Portrait of Claes Allertsz Boelens (1550-1615)

Entry

Claes Allertsz Boelens or Boelisse (1550-1615), also known as Nicolaus Bulius, is recorded as delegated councillor in 1577, doctor of medicine in 1577, bailiff of Hoorn in 1580, councillor and advocate-fiscal of the Admiralty of the Northern Quarter in 1598, and councillor and lawyer in 1598.³ He was the son of Allert Dirksz Boelens and Lijsbeth Dircksdr, and lived in Hoorn all his life. In 1580 he married Weyntje Pietersdr Kies, the widow of Johan Gerritsz van Schoterbosch and the daughter of Pieter Jansz and Brecht Engbrechtsdr Ramp. They had several children, among them Pieter (1582-1627), whose portrait (SK-A-3217) is also in the collection.

The present painting is probably a copy after a portrait that no longer survives, possibly the one that was destroyed by fire while in the collection of W. del Court van Krimpen in Haarlem.⁴ It was probably painted by the same copyist who executed the portrait of Claes Allertsz Boelens’s son Pieter. The date of 1627 on the latter portrait can serve as a terminus post quem for both paintings. The loosely pleated lace ruff indicates that the prototype was probably executed around 1600.⁵

There appears to be an earlier painting beneath the fairly thick top layer of paint. Both the relief and difference in the colour of the paint are quite noticeable. The underlying layer serves as a sort of ground for the visible painting, but wear and the increased transparency of the top layer have allowed the darker underlying paint to show through, most notably in the face. This makes the painting look far darker than it should.

Everhard Korthals Altes, 2007

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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. 426.