Portrait of a Man, probably Augustijn Wtenbogaert (1577-1655)

c. 1643

Object data

oil on panel

support: height 74.2 cm × width 60.4 cm
outer size: depth 6.5 cm (support incl. frame)

Technical notes

Support The single, vertically grained walnut plank is approx. 1.2 cm thick. At some point the left and right edges were trimmed. The reverse is bevelled at the top, and has a large gouge, irregularly spaced saw marks and plane marks.
Preparatory layers The single, white ground extends up to the edges of the support. It consists of tiny white and a few small, dark pigment particles.
Underdrawing An underdrawing consisting of fluid, dark lines of varying shades and thickness defining the contours of the face and hand, as well as flicks of the brush indicating the nostrils, can be detected with the naked eye and infrared photography.
Paint layers The paint extends up to the edges of the support at the top and on the left and right, and almost up to the bottom edge where a strip of ground (approx. 1 cm) is apparent. The warm, thin, transparent brown initial lay-in is visible in areas not covered or only thinly so, for instance the knuckles and the armrest. The painting was built up from the back to the front and from dark to light, leaving the figure and hair in reserve. The black cloak was then added, with a reserve for the hand and collar. X-radiography showed a white triangle (also visible in raking light) just above the sitter’s right shoulder, indicating an earlier version of the collar. It was subsequently painted partly over the background as well as over the cloak, after the latter had been widened by approx. 0.5 cm on both sides. The light, opaque flesh tones were deftly worked up, wet in wet, with small impasted strokes that model the forms through lively shifts in direction and leave some of the initial lay-in uncovered, especially in the shadow of the nose and on the sitter’s left temple. Red strokes add flushes to the eyes and nose. The size and shape of the thumb and fingers were slightly changed. Tiny white highlights in the pupils and along the upper edges of the lower lids were among the final touches.
Gwen Tauber, 2023

Scientific examination and reports

X-radiography: RMA, no. 610, 3 February 1953
paint samples: G. Tauber, RMA, nos. SK-A-582/1-2, 6 November 2008
technical report: G. Tauber, RMA, 6 November 2008
infrared photography: G. Tauber, RMA, 28 November 2008

Condition

Fair. The panel continued to excrete resin for a while after the paint had dried, causing scattered losses of ground and paint, especially in the lower part and along a vertical line from top to bottom at approx. 5 cm from the left edge. A repaired vertical crack runs along the entire length in the middle. Disturbing traction cracks are present in the chair’s back as well as in the parts of the cloak that were painted over the background.

Conservation

W.A. Hopman, 1874: application of copaiba balsam and varnish regenerated

Provenance

...; ? first recorded in the collection in April 1804 (‘van Uitenbogaard, Raads heer voor ’t Hof van Holland, eene der uitvoerigste pourtraiten van Rembrand’)¹

Object number: SK-A-582

The artist

Govert Flinck (Cleves 1615 - Amsterdam 1660)

The exact date of Govert Flinck’s birth, 25 January 1615, is known from a medal issued at the time of his death. He was born into a Mennonite family of some standing in the German town of Cleves, where his father may have been a cloth merchant. According to Houbraken, the young Flinck had a fervent desire to become an artist, which his parents did their utmost to suppress until the Dutch painter and fellow Mennonite Lambert Jacobsz, who was on a preaching tour in Cleves, persuaded them to allow their son to study with him in Leeuwarden. Another of his pupils and Flinck’s ‘companion in art’ (‘gezelschap in de Konst’) was Jacob Backer, who was about seven years his senior.² Having advanced far enough to stand on their own feet, the two young artists went to Amsterdam. Although Houbraken’s text has been interpreted as meaning that they made the move at the same time, Backer is first documented there in 1633, while the earliest record of Flinck living in Amsterdam is from 1637. On 13 March of that year, he bought some prints at an auction and his address was given as the home of the art dealer Hendrick Uylenburgh. Von Sandrart informs us that after a period of study with Rembrandt, which according to Houbraken lasted only a year, Flinck ‘spent many long years with the famous art dealer Uylenburgh, with whom he left many exquisite, beautiful portraits from his own hand’.³ This chronology implies that he had already trained with Rembrandt, or was training with him, when he painted his earliest signed and dated works in 1636.⁴ Vestiges of Jacobsz’s style are apparent in these pictures, making Houbraken’s assertion that Flinck fully mastered Rembrandt’s manner in the year he was taught by him appear somewhat exaggerated.

