All works in Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum

Jacob Adriaensz Backer

Portrait of the Regents of the Nieuwe Zijds Huiszittenhuis in Amsterdam

c. 1650

Object data

oil on canvas

support: height 273 cm × width 314 cm
outersize: height 295 cm × width 333 cm (support incl. frame)

Inscriptions

signature, bottom right (J, A and B ligated): JABacker
inscription, centre left, on the letter: Monsieur / Monsr Isaac Commelyn / Amsterdam

Technical notes

Support The plain-weave canvas has been wax-resin lined. All tacking edges have been preserved. Slight cusping is apparent on the right and left. Imprints of an earlier stretcher are visible on all sides; they appear to correspond to the stretcher in photographs of the reverse before the 1952 lining.
Preparatory layers The double ground extends up to the tacking edges. The first, bright red layer contains large umber-coloured and small black and brown pigment particles. The second, cool grey ground consists of carbon black, large white and some orange pigment particles.
Underdrawing No underdrawing could be detected with the naked eye or infrared photography.
Paint layers The paint extends up to the tacking edges. The figures were held in reserve in the background. The faces and hands were applied in what appear to be one or two layers, efficiently leaving the ground locally exposed, with subsequent dark red glazes to indicate the deepest shadows. A cross-section shows that the hand of the man standing on the left, consisting of finely ground red, white and black pigment particles, was placed in one thin layer on top of the ground. The clothing of the figures was executed wet in wet. The paint layers are rather smooth with brushmarking visible in the white and light-coloured areas. The open brushwork in the background on the left partially allows the ground to show through. The black clothing of the man on the right was applied in one solid layer, also directly on the ground, as a cross-section of that area reveals. The background paint was used to make slight adjustments to the contours of the figures. Numerous changes are noticeable in the positions of hands, gloves and collars.
Ige Verslype, 2023

Scientific examination and reports

infrared photography: I. Verslype, RMA (no image available), 2008
paint samples: I. Verslype, RMA, nos. SK-C-442/1-2, 19 June 2008
technical report: I. Verslype, RMA, 19 June 2008

Condition

Fair. An extensive canvas insert is apparent in the lower left corner. The right leg of the seated man on the left was completely reconstructed over this section. There are discoloured retouchings throughout and the varnish has yellowed.

Conservation

H. Heijdenrijk, 21 June 1911: canvas restretched; keyed out
conservator unknown, 1926: overpaint removed
C.H. Jenner, 1932: keyed out
H.H. Mertens, 1932: keyed out
H.H. Mertens, 16 December 1949: patch applied to reverse
H.H. Mertens, 29 February 1952: blanched areas removed
conservator unknown, 1952: canvas lined; cleaned

Provenance

? Commissioned by or for the sitters of the Nieuwe Zijds Huiszittenhuis, Prinsengracht, Amsterdam; first recorded in the conference room, Nieuwe Zijds Huiszittenhuis, 1665 (‘[…] stichters afbeeldinghe, zeer heerlijck door den vermaarden konst-rijken Jakob Bakker gheschildert’);¹ transferred to the Workhouse, Roetersstraat, Amsterdam, 1 June 1873;² on loan from the City of Amsterdam to the museum since 1885; on loan to the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, 1978-83

Object number: SK-C-442

Credit line: On loan from the City of Amsterdam

The artist

Jacob Backer (Harlingen c. 1608/09 - Amsterdam 1651)

It is thanks to the funeral medal with his age and date of death that we know that it was probably in the second half of 1608 or possibly early 1609 that Jacob Backer was born in Harlingen. He was the son of the baker Adriaen Tjercksz and Hilcke Volckertsdr, and grew up in Amsterdam. His father was a member of the Waterland congregation, a liberal branch of the Mennonites. Backer’s first teacher is not documented, but various facts have led to the suggestion that between roughly 1620 and 1626 he was apprenticed to the history painter Jan Pynas (1581-1631), who lived in the same street. It is known that the two families were acquainted from the fact that Backer’s father was owed money by Pynas’s father and also owned a first-rate Baptism of the Eunuch by the artist. Jacob Backer was also a good friend of Steven de Goor (1608-c. 1660), a pupil of Pynas in the first half of the 1620s, at the time when Backer might also have been taught by him. Houbraken says that Backer trained in Leeuwarden in the studio of the Mennonite painter Lambert Jacobsz. That was probably after his father’s death, from around 1626 to 1632, when Govert Flinck was also studying with Jacobsz.

