Portrait of the Family of Dirck Jacobsz Bas (1569-1637), Burgomaster of Amsterdam, and Margriet Snoeck (1588-1645)

c. 1634 - c. 1635

Object data

oil on canvas

support: height 134.5 cm × width 248.5 cm

Inscriptions

coat of arms, top left (2x): three mermaids holding two mirrors, two above one, on a blue field
coat of arms, top left (2x): divided vertically. 1: a silver eagle with an olive branch in its beak on a blue field. 2, divided horizontally: A, a silver stork on a blue field; B, three blue bars strewn with eleven miniature silver escutcheons, alternating with three red bars
coat of arms, top right (4x): divided vertically. 1: a silver eagle with an olive branch in its beak on a blue field. 2, divided horizontally: A, a silver stork on a blue field; B, three blue bars strewn with eleven miniature silver escutcheons, alternating with three red bars
coat of arms, top right, second from left: canting arms of a pike on a blue field
inscription, on the banderoles above the coats of arms, top left: 1 Abrah. de Vischer / 2 Magtelda. Bas. / 3 de Vischer / 4 Iacob. Bas.
inscription, on the banderoles above the coats of arms, top right: 5 Dirk. Bas / 6 Margriet. Snoek / 7 Agatha. Bas. / 8 Nicolas. Bas. / 9 Elisabet. Bas.

Technical notes

Support The plain-weave canvas has been wax-resin lined. The tacking edges have been removed at the top and on the right, the ones at the bottom and on the left have been trimmed. No cusping is present.
Preparatory layers The double ground extends up to the current edges of the canvas. The first, orange layer consists of fine orange pigment particles, with an addition of fine white and coarser ochre-coloured, blue, black and red pigment particles. The second, beige-grey layer contains mostly ochre-coloured, coarse white and fine black pigment particles, with a few larger transparent chunks and a minute addition of red pigment.
Underdrawing No underdrawing could be detected with the naked eye or infrared photography.
Paint layers The paint extends up to the current edges of the canvas. The painting was built up from the back to the front and from dark to light, probably using reserves for most of the figures, the edges of which were carefully closed. The ground was left visible in the greys of the wall. Translucent browns, probably part of an initial undermodelling for the figures, can also be detected in the paint surface in a few places, for example just above the fur in the lap of Dirck Jacobsz Bas and around the left index finger of his daughter Elisabeth on the far right. The flat collars of the standing women were almost completely left in reserve in the dresses, with just the tips of the lace trimmings extending over them. The dark costumes were laid in wet in wet, with a dark grey base and a lighter grey and black paint on top. Parts of the dog were reserved, but the tail and legs cover the already finished floor and child’s dress. The floor tiles were done with light grey squares on top of a dark grey layer after which the black for the joins was applied. The lit areas of the skirt of the family matriarch Margriet Snoeck have black dots on a light grey base, the shaded ones have grey dots on black. Embellishments to the costumes and fabric patterns were added in the final stage. A minor change was made to the left front leg of the chair which was positioned somewhat further to the left at first. The opaque paints have a smooth surface with slightly pastose highlights.
Anna Krekeler, 2024

Scientific examination and reports

infrared photography: A. Krekeler, RMA, 29 October 2009
paint samples: A. Krekeler, RMA, nos. SK-A-365/1-2, 29 October 2009
technical report: A. Krekeler, RMA, 2 December 2009
paint samples: P. D’Imporzano, VU Medical Centre, no. SK-A-365/2 (MC-ICPMS, micro sampling), 25 January 2019

Literature scientific examination and reports

P. D’Imporzano, Implications of Lead Isotope Variation in Lead White from 17th Century Dutch Paintings, diss., Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam 2021, p. 106; P. D’Imporzano et al., ‘Time-Dependent Variation of Lead Isotopes of Lead White in 17th Century Dutch Paintings’, Science Advances 7 (2021), pp. 1-14, esp. pp. 5-7 (see doi 10.1126/sciadv.abi5905)

Condition

Fair. A restored tear is clearly visible at lower right. The paint layer has a distinct crack pattern and is abraded. The varnish is very thick, has severely yellowed and saturates poorly.

