Portrait of a Woman, probably Machtelt Bas (?-1681)

after 1650

Object data

oil on canvas

support: height 124.5 cm × width 99.5 cm
outer size: depth 11.5 cm (support incl. SK-L-2039)

Inscriptions

date, lower right, on the balustrade: ANº 1641
coat of arms, top left: divided vertically. 1: a silver eagle with an olive branch in its beak on a blue field. 2, divided horizontally: A, a silver stork on a blue field; B, three blue bars strewn with eleven miniature silver escutcheons, alternating with three red bars

Technical notes

Support The plain-weave canvas has been wax-resin lined. All tacking edges have been preserved. Shallow cusping is present at the top and on the left. Judging by the crack pattern the bars of the original strainer were approx. 4.5 cm wide.
Preparatory layers The double ground extends over the tacking edges at the top and bottom by approx. 0.5 cm and on the left and right edges by approx. 1.5 cm, leaving a strip of bare canvas exposed on all sides. The first, reddish layer consists of reddish-brown, dark red, some black and a small addition of white pigment. The second, greyish-beige layer is composed of white pigment mixed with smaller black and orange pigment particles.
Underdrawing Infrared photography revealed an underdrawing consisting of a few thin lines in a liquid medium, visible in the eyes of the woman and the columns of the balustrade.
Paint layers The paint extends over the tacking edges at the top and bottom by approx. 0.5 cm and on the left and right edges by approx. 1.5 cm, leaving a strip of bare canvas exposed on all sides. A dark brown, first lay-in is still visible in the dark areas of the curtain and in some parts of the sky. The painting was built up from the back to the front. The figure and the balustrade were reserved in the background. The paint was applied wet in wet, smoothly blending the separate passages. The reserve for the head is larger than the final version and shows as a dark halo. The lace of the cuffs and collar was executed directly on the ground with only the edges overlapping the black of the dress. Small, orange touches were placed in between the pearls to create more contrast. A red glaze was used to create depth and contrast in the mouth, the nostrils and in between the fingers. The coat of arms, which was reserved, initially had a square top.
Michel van de Laar, 2024

Scientific examination and reports

technical report: W. de Ridder / G. Tauber, RMA, 11 November 1997
paint samples: M. van de Laar, RMA, nos. SK-A-1623/1-2, 8 September 2010
technical report: M. van de Laar, RMA, 8 September 2010
X-radiography: J. van der Brugge-Mulder, RMA, 23 May 2018
paint samples: P. D’Imporzano, VU Medical Centre, no. SK-A-1623/1 (MC-ICPMS, micro sampling), 25 January 2019

Literature scientific examination and reports

P. D’Imporzano, Implications of Lead Isotope Variation in Lead White from 17th Century Dutch Paintings, diss., Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam 2021, p. 106; P. D’Imporzano et al., ‘Time-Dependent Variation of Lead Isotopes of Lead White in 17th Century Dutch Paintings’, Science Advances 7 (2021), pp. 1-14, esp. pp. 5-7 (see doi 10.1126/sciadv.abi5905)

Condition

Fair. The varnish has yellowed. Drips of a corrosive substance have damaged the varnish and probably the paint as well. Darkened retouchings are visible along the edges.

Conservation

conservator unknown, 1885: canvas lined

Provenance

? Commissioned by or inherited by Machtelt Bas’s daughter, Theodora de Visscher (1641-1722), Amsterdam; ? her son, Theodore (Dirck) Rijswijck (1668-1729), Amsterdam; ? his daughter, Theodora Rijswijck (1695-1752), Amsterdam; ? her son, Daniel Balguerie (1732-1788), Amsterdam; his wife, Johanna Balguerie, née Van Rijswijk (1750-1823), Amsterdam; by whom bequeathed to the museum, with 22 other portraits, 1823¹
Or:
? Commissioned by or inherited by Machtelt Bas’s daughter, Theodora de Visscher (1641-1722), Amsterdam; ? her son, Jan (Jean) Rijswijck (1678-1756), Amsterdam; ? his daughter, Johanna Rijswijck (1723-?), Amsterdam; her daughter, Johanna Balguerie, née Van Rijswijk (1750-1823), Amsterdam; by whom bequeathed to the museum, with 22 other portraits, 1823²

Object number: SK-A-1623

Credit line: J. Balguerie-van Rijswijk Bequest, Amsterdam

The artist

Dirck van Santvoort (Amsterdam 1609 - Amsterdam 1680)

Dirck van Santvoort was baptized in Amsterdam’s Nieuwe Kerk on 6 December 1609. His immediate family included several painters, for he was the son of the Amsterdam landscapist Pieter Dircksz Bontepaert (van Santvoort) and Truytgen Pieters, the grandson of Pieter Pietersz on his mother’s side, and thus the great-grandson of Pieter Aertsen. It is not known who his teacher was, but it is only logical to assume that it was his father. Van Santvoort may have been active in Rembrandt’s studio in the first half of the 1630s, when the master was collaborating closely with the art dealer Hendrick Uylenburgh. It is also possible that he worked not for Rembrandt but for Uylenburgh. This may explain why he did not join the Amsterdam Guild of St Luke until 1636. In 1641 he married Baertgen Pont, and after her death Trijntje Rieuwertsdr in 1657. Various documents relating to financial transactions and property investments show that Van Santvoort had no money worries. He is regularly recorded as an appraiser of paintings, sometimes together with Uylenburgh’s eldest son Gerrit, who lived near him in Breestraat. Van Santvoort was buried in the Nieuwe Kerk on 9 March 1680.