Flinck’s most accomplished Rembrandtesque paintings date from the late 1630s and early 1640s. In addition to the portraits mentioned by Von Sandrart, he executed histories and landscapes while he worked for Uylenburgh. His documented clientele consisted to a large degree of fellow Mennonites, including his cousins Ameldonck and Dirck Jacobsz Leeuw. It is not known when Flinck stopped running Uylenburgh’s studio and set up shop on his own. In 1644, he purchased two houses on Lauriersgracht (nos. 76 and 78) for 10,000 guilders, installing his studio and gallery on the top floors. In the meantime, he had already received the first of three commissions for group portraits from the Amsterdam civic guard, the Portrait of the Governors of the Kloveniersdoelen of 1642;⁵ the other two are dated 1645 and 1648.⁶ In the latter year he was awarded his first order from an aristocrat, an allegory for the Elector of Brandenburg, Friedrich Wilhelm von Hohenzollern.⁷

In June 1645 Flinck married Ingeltje Thoveling, the daughter of a vice-admiral and director of the Rotterdam branch of the Dutch East India Company (VOC). Although she was a Remonstrant, it was only after her death in early 1651 that Flinck had himself baptized in her faith. He remarried in 1656, his second wife being Sophia van der Houve of Gouda. Houbraken points out that Flinck had many influential friends, including Johan Maurits of Nassau-Siegen, governor of Cleves, the burgomasters Cornelis and Andries de Graeff, and the art lovers Pieter and Jan Six and Joannes Wtenbogaert.

A fully-fledged Flemish Baroque style, inspired initially by Amsterdam artists who had adopted it, first appears in Flinck’s work in 1645.⁸ It is also apparent in the many important commissions Flinck received in the 1650s, which included portraits of the Elector of Brandenburg⁹ and of Johan Maurits,¹⁰ as well as the Allegory in Memory of Frederik Hendrik.¹¹ It may have been the trip that the artist made to Antwerp, reported by both Baldinucci and Houbraken, that encouraged him to continue down this path.

In 1656 Flinck completed the enormous Marcus Curtius Dentatus Refusing the Gifts of the Samnites for the newly built Town Hall in Amsterdam, followed in 1658 by Solomon’s Prayer for Wisdom.¹² In late 1659 he was asked to paint twelve monumental canvases for the Great Gallery of the Town Hall, but Flinck died on 2 February the following year before completing any of them.

A witness stated that a number of assistants and apprentices were working in Flinck’s studio in 1649, which was probably the case in other years as well. Nevertheless, the names of only four, rather obscure pupils are known with certainty: the Düsseldorf painter Johannes Spilberg (1619-1690), who spent a few years with him in the 1640s, Johannes Buns (dates unknown), Bartholomeus Hoppfer (1628-1699) and Steven Sleger (dates unknown).

Jonathan Bikker, 2023

References
J. von Sandrart, Academie der Bau-, Bild- und Mahlerey-Künste von 1675: Leben der berühmten Maler, Bildhauer und Baumeister, ed. A.R. Peltzer, Munich 1925 (ed. princ. Nuremberg 1675), p. 194; A. Houbraken, De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen, II, Amsterdam 1719, pp. 18-27; F. Baldinucci, Notizie de’ professori del disegno da Cimabue in qua secolo V. dal 1610. al 1670., Florence 1728, p. 484; H. Havard, L’art et les artistes hollandais, II, Paris 1880, pp. 71-174, 191-202; D.C. Meijer Jr, ‘De Amsterdamsche schutters-stukken in en buiten het nieuwe Rijksmuseum’, Oud Holland 7 (1889), pp. 45-60, esp. pp. 45, 46; A. Bredius, Künstler-Inventare, I, The Hague 1915, p. 128; Hofstede de Groot in U. Thieme and F. Becker (eds.), Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, XII, Leipzig 1916, pp. 97-100; A. Bredius, Künstler-Inventare, IV, The Hague 1917, pp. 1254-55; J.W. von Moltke, Govaert Flinck, 1615-1660, Amsterdam 1965, pp. 9-12; S.A.C. Dudok van Heel, ‘Doopsgezinden en schilderkunst in de 17e eeuw: Leerlingen, opdrachtgevers en verzamelaars van Rembrandt’, Doopsgezinde Bijdragen 6 (1980), pp. 105-23, esp. pp. 109-10; S.A.C. Dudok van Heel, ‘Het “schilderhuis” van Govert Flinck en de kunsthandel van Uylenburgh aan de Lauriergracht te Amsterdam’, Jaarboek Amstelodamum 74 (1982), pp. 70-90; W. Sumowski, Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler, II, New York 1984, pp. 998-99; W. Liedtke, ‘Rembrandt and the Rembrandt Style in the Seventeenth Century’, in W. Liedtke et al., Rembrandt/not Rembrandt in The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Aspects of Connoisseurship, exh. cat. New York 1995-96, II, pp. 3-39, esp. pp. 16-20; Von Moltke in J. Turner (ed.), The Dictionary of Art, XI, New York 1996, pp. 168-70; P. Jeroense, ‘Govaert Flinck (1615-1660): Eine Künstlerbiographie’, Niederdeutsche Beiträge zur Kunstgeschichte 36 (1997), pp. 73-112; Beaujean in Saur Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon: Die Bildenden Künstler aller Zeiten und Völker, XLI, Munich/Leipzig 2004, pp. 240-43; W. Liedtke, ‘Rembrandt’s “Workshop” Revisited’, Oud Holland 117 (2004), pp. 48-73, esp. pp. 52, 68, 70, note 34; 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. pp. 160-69; R. Lambour, ‘Het doopsgezind milieu van Michiel van Musscher (1645-1705) en van andere schilders in zeventiende-eeuws Amsterdam: Een revisie en ontdekking’, Oud Holland 125 (2012), pp. 193-214, esp. pp. 197-98; T. van der Molen, ‘Das Leben von Govert Flinck/The Life of Govert Flinck’, in E.-J. Goosens et al., Govert Flinck – Reflecting History, exh. cat. Cleves (Museum Kurhaus Kleve) 2015-16, pp. 10-21; E.J. Sluijter, Rembrandt’s Rivals: History Painting in Amsterdam 1630-1650, Amsterdam/Philadelphia 2015, pp. 97-110

