Object data
oil on canvas
support: height 100 cm × width 132.5 cm
Jacob van Loo (attributed to)
Portrait of the Meebeeck Cruywagen Family near the Gate of their Country Home on Uitweg near Amsterdam
c. 1640 - c. 1645
Inscriptions
- inscription, on the reverse: De Familieportretten verbeeld voor hunne hofstede aan den Hoge Dijk buiten den Haarlemmerpoort te Amsterdam, van het geslagt van Meebeek Kruywagen, huisvrouw van Jan Troost, curator der desolate boedelkamer te Amsterdam. Zij is begraven den 15 december 1699 in de N. Kerk en was de moeder van Cornelis Troost, kunstschilder (The family of [Barbara] Meebeeck Cruywagen, wife of Jan Troost, trustee of the Bankruptcy Chamber of Amsterdam, portrayed in front of their manor house on Hoge Dijk beyond the Haarlemmerpoort in Amsterdam. She was buried on 15 December 1699 in the Nieuwe Kerk and was the mother of Cornelis Troost, painter)
Technical notes
Support The plain-weave canvas has been wax-resin lined. All tacking edges have been preserved. Clear cusping is present at the top and on left and right, and vague cusping at the bottom.
Preparatory layers The double ground extends over the tacking edges. The first, red layer consists of red earth pigments. The second, grey layer is composed of lead white, probably some chalk, carbon black and yellow iron oxide.
Underdrawing No underdrawing could be detected with the naked eye or infrared reflectography.
Paint layers The paint extends up to the tacking edges. The sitters were left in reserve in the background, and the trees and the rooftop in the sky. The foliage at the outlines of the trees was applied over the sky and the roof was made larger than its reserve, extending over the sky. The paint layers are thick and opaque with soft transitions between the different passages of colour. The clothing was constructed with a wet-in-wet undermodelling, with smoothly blended light and dark parts. More shadows and light areas were placed in several layers on top of this, in what appear to be long, single brushstrokes, following the forms of the folds. Cool, yellowish-grey shadows were added in the flesh colours to enhance definition, and a bright yellow was used for the reflections at the bottom right edges of the faces. Fine lines and dots of paint indicate details and decoration in the clothing, collars and the riding crop and stick held by Cornelis Cruywagen and his younger brother Pieter. Infrared reflectography revealed minor changes to contours. Hendrick Cruywagen’s hat, for example, was originally broader on the right side, and the reserve for Barbara Mastenbroek’s left hand is smaller than its painted version.
Ige Verslype, 2024
Scientific examination and reports
- technical report: I. Verslype, RMA, 6 January 2010
- infrared reflectography: I. Verslype, RMA, 7 January 2010
- paint samples: I. Verslype, RMA, nos. SK-A-81/1-2, 7 January 2010
Literature scientific examination and reports
K. Groen, ‘Tables of Grounds in Rembrandt’s Workshop and in Paintings by his Contemporaries’, in E. van de Wetering et al., A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, IV: The Self-Portraits, Dordrecht 2005, pp. 660-77, esp. pp. 676-77
Condition
Fair. Old repaired tears are visible in Hendrick Cruywagen’s coat and right leg. There are discoloured retouchings on the right-hand part of his cloak, beneath his feet, and in the trees in the left background. The thick varnish has severely yellowed and saturates poorly.
