Object data
oil on canvas
support: height 71.3 cm × width 58.8 cm
outer size: depth 5.8 cm (support incl. frame)
Michiel Jansz van Mierevelt (workshop of)
after 1640
oil on canvas
support: height 71.3 cm × width 58.8 cm
outer size: depth 5.8 cm (support incl. frame)
The plain-weave canvas support has been lined. Cusping is not visible. The ground layer has an ochre colour. There is visible brushmarking and impasto highlights.
Fair. The hair has been totally overpainted, and there are numerous discoloured retouchings in the face. The varnish is very discoloured.
...; sale, J.H. Cremer (Brussels), Amsterdam (F. Muller et al.), 21 June 1887, no. 172, as Anonymous (‘Portrait de l’Amiral Marten Harpertsz. Tromp. Toile, 62 x 57 cm’), fl. 148, to the museum1
Object number: SK-A-1418
Copyright: Public domain
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.2 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
Maerten Harpertsz Tromp’s first taste of life at sea came at the age of eight on his father’s ship. Apart from a short stint as a carpenter’s assistant, he spent his entire career sailing with the merchant marine and the Dutch navy. He was appointed Lieutenant-Admiral of the Dutch fleet by Frederik Hendrik in 1637, and experienced his greatest triumph in 1639 when his fleet destroyed two-thirds of the 47 Spanish, Portuguese and Neapolitan warships in an armada that sailed up the English Channel. In 1640, he was elevated to the French nobility, and in 1642 made a knight in the British Order of St Michael. His heroic career came to an abrupt end during the First Anglo-Dutch War when he was shot in battle near Ter Heijde on 10 August 1653.3
The present painting is a copy of Van Mierevelt’s 1640 portrait of Tromp in the Stedelijk Museum Het Prinsenhof.4 Tromp wears three golden chains with a medal showing a bust of Frederik Hendrik.5
The portrait of Tromp’s third wife, Cornelia Tedingh van Berckhout in the collection of the Rijksmuseum (SK-A-260) was acquired much earlier and is not a pendant to the present painting.
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. 202.
1903, p. 176, no. 1603; 1976, p. 386, no. A 1418; 2007, no. 202
J. Bikker, 2007, 'workshop of Michiel Jansz. van Mierevelt, Portrait of Maerten Harpertsz Tromp (1597-1653), after 1640', in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.7377
(accessed 13 November 2024 03:52:30).