Conservation

conservator unknown, 1889: canvas lined
H. Plagge, 1962: canvas relined; cleaned

Provenance

? Commissioned by or for Dirck Jacobsz Bas (1569-1637) and Margriet Snoeck (1588-1645), Amsterdam; ? their daughter, Machtelt Bas (?-1681), Amsterdam; ? by descent to her daughter, Theodora de Visscher (1641-1722), Amsterdam, or the latter’s son, Theodore (Dirck) Rijswijck (1668-1729), Amsterdam; ? his daughter, Theodora Rijswijck (1695-1752), Amsterdam; ? her husband, Pierre Balguerie (1679-1759), Amsterdam; ? his son, Daniel Balguerie (1732-1788), Amsterdam; ? his wife, Johanna Balguerie, née Van Rijswijk (1750-1823), Amsterdam; by whom bequeathed to the museum, with 22 other portraits, 1823¹
Or:
? Commissioned by or for Dirck Jacobsz Bas (1569-1637), Amsterdam; ? his daughter, Machtelt Bas (?-1681), Amsterdam; ? by descent to her daughter, Theodora de Visscher (1641-1722), Amsterdam; ? her son, Jan (Jean) Rijswijck (1678-1756), Amsterdam; ? his daughter, Johanna Rijswijck (1723-?), Amsterdam; her daughter, Johanna Balguerie, née Van Rijswijk (1750-1823); by whom bequeathed to the museum, with 22 other portraits, 1823²

Object number: SK-A-365

Credit line: J. Balguerie-van Rijswijk Bequest, Amsterdam

The artist

Dirck van Santvoort (Amsterdam 1609 - Amsterdam 1680)

Dirck van Santvoort was baptized in Amsterdam’s Nieuwe Kerk on 6 December 1609. His immediate family included several painters, for he was the son of the Amsterdam landscapist Pieter Dircksz Bontepaert (van Santvoort) and Truytgen Pieters, the grandson of Pieter Pietersz on his mother’s side, and thus the great-grandson of Pieter Aertsen. It is not known who his teacher was, but it is only logical to assume that it was his father. Van Santvoort may have been active in Rembrandt’s studio in the first half of the 1630s, when the master was collaborating closely with the art dealer Hendrick Uylenburgh. It is also possible that he worked not for Rembrandt but for Uylenburgh. This may explain why he did not join the Amsterdam Guild of St Luke until 1636. In 1641 he married Baertgen Pont, and after her death Trijntje Rieuwertsdr in 1657. Various documents relating to financial transactions and property investments show that Van Santvoort had no money worries. He is regularly recorded as an appraiser of paintings, sometimes together with Uylenburgh’s eldest son Gerrit, who lived near him in Breestraat. Van Santvoort was buried in the Nieuwe Kerk on 9 March 1680.

His earliest dated picture, A Boy Dressed as a Shepherd of 1632, which is the companion piece to A Girl Dressed as a Shepherdess,³ features a pastoral figure in the manner of Jacob Gerritsz Cuyp. A Christ at Emmaus dated 1633 shows that in his rare histories Van Santvoort took his lead from Rembrandt,⁴ some of whose works he copied. However, from the early 1630s on he mainly made his name with likenesses of burghers, which owe much to the art of Cornelis van der Voort and Nicolaes Eliasz Pickenoy. These paintings are adequately executed in a polished yet sometimes slightly naive style without much in the way of embellishment. They are largely distinguished by his rendering of lace. In addition to major commissions for group portraits, such as The Regentesses and Housemistresses of the Spinning House of 1638⁵ and The Directors of the Serge Cloth Industry of 1643,⁶ it is Van Santvoort’s likenesses of children that display his gifts to best effect. His last dated works, which include the Portrait of Otto van Vollenhoven with his Wife Appolonia Bogaert and their Daughter Maria,⁷ are from 1645, so he was active as a painter for only about a decade. He is recorded as a warden of the Amsterdam Guild of St Luke in 1658 and again in 1672, but that could have been due to his occupation as an art dealer.

Gerbrand Korevaar, 2024

References
A.D. de Vries, ‘Biografische aanteekeningen betreffende voornamelijk Amsterdamsche schilders, plaatsnijders, enz. en hunne verwanten’, Oud Holland 3 (1885), pp. 55-80, 135-60, 223-40, 303-12, esp. p. 312; ibid., 4 (1886), pp. 71-80, 135-44, 215-24, 295-304, esp. p. 73; N. de Roever, ‘Pieter Aertsz: gezegd Lange Pier, vermaard schilder’, Oud Holland 7 (1889), pp. 1-38, esp. pp. 35-38; A. Bredius, Künstler-Inventare, I, The Hague 1915, p. 217; ibid., III, 1917, pp. 768-70; ibid., VI, 1919, p. 1884; Stechow in U. Thieme and F. Becker (eds.), Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, XXIX, Leipzig 1935, pp. 453-54; S.A.C. Dudok van Heel, ‘Enkele adressen van zestiende eeuwse kunstschilders’, Maandblad Amstelodamum 74 (1987), pp. 1-7, esp. p. 5; J. van der Veen, ‘Het kunstbedrijf van Hendrick Uylenburgh in Amsterdam: Productie en handel tussen 1625 en 1655’, in F. Lammertse and J. van der Veen, Uylenburgh en Zoon: Kunst en commercie van Rembrandt tot De Lairesse, 1625-1675, exh. cat. London (Dulwich Picture Gallery)/Amsterdam (Museum Het Rembrandthuis) 2006, pp. 117-205, esp. p. 137; E.J. Sluijter, Rembrandt’s Rivals: History Painting in Amsterdam 1630-1650, Amsterdam/Philadelphia 2015, pp. 293-96; Van der Molen in Saur Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon: Die Bildenden Künstler aller Zeiten und Völker, CI, Munich/Leipzig 2018, pp. 157-58