Conservation
- W.A. Hopman, 1872: glue lining removed; canvas flattened and relined with resin, copaiba balsam and Venetian turpentine; copaiba balsam applied; varnish regenerated
- conservator unknown, 1920: varnish mechanically removed; varnish regenerated
Provenance
? Commissioned by or for Hendrick Jansz Cruywagen (1598-1659/61), Amsterdam; ? his son, Cornelis Meebeeck Cruywagen (1628-1674), Amsterdam and The Hague; ? his daughter, Barbara Meebeeck Cruywagen (1671-1699), The Hague and Amsterdam; ? her husband, Joannes Troost (1671-c. 1719), Amsterdam;1 ? his son, Cornelis Troost (1696-1750), Amsterdam;…; anonymous sale, Amsterdam (H. de Winter and J. Yver), 8 September 1773, no. 29, as Bartholomeus van der Helst (‘Een Kapitael Stuk, verbeeldende een Buiten plaats, op welke zich een Familie vertoont.-- een Wagen, met een Paard bespannen, word door een Jongeling vastgehouden; scheinende een ander die op de Wagen zit, deszelfs Broeder te zyn. Voor de Wagen spelen twee Jongetjes met een Bokje, daarnaast zit een oude Vrouw, verzeld van twee jonge Kinderen, en ter regter zyde dezelve staat een bejaard Man die zyn Vrouw by de hand houd: ziende men ter linker zyde, in ’t verschiet, de Stad Amsterdam. Doek h. 39 b. 51 duim [100 x 131 cm]’.), fl. 205, to Jan Schouten;…; collection Cornelis Ploos van Amstel (1726-1798), Amsterdam, as Bartholomeus van der Helst;2 his probate inventory, 19 March 1799 (‘Een Schildery van Een familie voor deszelfs Hofsteede aan de Hogendyk buyten de Haarlemmerpoort te Amsterdam, zynde ’t geslagt van Meebeek Kruywagen waar van de Laastlevende was Barbara Kruywagen huysvrouw van Jan Troost, de Moeder van den Konstschilder Cornelis Troost, door een oud Meester. fl. 50.’);3…; from Alida Stulen (1755/56-1828), Amsterdam, widow of Willem Constantijn Schol (1760-1816), fl. 600, to the museum, as Jacob Gerritsz Cuyp, 18274
Object number: SK-A-81
Copyright: Public domain
The artist
Jacob van Loo (Sluis 1614 - Paris 1670)
A baptismal record for Jacob van Loo has not survived, but his age and place of birth are consistently stated in a number of documents, including his wedding banns, according to which he was born in the small town of Sluis in the province of Zeeland in 1614. His father was a notary and both of his parents were active as real estate brokers. In addition to Sluis, Van Loo spent his childhood in Vlissingen and Middelburg. Nothing is known about his training but, because his earliest works are portraits, he may have received instruction from a portraitist in Middelburg, such as Salomon Mesdach (active 1617-32), or perhaps one in nearby Antwerp, such as Cornelis Willemsz Eversdijck (1583-1649).
The first mention of Van Loo is a contract that the Amsterdam merchant and art lover Marten Kretzer drew up in 1635 for two tulip bulbs and 180 guilders in exchange for ten pictures by or obtained from one Jacob van Loo. It is not certain whether this was the artist from Sluis. By 1642, however, he had definitely moved to Amsterdam, for a document of that year records his encounter with a 15-year-old prostitute, who falsely claimed that she acted as his model. In 1643 Van Loo married Anna Lengele from The Hague, herself a painter and sister of the portraitist Marten Lengele.
Van Loo’s earliest signed and dated painting is a 1644 portrait of a family, traditionally identified as that of Rutger van Weert and his wife Maria Beels.5 A depiction of Christ’s Apostles sleeping in the Garden of Gethsemane from the first half of the 1630s, which recalls the styles of Lambert Jacobsz and Jacob Pynas, has been attributed to Van Loo,6 and there are a number of genre scenes in the manner of Anthonie Palamedesz and Pieter Codde that must also be from before 1644. Around 1650, Van Loo, together with Gerbrand van den Eeckhout, introduced a new, very elegant form of the conversation piece, often with sensual and erotic overtones. He also transformed his portrait style from one reflecting the manner of Thomas de Keyser to the graceful Van Dyckian mode that was also practised by his wife’s cousin Jan Mijtens in The Hague. Van Loo’s earliest signed and dated history is Diana with her Nymphs of 1648,7 but he probably tried his hand at mythological subjects well before then, for in 1647 or 1648 Constantijn Huygens placed him on a list of artists worthy of decorating the Oranjezaal (Orange Hall) in Huis ten Bosch in The Hague. Van Loo and Jacob Backer were the only two Amsterdam painters considered by Huygens, but ultimately neither participated in the project. In the first half of the 1650s Van Loo concentrated on mythological scenes featuring nude figures in a style indebted to that of Jacob van Campen and Jacob Backer. The latter’s work also informed his tronies in this period. In 1652 Van Loo acquired Amsterdam citizenship in the hope of receiving a commission for the new Town Hall that was being built at the time. It was not forthcoming, however. Jan Vos included him among the 15 most important artists in Amsterdam in his 1654 poem Zeege der Schilderkunst (Triumph of Painting). In 1658 and 1659 Van Loo executed group portraits of the regents and regentesses of the Alms, Poor and Work House in Haarlem.8
In the autumn of 1660 Van Loo was involved in a fight with a belligerent wine merchant named Hendrik Breda, whom he fatally stabbed in the stomach. The artist was twice summoned to appear before the Amsterdam city sheriff, but failed to show up. On 7 July 1661 he was sentenced in absentia to exile for life from the provinces of Holland and West Friesland and his belongings there were confiscated. His sizeable possessions in Zeeland, which he had inherited from his parents, were spared, however. Van Loo fled to Paris, where he was admitted to the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture in 1663, and concentrated on portraiture, now influenced by the work of Philippe de Champaigne and Claude Lefèbvre. Despite his banishment, he received numerous portrait commissions from compatriots connected to the embassy of the Dutch Republic in Paris. His clientele also included members of Parisian high society and the French court. A portrait of Louis XIV and his family is now known only from a copy.9 Another group portrait, of Paris city councillors, was probably destroyed during the Revolution. Van Loo never took French citizenship. He died in Paris on 26 November 1670 and was buried in the Protestant cemetery of Saint-Germain-des-Prés.
