Portrait of Alid van der Laen (1542-1626)

after 1653

Object data

oil on panel

support: height 79.5 cm × width 63 cm
outer size: depth 4.5 cm (support incl. frame)

Inscriptions

coat of arms, top left corner: a silver chevron with three silver, gold-banded barrels on a blue field

Technical notes

The support is a complicated construction of six vertically grained oak planks. Two slender planks were placed vertically on either side. Between them is a horizontal plank extending from the bottom to the figure’s midriff. The figure’s head and shoulders are painted on another horizontal plank with slender vertical extensions on the right side as seen from behind. The support is bevelled at the top and bottom, and slightly on the left and right sides. Dendrochronology has shown that the youngest heartwood ring was formed in 1636. The panel could have been ready for use by 1647, but a date in or after 1653 is more likely. The beige ground layer is visible at the reserves of the cuffs, and forms an underlying tone for the fur shoulder mantle. The entire figure was reserved, the background being painted first. The figure’s hands and face show light brushmarking, and impasto was used sparingly.

Scientific examination and reports

dendrochronology: P. Klein, RMA, 16 July 2003
technical report: W. de Ridder, RMA, 17 November 2004

Condition

Fair. Although not separated, the joins are fragile. There are two old cracks. The paint is lifting slightly at the joins. There are scratches in the paint layers at the face and in the middle of the painting. Discoloured retouchings are present in the collar.

Conservation

H.C. Coen, 1982: complete restoration; join glued at upper right

Provenance

...; collection Egbert Lintelo de Geer (1822-87), Zeist;¹ sale, Gillis van der Voort (†) et al., Amsterdam (C.P. Roos and C.P. Roos Jr), 13 March 1877, nos. 20, 21, as Van Mierevelt, fl. 150, to Meyer;²...; donated to the Koninklijk Oudheidkundig Genootschap by D. Henriques de Castro Mzn and G.A. Heineken, 1877; on loan to the museum from the Koninklijk Oudheidkundig Genootschap since 1889

Object number: SK-C-521

Credit line: On loan from the Koninklijk Oudheidkundig Genootschap

The artist

Michiel Jansz van Mierevelt (Delft 1567 - Delft 1641)

According to Van Mander, Michiel Jansz van Mierevelt or Miereveld (he used both forms) was born in Delft on 1 May 1567. He was the son of the successful goldsmith Jan Michielsz van Mierevelt, and received his early training in Delft from two otherwise unknown artists, Willem Willemsz and a pupil of Antonie Blocklandt whom Van Mander simply calls Augustijn. Van Mierevelt became a pupil of Blocklandt’s in Utrecht, presumably in 1581 at the age of 14, for a period of two years and three months. From Blocklandt he learned to handle paint and became accomplished in the art of history painting. After his master’s death, Van Mierevelt returned to his native town, where he joined the painters’ guild in 1587 and served as warden in 1589-90 and 1611-12. He married twice, in 1589 and 1633.

Much to the regret of his father, Van Mierevelt abandoned history painting in favour of the more lucrative genre of portraiture, first adhering to the style of his fellow townsman Jacob Willemsz Delff. However, few of his early portraits have survived, even fewer of his history paintings, and none at all of the kitchen pieces reported by Van Mander. In general, Van Mierevelt’s portraits show great attention to detail and little compositional adventure. His later paintings, however, are more animated, loosely painted productions.

Van Mierevelt’s enormous output (Houbraken says 5,000 portraits, Von Sandrart 10,000) began in earnest with the 1607 commission from the Delft authorities to portray the stadholder, Prince Maurits.³ In the same year, he became the official painter to the Stadholder’s Court in The Hague, a position he enjoyed for about a quarter of a century until Honthorst usurped it. In addition to his base clientele in The Hague and Delft, his workshop was regularly frequented by aristocrats and patricians from other Dutch and foreign cities. The large demand was met in part by Van Mierevelt’s assistants, who included his sons Pieter (1596-1623) and Jan (1604-33). The inventory of his shop reveals that he kept a supply of replicas of his most famous sitters on hand. His inventions were also disseminated through the reproductive engravings made by his son-in-law, Willem Jacobsz Delff (1580-1638). Van Mierevelt’s most important pupils were Paulus Moreelse (c. 1571-1638), Willem van der Vliet (c. 1584-1642), Daniel Mijtens (c. 1590-1647) and Anthonie Palamedesz (1601-73). Van Mierevelt died a wealthy man in 1641. His lucrative workshop was taken over by his grandson, Jacob Willemsz Delff (1619-61).

Jonathan Bikker, 2007

References
Van Mander 1604, fols. 281-82; Von Sandrart 1675 (1925), pp. 124, 171-72; Houbraken I, 1718, pp. 46-49; Obreen I, 1877-78, p. 4; Havard I, 1879, pp. 11-82; Obreen III, 1880-81, p. 263; Havard 1894; Bredius 1908 (documents); Gerson in Thieme/Becker XXIV, 1930, p. 539; Montias 1982, pp. 38, 370; Ekkart in Amsterdam 1993, pp. 310-11; Ekkart in Turner 1996, pp. 485-86

Entry

Maerten Ruychaver was a gunpowder merchant, and he served five terms as burgomaster of Haarlem between 1602 and 1614. He was Haarlem’s representative on the regional water board for the Rijnland in 1606, and councillor for the province of Holland. In 1570, he married Alid van der Laen, the third child of Anna Boelens and Nicolaes van der Laen, a burgomaster of Haarlem in the 1560s, 70s and 80s.

The Rijksmuseum’s Portrait of Maerten Ruychaver (see SK-C-520) is a slightly reduced copy of Van Mierevelt’s 1618 portrait, now in the collection of the Van Loon family in Amsterdam.⁴ The copyist shows Ruychaver’s right arm and hand instead of the left arm and hand in the original. In the 1618 portrait Ruychaver wears a sash around his waist and petits oies, or ribbons, on the front of his breeches. These costume details have been omitted in the copy.

The pendant (shown here) is a copy of Van Mierevelt’s 1616 portrait of Alid van der Laen, now also in the collection of the Van Loon family in Amsterdam.⁵ It is not known why Van Mierevelt’s portrait of her was executed two years before that of her husband, which was unquestionably conceived as its pendant. As with the Portrait of Maerten Ruychaver, the copyist changed the position of the sitter’s arms; in the original portrait only Alid van der Laen’s right arm and hand are shown. She is also seated in a chair in the original painting. The copyist perhaps chose to show her standing so that she would have the same pose as her husband. Probably for the same reason of unity, the copyist chose to show Maerten Ruychaver’s right arm and hand instead of the left ones, as in Van Mierevelt’s original composition. Dendrochronological examination of the Rijksmuseum companion pieces indicated that they were most probably executed in or after 1653.

In addition to the anonymous copyist of the Rijksmuseum portraits of Maerten Ruychaver and Alid van der Laen, Van Mierevelt’s portraits served Jan Miense Molenaer when he painted his Portrait of the Ruychaver van der Laen Family around 1629-30.⁶

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. 210.

Collection catalogues

1891, p. 70, nos. 553, 554 (as Dutch School); 1903, p. 176, nos. 1601, 1602; 1976, p. 386, nos. C 520, C 521; 2007, no. 210

Citation

J. Bikker, 2007, 'copy after Michiel Jansz. van Mierevelt, Portrait of Alid van der Laen (1542-1626), after 1653', in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.10842

(accessed 10 November 2024 18:47:09).