Entry

The Amsterdam regent Dirck Jacobsz Bas (1569-1637) was a moderate politician with great diplomatic skills who had an exceptional record of service on the national and international stages, as well as being a successful merchant.⁸ He is here shown seated with his second wife Margriet Snoeck (1588-1645), their five children and a grandchild. It was probably in the eighteenth century that the coats of arms and banderoles with the sitters’ names were added at the top to identify the adults.

Depicted on the left are Abraham de Visscher (1605-1667) and his wife Machtelt Bas (?-1681).⁹ De Visscher is pointing at their little boy Abraham (1633-before 1642), the first representative of the next generation of the Bas dynasty. Standing beside the young couple is the only bareheaded man of the company, Claes Bas (1616-1635), who enrolled as a law student at Leiden University on 2 June 1634, and would die a year later in the French city of La Rochelle during his Grand Tour. Standing to the right of Dirck Jacobsz Bas and Margriet Snoeck are their remaining unmarried children, who have been given relatively more space in the composition. First there is Agatha Bas (1611-1658), who wedded the merchant Nicolaes Bambeeck in 1638.¹⁰ Then comes Jacob Bas (1609-1656), who is the only one wearing light-coloured clothing; he married Anna Reael in 1637.¹¹ On the right, finally, is Elisabeth Bas (1619-1680), who would marry Willem Backer in 1641.¹²

The painting descended through the heirs of Machtelt Bas until it came into the possession of Johanna Balguerie-van Rijswijk, who bequeathed it and 22 other family portraits to the museum in 1823.¹³ It is impossible to say for certain whether this means that Machtelt Bas and Abraham de Visscher commissioned the work. The central position of the pater and mater familias could indicate that they were the ones who ordered it.¹⁴ In the doorway in the background is the outline of a figure in a turban, which may be an allusion to Dirck Jacobsz Bas’s position as a director of the Dutch East India Company (VOC), which he helped found in 1602.

Van Santvoort produced several family portraits, so he evidently had something of a reputation for it.¹⁵ Here the sitters are shown full length, as was increasingly the custom in paintings of this kind from the 1630s onwards. It is also conventional that the father and mother are seated while their children stand,¹⁶ for it established the hierarchy within the family. The difference between the parents and their offspring is also reflected in the old-fashioned dress of Bas and his wife and the contemporary attire of the younger generation.

The work's execution date of around 1634 was arrived at because Margrieta (1634-1703), the sister of the little boy depicted here, who was born in August of that year, is missing.¹⁷ However, the painting could also be from 1635, and may have been made to mark the departure of Claes Bas for La Rochelle.¹⁸ Whichever the case, it was one of Van Santvoort’s earliest large portrait commissions. The figures’ poses are a little stiff and artificial, and they have strange proportions due to the small heads. There is a marked difference in the lighting of the various faces, with those of the men, especially Dirck Jacobsz Bas and Abraham de Visscher, being modelled in much greater detail and with more colour. The women’s faces, on the other hand, are flat and contain little colour, making them far less personal.

Gerbrand Korevaar, 2024

See Key to abbreviations, Rijksmuseum painting catalogues and Acknowledgements

Literature

I.H. van Eeghen, Een Amsterdamse burgemeestersdochter van Rembrandt in Buckingham Palace, Amsterdam 1958, pp. 7-8; Blankert in A. Blankert and R. Ruurs, Amsterdams Historisch Museum: Schilderijen daterend van voor 1800, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1975/79, pp. 281-82, no. 397; S.A.C. Dudok van Heel, ‘“Een bordt van de drie coningen daer haer vaders figuer in staet”: Een vroeg portret van de familie Bas’, Maandblad Amstelodamum 82 (1995), pp. 97-105, esp. pp. 101-02; Dudok van Heel in N. Middelkoop (ed.), Kopstukken: Amsterdammers geportretteerd 1600-1800, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Amsterdams Historisch Museum) 2002-03, p. 93, no. 6

Collection catalogues

1858, pp. 188-89, no. 424 (as Dutch School, 16th and 17th century); 1880, pp. 277-78, no. 320; 1887, p. 152, no. 1280; 1903, p. 239, no. 2129; 1976, p. 498, no. A 365

Citation

Gerbrand Korevaar, 2024, 'Dirck van Santvoort, Portrait of the Family of Dirck Jacobsz Bas (1569-1637), Burgomaster of Amsterdam, and Margriet Snoeck (1588-1645), c. 1634 - 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.6775

(accessed 22 November 2024 18:30:40).