Entry

Although it is not known how this half-length portrait was acquired, it was probably already present in the collection before the forerunner of the Rijksmuseum moved from The Hague to Amsterdam in 1808. It appears to be included in an April 1804 inventory of the holdings of the Nationale Konst-Gallery in Huis ten Bosch as a work by Rembrandt, an attribution that was maintained in the museum’s collection catalogues from 1809 until 1846, when Albertus Brondgeest demoted it to a school piece. It was later listed as anonymous, then as a painting by Bartholomeus van der Helst, and finally as a signed Van der Helst before Abraham Bredius correctly came up with the name of Govert Flinck in the museum’s 1887 catalogue.¹³ Bredius was not necessarily a better connoisseur than his predecessors, however. A workshop replica of the portrait bears Flinck’s signature, and although it was only published in 1965, one suspects that Bredius may have had knowledge of it.¹⁴

The rather stiffly painted replica is dated 1643, which probably reflects the date of the original. Flinck produced some of his most Rembrandtesque works in the first half of the 1640s, only to abandon Rembrandt’s style almost completely around 1645. Although less accomplished, the sitter’s face and right hand approximate the loose modelling and broad application of paint in Rembrandt’s likenesses of the elderly. The colouring of the face and hand also reminds one of his portraits, but the exaggerated ruddiness of the flesh tones is characteristic of Flinck. He also employs Rembrandt’s trick of applying white highlights to the lower edges of the eyelids in order to give the sitter’s old eyes a watery appearance. Another Rembrandtesque technique is apparent in the treatment of the left ear, where the undermodelling has been left exposed. In contrast to the face and hand, the fluidly rendered cloak resembles Jacob Backer’s style.

Not only the painting’s attribution, but the identification of the sitter has proved problematic. Until 1876 he was listed in the museum’s collection catalogues as Pieter Wtenbogaert (1582-1660), his occupation usually being given as ‘receiver’. This was then changed to Joannes Wtenbogaert (1608-1680) because Joannes, not Pieter Wtenbogaert, had held the post of official Receiver of Taxes for the Amsterdam region.¹⁵ While a question mark was placed beside this identification in later catalogues, it was finally rejected in 1978 by Dudok van Heel, who pointed out that the man depicted by Flinck is much older than 34 or 35, Joannes Wtenbogaert’s age in 1643.¹⁶ It is, however, consistent with that of Joannes’s father Augustijn, who turned 66 in that year. A documented likeness of him exists in the form of Ferdinand Bol’s 1649 Portrait of the Regents of the Lepers’ Asylum,¹⁷ in which Augustijn is the second sitter from the right, and the resemblance to the man in Flinck’s painting is striking.¹⁸

Born in Utrecht in 1577, Augustijn Wtenbogaert married into a prominent Amsterdam family in 1601.¹⁹ His first wife, Maria Reael (1580-1617), was the daughter of Jan Pietersz Reael, burgomaster of Amsterdam in 1604 and 1612, and receiver-general for the Amsterdam region.²⁰ Augustijn lived in his house on Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal, called ‘De zilveren Reael’ (The Silver Real), until his father-in-law’s death in 1621. In the same year he married Geertruid Geldsack (1578-1634). The couple lived on Kloveniersburgwal (no. 27) in a place named ‘de Salamander’ in 1631. When Flinck painted the present portrait in 1643 Augustijn Wtenbogaert was a widower. Beginning in 1618, he held the post of paymaster of the five companies of regular troops maintained by Amsterdam. He became a governor of the Lepers’ Asylum in 1628. Augustijn Wtenbogaert was a distant cousin and good friend of the Remonstrant preacher Johannes Wtenbogaert (1557-1644). Through his first wife he was also related to the Remonstrant theologian Jacobus Arminius (1560-1609). Augustijn Wtenbogaert was one of the 247 Amsterdam notables to sign a 1628 petition to the burgomasters and city council of Amsterdam seeking legal toleration for worship by members of the Remonstrant movement.