A remark of Houbraken’s gave rise to the long-held belief that Backer was apprenticed to Rembrandt after he was back in Amsterdam in the early 1630s. However, apart from an artistic influence there is not the slightest documentary evidence for this, and it is more likely that Backer set up as an independent master immediately on his return to the city, where he was to live until his death. An inscription on a drawn self-portrait places him in Vlissingen in 1638.

Backer was a painter of portraits, anonymous heads and histories from the very outset. His earliest dated work is from 1633, John the Baptist Accusing Herod and Herodias.³ Soon afterwards he was given the important commission for the Portrait of the Female Governors of the Civic Orphanage of 1633 or 1634.⁴ This was the beginning of a steady stream of portrait orders, including two monumental civic guard pieces of 1638 and 1642.⁵ Most of his clients came from the wealthy Amsterdam middle class, including the De Graeff, Hasselaer, Bas, Hooft, Velters and De Vroede families. He was held in such high regard that he was also mentioned by various authors, among them Philips Angel, who referred to him as ‘the much-admired Backer’ in 1642. He received a very prestigious request just before his death when he and Jacob van Loo were the only two Amsterdam painters to be invited to contribute to the decorative programme for the Oranjezaal (Orange Hall) in Amalia van Solm’s newly built residence in The Hague, Huis ten Bosch. Neither of them actually took part in the project. Backer became a member of the Remonstrant church in 1651, and on 27 August of that year he died unmarried in Amsterdam and was buried in one of the family graves in the Noorderkerk.

In addition to Rembrandt’s influence, Backer’s oeuvre betrays just as much affinity with the pictures of his teacher Lambert Jacobsz, who in his turn may have introduced him to the works of the Utrecht Caravaggisti. However, it was above all Flemish painting that left its mark on Backer from the 1640s on. His pupils included his son Adriaen Backer (1635/36-1684), Jan de Baen (1633-1702), Jan van Neck (1634/35-1714), David van Stapelen (c. 1626-?), David Eversdyck (c. 1626-?), Johannes Lyster (dates unknown), Wiggert Domans (dates unknown) and Michael Neidlinger (1624-1700). Among those who also have trained with him are Adam Camerarius (dates unknown), Louis Vallée (active 1649-52), Abraham van den Tempel (1622/23-1672), Jan van Noordt (1623/24-1676/86) and Bernard Vaillant (1632-1698).

Gerbrand Korevaar, 2023

References
P. Angel, Lof der Schilderkonst, Leiden 1642 – trans. M. Hoyle and annot. H. Miedema, ‘Philips Angel, Praise of Painting’, Simiolus 24 (1996), pp. 227-58, esp. p. 246; J. Meyssens, Image de divers hommes d’esprit sublime qui par leur art et science debvrovent vivre eternellement et des quels la lovange et renommée faict estonner le monde, Antwerp 1649 (unpag.); C. de Bie, Het gulden cabinet van de edel vrij schilder const, inhoudende den lof vande vermarste schilders, architecte, beldthowers ende plaetsnijders van deze eeuw, Antwerp 1662, p. 130; 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. 178; S. van Hoogstraten, Inleyding tot de hooge schoole der schilderkonst: Anders de zichtbaere werelt: Verdeelt in negen leerwinkels, Rotterdam 1678, pp. 227, 257; A. Houbraken, De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen, I, Amsterdam 1718, pp. 336-38; Moes in U. Thieme and F. Becker (eds.), Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, II, Amsterdam 1908, pp. 323-24; A. Bredius, ‘Leerlingen van Jacob Backer’, Oud Holland 40 (1922), pp. 186-87; J.D. Wagner, ‘Nieuwe gegevens omtrent Jacob Backer, Oud Holland 40 (1922), pp. 32-36; K. Bauch, Jacob Adriaensz Backer, ein Rembrandtschüler aus Friesland, Berlin 1926, pp. 1-4; H.F. Wijnman, ‘De afkomst van Jacob en Adriaan Backer’, Oud Holland 43 (1926), pp. 289-92; H.F. Wijnman, ‘De schilder Jacob Backer te Amsterdam’, Oud Holland 51 (1934), pp. 135-36; H.F. Wijnman, Uit de kring van Rembrandt en Vondel: Verzamelde studies over hun leven en omgeving, Amsterdam 1959, pp. 43-44, 67-70; Horst in Saur Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon: Die Bildenden Künstler aller Zeiten und Völker, VI, Munich/Leipzig 1992, pp. 169-70; P. van den Brink, ‘David geeft Uria de brief voor Joab: Niet Govert Flinck, maar Jacob Backer’, Oud Holland 111 (1997), pp. 177-86, esp. pp. 178-79; P. Bakker, Gezicht op Leeuwarden: Schilders in Friesland en de markt voor schilderijen in de Gouden Eeuw, diss., University of Amsterdam 2008, p. 180; J. van der Veen, ‘Jacob Backer, een schets van zijn leven’, in P. van den Brink and J. van der Veen, Jacob Backer (1608/9-1651), exh. cat. Amsterdam (Museum Het Rembrandthuis)/Aachen (Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum) 2008-09, pp. 10-25

