijk, 1755-58, in ’t vertrek no. 29 (Antichambre) (‘Filip Willem grave van Buren, prins van Oranje (geb. 19 dec. 1554, trouwt anno 1606 Eleonora de Bourbon, princesse de Condé, obiit 1618), geschildert door Mireveld’);² confiscated by the French and ceded to the Batavian Republic, 1795; transferred to the museum before 9 February 1801;³ on loan to the Oranje-Nassau Museum, The Hague, 1926-32

Object number: SK-A-256

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

Philips Willem was the eldest son of William the Silent by his first wife Anna of Egmond (1533-58). In 1567, at the age of 13, he was kidnapped by the Duke of Alva and sent to Spain. After permission was granted for him to leave Spain in 1595 he returned to the Spanish Netherlands and regained possession of his property there and in France. As a Catholic and potential Spanish sympathizer, Philips Willem was distrusted by the States-General and it was only in 1606 that he was recognized in the Republic as Lord of Breda and Steenbergen. In the same year, he married Eléonore Charlotte de Bourbon, Princess of Condé (1587-1619). In 1608, the couple travelled to The Hague, where Philips Willem met his half-brother Prince Maurits for the first time. After making his ceremonial entry into Breda in July 1610, he resided there and in Brussels until his death in 1618.⁵

Philips Willem is shown knee-length, wearing the luxurious dress of a nobleman and a medal of the Catholic order of the Golden Fleece, which he was awarded in 1599. The composition with the sitter’s helmet on a table next to him was a standard one employed by an Mierevelt for military figures, although here it is unusual in that the table is shown to the left of Philips Willem and the sitter is not wearing a suit of armour. The column in the right background also appears in one of Van Mierevelt’s versions of Prince Maurits,⁶ but again on the opposite side. Another portrait of Philips Willem by Van Mierevelt shows him full-length, with his suit of armour on the floor to his left.⁷ Given Philips Willem’s controversial background, it is tempting to assign a political motive to the fact that he is not shown wearing his armour; Philips Willem never fought on the side of the United Provinces and he was viewed with suspicion in the north because of his Spanish, Catholic upbringing.

None of the known versions of Philips Willem’s portrait by Van Mierevelt are dated. The studio version in Delft⁸ was commissioned in 1620,⁹ that is to say about two years after Philips Willem’s death. An undated painting by Frans Francken II showing a ball at the court of Albert of Austria includes portraits of Philips Willem and his wife Eléonore de Bourbon.¹⁰ According to a 1744 auction catalogue, the ball painted by Francken took place in 1611.¹¹ In Van Mierevelt’s portrait, Philips Willem looks older and chubbier than he does in Francken’s painting, which suggests that he sat for the Delft artist sometime after he sat for Francken. However, the date given for the ball in the 1744 auction catalogue is by no means certain, and forms an unreliable terminus post quem for Van Mierevelt’s portrait. Francken, moreover, might have idealized his dancing subject.

The most logical occasion for Philips Willem to have sat for Van Mierevelt was during the prince’s visit to The Hague in 1608. While the prototype was most likely painted in that year, it has not been possible to determine which, if any, of the known versions was the prototype. The one in the Rijksmuseum might have been painted for Prince Maurits, and later transferred by Frederik Hendrik, another half-brother of Philips Willem, to Honselaarsdijk.¹² A poorly executed copy of Van Mierevelt’s Portrait of Philips Willem at auction in New York in 1984 was accompanied by a pendant showing Eléonore de Bourbon,¹³ and the Portrait of Philips Willem listed in the estate inventory of the Stadholders’ Quarter in the Binnenhof in 1632 was accompanied by a portrait of Eléonore de Bourbon as well.¹⁴ In all likelihood, Van Mierevelt’s original Portrait of Philips Willem also had a pendant.

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. 182.

Literature

Stevens in Amsterdam 2000a, p. 169, no. 5

Collection catalogues

1801, p. 47, no. 9; 1809, p. 46, no. 194; 1843, p. 40, no. 200 (‘in good condition’); 1853, p. 18, no. 174 (fl. 300); 1858, p. 89, no. 195; 1880, pp. 203-04, no. 219; 1887, p. 110, no. 922; 1903, p. 175, no. 1580; 1934, p. 187, no. 1580; 1976, p. 383, no. A 256; 2007, no. 182

Citation

J. Bikker, 2007, 'Michiel Jansz. van Mierevelt, Portrait of Philips Willem (1554-1618), Prince of Orange, c. 1608', in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.9097

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