Van Loo’s eclectic oeuvre consists of around 150 works. According to Houbraken, Eglon van der Neer (1635/36-1703) was apprenticed to him in Amsterdam. Van Loo also undoubtedly taught his sons Abraham (Louis) Vanloo (1652-1712) and Johannes (Jean) Vanloo (1654-?), both of whom established themselves as painters in France. Abraham’s sons and grandsons were among the leading eighteenth-century French artists.
Jonathan Bikker, 2024
References
A. Houbraken, De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen, III, Amsterdam 1721, p. 172; P. Scheltema, Rembrand: Redevoering over het leven en de verdiensten van Rembrand van Rijn, met eene menigte geschiedkundige bijlagen meerendeels uit echter bronnen geput, Amsterdam 1853, p. 69; A. Bredius, ‘Waarom Jacob van Loo in 1660 Amsterdam verliet’, Oud-Holland 34 (1916), pp. 47-52; U. Thieme and F. Becker (eds.), Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, XXIII, Leipzig 1929, pp. 363-64; J.G.C.A. Briels, Vlaamse schilders en de dageraad van Hollands Gouden Eeuw 1585-1630, Antwerp 1997, p. 354; D. Mandrella, Jacob van Loo 1614-1670, Paris 2011, pp. 21-42, 237-46 (documents); J. Noorman, ‘A Fugitive’s Success Story: Jacob van Loo in Paris (1661-1670)’, Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek 63 (2013), pp. 302-23; Römer in Saur Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon: Die Bildenden Künstler aller Zeiten und Völker, LXXXV, Munich/Leipzig 2015, p. 254; E.J. Sluijter, Rembrandt’s Rivals: History Painting in Amsterdam 1630-1650, Amsterdam/Philadelphia 2015, pp. 374-79
Entry
Based on the inscription on the back of the canvas, which states that the Meebeeck Cruywagen family is portrayed here, Van Eeghen identified the sitters as Hendrick Jansz Cruywagen (1598-1659/61) and his wife Barbara Jansdr Mastenbroek (1600-1650) with their six sons and her mother.10 Cruywagen was a sail manufacturer and merchant. He took his last name from a house on Nieuwendijk called ‘De Gulden Kruiwagen’ (The Golden Wheelbarrow), where he lived until about 1631. Later generations used the surname in combination with Meebeeck, the last name of one of his grandfathers. Born into a Mennonite family, Cruywagen became a Remonstrant, and was one of the signatories of the Remonstrant petition of 1628. He also sat for Jacob Backer in 1642 as a member of the civic guard of district V.11 At the time he did not hold an officer’s rank, but later, between 1652 and 1659, he served as captain of district LIII.12 In 1623, Cruywagen married Barbara Mastenbroek, the daughter of a wealthy butcher.