His earliest dated picture, A Boy Dressed as a Shepherd of 1632, which is the companion piece to A Girl Dressed as a Shepherdess,³ features a pastoral figure in the manner of Jacob Gerritsz Cuyp. A Christ at Emmaus dated 1633 shows that in his rare histories Van Santvoort took his lead from Rembrandt,⁴ some of whose works he copied. However, from the early 1630s on he mainly made his name with likenesses of burghers, which owe much to the art of Cornelis van der Voort and Nicolaes Eliasz Pickenoy. These paintings are adequately executed in a polished yet sometimes slightly naive style without much in the way of embellishment. They are largely distinguished by his rendering of lace. In addition to major commissions for group portraits, such as The Regentesses and Housemistresses of the Spinning House of 1638⁵ and The Directors of the Serge Cloth Industry of 1643,⁶ it is Van Santvoort’s likenesses of children that display his gifts to best effect. His last dated works, which include the Portrait of Otto van Vollenhoven with his Wife Appolonia Bogaert and their Daughter Maria,⁷ are from 1645, so he was active as a painter for only about a decade. He is recorded as a warden of the Amsterdam Guild of St Luke in 1658 and again in 1672, but that could have been due to his occupation as an art dealer.

Gerbrand Korevaar, 2024

References
A.D. de Vries, ‘Biografische aanteekeningen betreffende voornamelijk Amsterdamsche schilders, plaatsnijders, enz. en hunne verwanten’, Oud Holland 3 (1885), pp. 55-80, 135-60, 223-40, 303-12, esp. p. 312; ibid., 4 (1886), pp. 71-80, 135-44, 215-24, 295-304, esp. p. 73; N. de Roever, ‘Pieter Aertsz: gezegd Lange Pier, vermaard schilder’, Oud Holland 7 (1889), pp. 1-38, esp. pp. 35-38; A. Bredius, Künstler-Inventare, I, The Hague 1915, p. 217; ibid., III, 1917, pp. 768-70; ibid., VI, 1919, p. 1884; Stechow in U. Thieme and F. Becker (eds.), Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, XXIX, Leipzig 1935, pp. 453-54; S.A.C. Dudok van Heel, ‘Enkele adressen van zestiende eeuwse kunstschilders’, Maandblad Amstelodamum 74 (1987), pp. 1-7, esp. p. 5; J. van der Veen, ‘Het kunstbedrijf van Hendrick Uylenburgh in Amsterdam: Productie en handel tussen 1625 en 1655’, in F. Lammertse and J. van der Veen, Uylenburgh en Zoon: Kunst en commercie van Rembrandt tot De Lairesse, 1625-1675, exh. cat. London (Dulwich Picture Gallery)/Amsterdam (Museum Het Rembrandthuis) 2006, pp. 117-205, esp. p. 137; E.J. Sluijter, Rembrandt’s Rivals: History Painting in Amsterdam 1630-1650, Amsterdam/Philadelphia 2015, pp. 293-96; Van der Molen in Saur Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon: Die Bildenden Künstler aller Zeiten und Völker, CI, Munich/Leipzig 2018, pp. 157-58

Entry

The woman in this painting is standing in front of a balustrade with a view looking out over a hilly landscape. She is sumptuously dressed in an over-gown decorated with gold thread, and is wearing elaborate collars and cuffs, pearl jewellery, and holds a fan in her right hand.

The work was among a collection of portraits that Johanna Balguerie-van Rijswijk bequeathed to the Rijksmuseum in 1823.⁸ Despite the coat of arms in the top left corner no attempt had been made to identify the sitter. The coat is that of the Amsterdam Bas family, and had been used in this form since 1616.⁹ It appears to be authentic, so it can be assumed that the woman belonged to that family. Dirck Jacobsz Bas’s second daughter Machtelt (?-1681) is the most likely candidate, for it was through her descendants that the canvas came to the museum.¹⁰ In addition, with her dark hair and eyes, delicate features and pointed chin she resembles Machtelt Bas and not her blonde sisters in the painting of the family made by Dirck van Santvoort in the mid-1630s.¹¹. She does not bear such a close resemblance to another likeness of Machtelt Bas in the Rijksmuseum, the one of around 1651 attributed to Jacob Backer,¹² but that may be because she was more than ten years older by then.¹³

The unsigned portrait was registered in the museum inventory in 1894 as a work by the Delft artist Anthonie Palamedesz,¹⁴ but there is no stylistic connection to his paintings. From the somewhat stiff and hard execution of the face and the regular brushstrokes in the hair it appears to be a copy. Ekkart has suggested that the prototype may have been a bust or a half-length that was converted into a three-quarter-length, since the hands and the strings of pearls around the wrists, as well as the background with the balustrade, are significantly weaker than the sitter’s face and collar.¹⁵ The copy is probably of a later date than the original of 1641,¹⁶ as such a setting with a curtain and a balustrade with a view was unusual in the early 1640s.¹⁷ It may have been painted after the death of the sitter to provide her children with a likeness of their mother..

The prototype was most probably made by an Amsterdam artist, possibly Dirck van Santvoort,¹⁸ who had previously received commissions from the Bas family. The formal, classical style and highly finished execution are indeed close to his work from about 1640.¹⁹

Gerdien Wuestman, 2024

See Key to abbreviations, Rijksmuseum painting catalogues and Acknowledgements

Collection catalogues

1903, p. 204, no. 1837 (as attributed to Anthonie Palamedesz); 1976, p. 435, no. A 1623 (as manner of Anthonie Palamedesz)

Citation

Gerdien Wuestman, 2024, 'follower of Dirck van Santvoort, Portrait of a Woman, probably Machtelt Bas (?-1681), after 1650', in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.4928

(accessed 10 November 2024 13:44:40).