Entry

Since the fourteenth century, overseers of the poor had been providing support for officially registered paupers who did not live in a charitable foundation. That assistance had traditionally been supplied by the clergy, but the city authorities took over responsibility for it in the early seventeenth century. In 1614 they built the Nieuwe Zijds Huiszittenhuis (Outdoor Poor Relief Board) on Prinsengracht, north of Leliegracht, which at first consisted of just a bakery and a peat store. However, the Nieuwe Kerk continued its traditional task of giving essentials to the poor. When the church burned down on 11 January 1645 it was decided to raise a replacement headquarters on Prinsengracht. Distribution was moved there as well, and the first issue of food and fuel was made on 20 December 1649. Jacob Backer very probably received the commission for this portrait of the regents to mark the opening of the new, enlarged building,⁶ which means that the canvas would date from around 1650. It is mentioned by the city chroniclers Tobias van Domselaer and Caspar Commelin,⁷ but it was Wagenaar in 1765 who gave the precise location of where the picture had probably been hanging for over a century: ‘placed against the east wall is a large regent piece that was painted by Jacob Backer in the year 1651’.⁸ Wagenaar also relates that there were two compartments with inscriptions on the same wall that included the names of the overseers portrayed: ‘[…] Lucas Pietersz Conyn, Johan Steur, Rombout Kemp, Claes van Lith, Cornelis Metsue and Isaac Commelyn’.⁹

The standing man not wearing a hat is the housemaster, who is representing the staff of the Nieuwe Zijds Huiszittenhuis along with the matron, shown on the right. The person seated on the far left can be identified as Isaac Commelin (1598-1676, regent 1647-52) from the document with his name on it that he is holding.¹⁰ The overseer second from right has been recognized as the successful and prominent cloth merchant Rombout Kemp (1597-1653, regent 1635-52), who also appears as the pointing sergeant on the right in The Night Watch (1642).¹¹ The seated figure seen in profile might be Lucas Pietersz Conijn (1597-1657, regent 1630-52). He had his portrait painted by Govert Flinck in a civic guard piece of 1645,¹² where he is shown at full-length on the left, and his age and physiognomy in that work correspond closely with those in Backer’s canvas. The standing man in the centre behind the table could be Cornelis Metsue (1607-1661, regent 1644-61), an assumption based on the evidence of his likeness in a smaller 1657 regent piece by Ferdinand Bol that hung in the same room in the Nieuwe Zijds Huiszittenhuis,¹³ where he may be depicted second from the right.¹⁴ No other portraits are known of Claes van Lith (1614-1670, regent 1640-51) or Johan Steur (1613-after 1671, regent 1630-51), so it is impossible to identify them in this painting. They could be the men third from the right and on the far right.

