Portrait of Frederik Hendrik (1584-1647), Prince of Orange, his Wife Amalia van Solms (1602-1675) and their Three Youngest Daughters Albertina Agnes (1634-1696), Henrietta Catharina (1637-1708), and Maria (1642-1688)

Entry

There can be little doubt that this painting, together with Honthorst’s Portrait of Willem II and Mary Stuart (SK-A-871) and his Portrait of Friedrich Wilhelm and Louise Henriette (SK-A-873), originally formed a monumental portrait ensemble for the large west cabinet of Amalia van Solms’s living quarters in Huis ten Bosch. The entire immediate family of Amalia and Frederik Hendrik are shown in the three paintings: the three youngest daughters (from right to left: Henrietta Catharina, Albertina Agnes and Maria) together with their parents in the present painting, and the married children with their spouses in the two double portraits, which were placed on the opposite wall in the cabinet. The formal nature of these state portraits is apparent in the static, standing poses of the life-size sitters, reinforced by the columns behind them. The Van Dyckian ‘sweet disorder’ of the shapeless sleeves and fluttering veils of Amalia and Mary Stuart’s costumes,⁹ the playful putti, and the more intimate gestures and glances of the youngest children, only slightly temper the overall formality.¹⁰ The three portraits are tied together by way of common compositional elements: the balustrades, the open sky backgrounds, the drapery, black and white marble floors, and more or less symmetrically placed columns. Although Honthorst had employed such compositional elements in earlier portraits, it does seem possible, as Van Luttervelt has argued, that in this case the Dutch artist was inspired by Van Dyck’s 1641 wedding portrait of Willem II and Mary Stuart (SK-A-102).¹¹ A balustrade, column, open sky and identical curtain are present in Van Dyck’s portrait, which came to hang two rooms away from Honthorst’s portraits in Huis ten Bosch.

Amalia is the pivotal figure not only in the present painting, but also in the ensemble as a whole. Her centrality would have been all the more apparent before the dimensions of this portrait were altered; Lunsingh Scheurleer has convincingly demonstrated that this, the largest of the three compositions, has been significantly reduced in size.¹² Assuming that the painting was originally the same height as the two double portraits, a total of approximately 40 centimetres has been removed from the top and bottom. Significantly, there is no cusping visible at the top and bottom of the canvas. The floor probably did not end so neatly in the original composition along the join of the tiles, but in the middle of the next row of tiles, as in the double portraits. Nor would Henrietta Catharina’s dress have been cut off at the bottom. Most of the reduction in the height, however, likely occurred at the top of the canvas; the drapery cords above Frederik Hendrik float in the air, and the drapery behind the putto with the laurel wreath and the columns has evidently been painted out. In Lunsingh Scheurleer’s very plausible reconstruction, the drapery on both sides continued to the top of the composition, thereby emphasizing Amalia’s central role all the more. According to his reconstruction, the sides of the painting could not have been cropped at a later date. However, while slight cusping is visible on the right side, none can be seen on the left. Nevertheless, a significantly wider painting, especially on the left side, would have made for an odd composition.

Unlike most of the paintings destined for Amalia’s apartment in Huis ten Bosch, which had already been in the stadholder’s possession for some time, the three portraits were painted specifically for this location; the double portraits are dated 1647, the year the building of Huis ten Bosch was completed.¹³ The large portrait with Frederik Hendrik, Amalia and the three youngest children is probably also from 1647.¹⁴ Huis ten Bosch, including Amalia’s private quarters, came to take on the character of a private mausoleum after the death of Frederik Hendrik in 1647. The three portraits, however, were commissioned before Huis ten Bosch was given this special function. As a number of scholars have hypothesized, the impetus behind the commission was quite likely the wedding on 7 December 1646 of Louise Henriette and Friedrich Wilhelm. It seems possible that their portrait was already completed by 7 March 1647, as the first of the 36 replicas ordered by Friedrich Wilhelm was delivered on that date.¹⁵ Tiethoff-Spliethoff has suggested that the laurel crown held by a putto over Frederik Hendrik can be interpreted as a symbol of posthumous honour, indicating that the painting was completed after Frederik Hendrik’s death on 14 March 1647.¹⁶ However, a laurel crown is also held over the very young Frederik Hendrik by a flying Victory as a symbol of military valour in a painting by Thomas Willeboirts Bosschaert for the Oranjezaal.¹⁷ Ekkart also reasons that Frederik Hendrik was already dead by the time the painting was executed, as his likeness appears to be an update of Honthorst’s 1637-38 Portrait of Frederik Hendrik and Amalia van Solms.¹⁸ Indeed, even Frederik Hendrik’s posture is almost identical in the two paintings. However, it is just as possible that the portrait was painted during the stadholder’s illness leading up to his death, and that this prevented him from sitting for Honthorst. It can not be firmly argued, therefore, that the Portrait of Friedrich Wilhelm and Louise Henriette was executed before the present painting. Yet it does stand to reason that of the three works, the former painting, as the couple’s official wedding portrait, would have been given priority. The ensemble, with the two separate portraits showing Willem II and Louise Henriette with their high-borne spouses, was the first glorification of the success of Frederik Hendrik’s ambitious dynastic policy. It can be assumed that this, Honthorst’s most monumental portrait ensemble,¹⁹ found favour with his patrons, as he was commissioned to portray the sitters again for the Oranjezaal of Huis ten Bosch only a few years later.²⁰

Jonathan Bikker, 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. 138.