Object data
oil on panel
support: height 37.3 cm × width 33.2 cm
outer size: depth 4.5 cm (support incl. frame)
Pauwels van Hillegaert
Prince Maurits Astride the White Warhorse Presented to him after his Victory at Nieuwpoort
c. 1633 - c. 1635
Technical notes
The oak support consists of a single plank with a vertical grain bevelled on all sides. Dendrochronology has shown that the youngest heartwood ring was formed in 1616. The panel could have been ready for use by 1628, but a date in or after 1633 is more likely. The ground layer is whitish. The painting is executed smoothly, with brushmarks visible in the dark foreground and sky. Highlights, executed with small hatchings, define the modelling of the horse.
Scientific examination and reports
- dendrochronology: P. Klein, RMA, 8 April 2002
- technical report: M. van de Laar, RMA, 10 August 2004
Condition
Fair. Some areas of retouching, particularly in the sky, and the varnish are discoloured.
Conservation
- L. Kuiper, 1971: several superficial stains on the picture and wax on the reverse removed
Provenance
...; sale, R. Bernal (†), London (Christie & Manson), 5 (10) March 1855 sqq., no. 676, as Mireveldt (‘Prince Maurice, in gilt armour, on a white charger, with very long mane; an army in the background - 14 in. by 13 in. [35 x 32.5 cm]’);...; sale, Kuhn, Amsterdam (F. Muller), 4 June 1929, no. 68, as A.Pz. van de Venne, fl. 3,000, to the dealer Nicolaas Beets;1 from whom purchased by the museum, 1931; on loan to the Rijksmuseum Muiderslot, Muiden, 1971-80
Object number: SK-A-3125
Copyright: Public domain
The artist
Pauwels van Hillegaert (Amsterdam c. 1596 - Amsterdam 1640)
Pauwels van Hillegaert was born into a southern Netherlandish immigrant family in Amsterdam. This was around 1596, for in a document of 1620 he is said to be 24 years old. The name of his teacher is not known. He married Anneken Hoomis of Antwerp in 1620 in Amsterdam. In 1639 he was a member of the Amsterdam civic guard, and appears as such in a militia piece by Nicolaes Eliasz Pickenoy.2 He was buried in Amsterdam on 10 February 1640.
Van Hillegaert is usually referred to as a ‘battle painter’ in the archives. Today he is better known for siege scenes with princes Maurits and Frederik Hendrik and for equestrian portraits of them than for cavalry battles. He often made several versions of his paintings, and probably worked mainly for the open market and less often on commission for the House of Orange or official bodies. His earliest known work dates from 1619. He may have supplied the figures in a landscape by Alexander Keirincx. His work is closely related to that of Henri Ambrosius Pacx.
His two sons, Francois I (1621-60) and Paulus II (1631-58), became painters too, and were probably his pupils and followers. After their father’s death Francois inherited ‘all his father’s painting implements, likewise the drawings by the same together with all the unfinished paintings’.3
Yvette Bruijnen, 2007
References
Bredius III, 1917, pp. 828-29; Hofstede de Groot in Thieme/Becker XVII, 1924, pp. 93-94; Briels 1997, p. 337; Van Maarseveen 1998a, pp. 83, 86, 103
Entry
This painting shows Prince Maurits dressed to the nines astride a white war stallion with a remarkably long mane. It is probably the horse presented to him after Lodewijk Günther of Nassau had captured it from the Spanish during the Battle of Nieuwpoort in 1600. It bears a striking resemblance to the monumental portrait of that warhorse painted by Jacques de Gheyn II (SK-A-4255), which not only has an explanatory inscription but was also described by Van Mander.4 The background in Van Hillegaert’s painting, with the vague dune landscape and a strip of sea, also appears to allude to Nieuwpoort. Hagen has pointed out that the stallion has some of the characteristics of the Frisian breed, such as the fetlocks. His conclusion that Van Hillegaert portrayed a descendant of the Spanish stallion born as a cross with a Frisian mare is not convincing, however.5 What is important is that Maurits is shown as a victor, with the attributes and landscape referring not just to the Battle of Nieuwpoort but above all to his military power in general. Among other things, this is clear from the fact that he is wearing the Order of the Garter, which was only awarded to him 13 years after his victory at Nieuwpoort.
Dendrochronology of the panel has revealed that the painting could not have been made before 1628, and should more probably be placed after 1633. This makes the likely date of execution c. 1633-35.
There has been some discussion about the attribution of the painting. In 1855 it was auctioned as a Van Mierevelt,6 and in 1925 it bore the name of Henri Ambrosius Pacx,7 after which it came up for auction as a work by Adriaen van de Venne.8 The attribution to Van Hillegaert made in the 1960 collection catalogue has never been called into question since. The painting fits in well with the work securely linked to the artist, with the most distinctive features being the modelling of the horse with short brushstrokes for the highlights, the background built up with green tints, and the countless, strikingly schematic lances.
Yvette Bruijnen, 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. 130.
Literature
Steif 1925, p. 44 (as Henri Ambrosius Pacx); Dumas in Leeuwarden etc. 1979, p. 41, no. 7; Verberckmoes in Brussels 1998, pp. 77-79, no. 83; Hagen 2002, pp. 67-68
Collection catalogues
1934, p. 295, no. 2491a (as Adriaen van de Venne); 1960, p. 135, no. 1182; 1976, p. 275, no. A 3125; 1992, p. 57, no. A 3125; 2007, no. 130
Citation
Y. Bruijnen, 2007, 'Pauwels van Hillegaert, Prince Maurits Astride the White Warhorse Presented to him after his Victory at Nieuwpoort, c. 1633 - c. 1635', in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.8683
(accessed 10 November 2024 08:17:50).