The creation of the present work can be reconstructed quite accurately from two composition sketches (fig. a, fig. b) and five individual figure studies.¹⁵ Backer’s canvas is one of the first Amsterdam group portraits with a plain, light background,¹⁶ but the two outline drawings show that this was not the artist’s initial intention.¹⁷ One is in Munich and shows an early stage in the construction of the painting (fig. a). It is the sole preparatory sheet to be done with the brush. The other six are in black and white chalk on (blue and a sole greenish) coloured paper – a striking technique that Backer used more often for his single figure studies. The Munich drawing can be regarded as a first, rough general sketch from which Backer deviated at several points in the final version. He adjusted the hand gestures, such as that of Conijn (seated second from left, shown from the side), and there are also considerable differences in the positioning of the figures. The second sketch, which is in the Rijksmuseum (fig. b), has a more spacious design and a higher composition, which has raised the suspicion that the picture has been cut down.¹⁸ However, there is neither ground nor paint on the tacking edges, so the size has not been altered.¹⁹ The addition of the chimneybreast to the Rijksmuseum sheet shows that Backer was taking account of the place where the work was to be hung in the room, which was standard practice for group portraits made for a specific location. That chimneybreast is missing in the final picture, but Backer may have overpainted it with the dark strip on the right, which might be a curtain. There is a horizontal fold in the drawing above the regents’ heads, and although it could of course have been added at a later date it is also possible that Backer did so himself in order to indicate the top of the canvas.

After making the composition sketches he turned to the individual figures, searching for an attractive way of grouping them around the table and giving them the correct poses and desired hand gestures.²⁰ The many pentimenti show that Backer made adjustments to the portrait relative to the preparatory drawings right up until the last minute. He gradually reduced the narrative elements as his preparations progressed. There are no attributes on the table apart from a few writing implements, and there is no view through to another room that would explain the function or activities of the overseers, as there is in Bartholomeus van der Helst’s Regents and Regentesses of the Spinning House of 1650.²¹

Gerbrand Korevaar, 2023

See Key to abbreviations, Rijksmuseum painting catalogues and Acknowledgements

Literature

K. Bauch, Jacob Adriaensz Backer, ein Rembrandtschüler aus Friesland, Berlin 1926, pp. 49-50, 100, no. 233; W. Martin, De schilderkunst in de tweede helft van de 17e eeuw, Amsterdam 1950, p. 21, no. 16; Blankert in A. Blankert and R. Ruurs, Amsterdams Historisch Museum: Schilderijen daterend van voor 1800, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1975/79, pp. 21-22; P. Schatborn, Figuurstudies: Nederlandse tekeningen uit de 17de eeuw, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 1981, pp. 90-91; W. Sumowski, Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler, I, Landau/Pfalz 1983, p. 203, no. 76, with earlier literature; P. van den Brink, ‘Uitmuntend schilder in het groot: De schilder en tekenaar Jacob Adriaensz. Backer’, in P. van den Brink and J. van der Veen, Jacob Backer (1608/9-1651), exh. cat. Amsterdam (Museum Het Rembrandthuis)/Aachen (Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum) 2008-09, pp. 26-84, esp. pp. 72-74; G. Korevaar, ‘De regenten van het Nieuwe Zijds Huiszittenhuis door Jacob Adriaensz Backer’, Maandblad Amstelodamum 95 (2008), pp. 31-45

Collection catalogues

1886, p. 2, no. 5c; 1903, p. 36, no. 399; 1934, p. 34, no. 399; 1960, pp. 26-27, no. 399; 1976, p. 93, no. C 442

Citation

Gerbrand Korevaar, 2023, 'Jacob Adriaensz. Backer, Portrait of the Regents of the Nieuwe Zijds Huiszittenhuis in Amsterdam, c. 1650', in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.5861

(accessed 23 November 2024 06:44:19).

Figures

fig. a Jacob Backer, *Study for ‘Portrait of the Regents of the Nieuwe Zijds Huiszittenhuis’*, c. 1650. Brush in grey, 175 x 250 mm. Munich, Staatliche Graphische Sammlung

fig. b Jacob Backer, *Study for ‘Portrait of the Regents of the Nieuwe Zijds Huiszittenhuis’*, c. 1650. Black chalk, 347 x 375 mm. Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv. no. RP-T-1896-A-3144