Although the resemblance of the sitter in the present painting to the figure of Augustijn Wtenbogaert in Bol’s 1649 Portrait of the Regents of the Lepers’ Asylum cannot be denied, the possibility that the man depicted by Flinck was in fact Pieter Wtenbogaert should not be dismissed. The earliest certain mention of the work occurs in a list made on 30 July and 2 August 1808 of paintings that were sent from The Hague to Amsterdam when the collection of what would later become the Rijksmuseum changed venues. Flinck’s picture is described as ‘The portrait of the councillor Uittenbogaert’.²¹ In the 1809 collection catalogue this was changed to ‘receiver-general’, but the city of Utrecht was added to the title, as well as the first name Pieter.²² Pieter Wtenbogaert (1582-1660) was indeed a councillor in Utrecht and it is possible that the museum had acquired the painting in the early nineteenth century from his descendants with the correct identification.²³ Nor does his age – he was 61 years old in 1643 – rule him out as a candidate. Moreover, he was Augustijn’s younger brother, which would clarify the strong resemblance of the man who sat for Flinck and the figure of Augustijn Wtenbogaert in Bol’s Portrait of the Regents of the Lepers’ Asylum.

Flinck could have made Augustijn Wtenbogaert or his brother Pieter’s acquaintance through the former’s son Joannes, whose collection the artist often visited.²⁴ The family may also have played a part in Flinck’s receiving the commission for his 1642 Portrait of the Governors of the Kloveniersdoelen.²⁵

Jonathan Bikker, 2023

See Key to abbreviations, Rijksmuseum painting catalogues and Acknowledgements

Literature

J.W. von Moltke, Govaert Flinck, 1615-1660, Amsterdam 1965, p. 114, no. 236 (as Portrait of Johan Wttenbogaert); S.A.C. Dudok van Heel, ‘Mr Joannes Wtenbogaert (1608-1680): Een man uit Remonstrants milieu en Rembrandt van Rijn’, Jaarboek Amstelodamum 70 (1978), pp. 146-69, esp. pp. 158-59; W. Sumowski, Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler, II, New York 1984, p. 1038, no. 699 (as a portrait of Johan Wtenbogaert (1608-1680)); J. Bikker, ‘Vragen bij het Portret van een man uit de familie Wtenbogaert’, Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 54 (2006), pp. 190-95; R.E.O. Ekkart, ‘Govert Flinck and Ferdinand Bol: The Portraits’, in N. Middelkoop (ed.), Ferdinand Bol and Govert Flinck: Rembrandt’s Master Pupils, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Museum Het Rembrandthuis; Amsterdam Museum) 2017-18, pp. 142-63, esp. p. 147

Collection catalogues

1809, p. 60, no. 253 (as Rembrandt, Portrait of the Receiver-General for Utrecht, Pieter van Uitenbogaard); 1843, p. 50, no. 257 (as Rembrandt, Portrait of the Receiver-General for Utrecht, Pieter van Uitenbogaard); 1846, p. 23, no. 230 (‘not by Rembrandt. Also not from the school – the panel broken in two pieces and glued together’); 1853, p. 23, no. 230 (as Rembrandt School, Portrait of the Receiver-General Pieter van Uitdenbogaard; fl. 1,500); 1858, p. 187, no. 420 (as Anonymous, Portrait of the Receiver-General Pieter van Uitdenbogaard); 1880, p. 131, no. 126 (as Bartholomeus van der Helst, Portrait of the Receiver-General Johan Uitenbogaert); 1887, p. 46, no. 366a (as Portrait of the Receiver-General Johan Uytenbogaert); 1903, p. 100, no. 931 (as Portrait of Johan Wttenbogaert ? (1608-1680), Receiver-General); 1934, p. 101, no. 931 (as Portrait of Johan Wttenbogaert ? (1608-1680), Receiver-General); 1960, p. 104, no. 931 (as Portrait of Johannes Wttenbogaert ? (1608-1680), Collector of Taxes of the Polder District of Amsterdam); 1976, p. 229, no. A 582 (as Portrait of a Man, thought to be Johannes Uyttenbogaert (1608-80), Receiver-General of the Amsterdam District)

Citation

J. Bikker, 2023, 'Govert Flinck, Portrait of a Man, probably Augustijn Wtenbogaert (1577-1655), c. 1643', in Jonathan Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.8424

(accessed 1 January 2025 00:42:11).