The manor house before which the family is depicted was located west of Amsterdam on Uitweg between the Ringsloot and the Sloterdijkermeer, and had belonged to the Mastenbroeks. Van Eeghen argued that for this reason the old woman should be identified as Niesje Claes (1568/69-1645), Barbara’s mother.13 The youngest child, dressed in a yellow doublet and skirt with an apron, is Rijckert (1640/41-before April 1666).14 His brother Jacob (1638/39-after 1678) stands between him and their grandmother, leaning with his hand on her lap. The next child in age is Claes (1633/36-after 1666), who is seated in the cart. Then follows Pieter (1632/33-before 1674), holding a stick, and Jan (1632/33-1681), riding the goat. They may have been twins, as Pieter was 38 when his wedding banns were posted on 6 September 1671 and Jan was 39 when his forthcoming marriage was announced on 30 April of the following year.15 The eldest boy, holding the horse by the reins, is Cornelis (1628-1674). Van Eeghen estimated that he was about 14 years old and dated the painting to around 1642, which is in keeping with the clothing worn by the sitters.16
The portrait was in the collection of Cornelis Ploos van Amstel in the late eighteenth century, and in his 1799 probate inventory the sitters are identified as members of the Meebeeck Cruywagen family.17 Ploos van Amstel’s wife Elisabeth Troost (1730-1790) was a daughter of the painter Cornelis Troost and a descendant of Hendrick Cruywagen and Barbara Mastenbroek. The Rijksmuseum work, however, was most likely not directly inherited by Elisabeth Troost as it appears to have been in an anonymous sale in 1773, where it was purchased by a certain Jan Schouten, probably the artist and dealer of that name. Were it not for Van Eeghen’s plausible identification of the sitters, one would be tempted to conclude that Ploos van Amstel and his wife had simply attached the name of Elisabeth Troost’s ancestors to an anonymous family portrait they had purchased.18 The paintings in the 1773 sale perhaps belonged to a member of Elisabeth Troost’s kin, and she could have instructed Jan Schouten to buy the present canvas.
Acquired by the museum in 1827 as a work by Jacob Gerritsz Cuyp, it was attributed by Bredius to Thomas de Keyser in the 1885 collection catalogue.19 While this type of portrait of a family depicted outdoors was one practised by De Keyser, Oldenbourg’s attribution to Van Loo is thoroughly convincing.20 The rather hard modelling of the sitters’ faces and the intense blush of their cheeks compare well with Van Loo’s signed Portrait of a Family, possibly Rutger van Weert, Maria Beels and their Six Children of 1644.21 The drapery style is also analogous, as is that of the foliage in the background of both paintings.
Jonathan Bikker, 202422
See Key to abbreviations, Rijksmuseum painting catalogues and Acknowledgements
Literature
R. Oldenbourg, Thomas de Keysers Tätigkeit als Maler: Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte des holländischen Porträts, Leipzig 1911, pp. 58-59; I.H. van Eeghen, ‘Het huis De Spaanse Kruiwagen’, Maandblad Amstelodamum 49 (1962), pp. 63-66, esp. pp. 64, 65; I.H. van Eeghen, ‘De familie Meebeeck Cruywagen’, ibid., pp. 79-84; D. Mandrella, Jacob van Loo 1614-1670, Paris 2011, pp. 124-25, no. P. 4, with earlier literature
Collection catalogues
1843, p. 13, no. 64 (as Jacob Gerritsz Cuyp, Portrait of a Family; ‘a patched tear in the background’); 1853, p. 8, no. 59 (as Jacob Gerritsz Cuyp, Portrait of a Family; fl. 1,500); 1858, p. 27, no. 60 ( as Jacob Gerritz Cuyp, Portrait of a Dutch Family); 1880, p. 78, no. 62 (as Jacob Gerritsz Cuyp, Portrait of a Dutch Family); 1887, p. 92, no. 769 (as Thomas de Keyser, Portrait of a Dutch Family); 1903, p. 148, no. 1349 (as Thomas de Keyser, Portrait of a Dutch Family); 1934, p. 154, no. 1349 (as Thomas de Keyser, Portrait of a Dutch Family); 1960, p. 181, no. 1482 A1; 1976, p. 353, no. A 81
Citation
Jonathan Bikker, 2024, 'attributed to Jacob van Loo, Portrait of the Meebeeck Cruywagen Family near the Gate of their Country Home on Uitweg near Amsterdam, c. 1640 - c. 1645', in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/20015946
(accessed 8 December 2025 23:30:16).