Portrait of Jacob Gerritsz van der Mij (1559/60-1635?)

Entry

The sitter in this large bust-length portrait was identified as Jacob Gerritsz van der Mij when the museum purchased it from a Berlin art dealer in 1909, and has always been catalogued as such. While there is no literature on the painting giving arguments for the identification, it is most likely correct. The coat of arms in the upper left corner is that of the Van der Mij family of Leiden.⁵ Although the 16th-century baptismal records for Leiden no longer exist, Jacob Gerritsz’s year of birth can be deduced from a notarized document of 1588, in which he stated that he was 28 years old.⁶ He was born, therefore, in either 1559 or 1560, which corresponds with the age (71) and date (1630) recorded on the portrait. Jacob Gerritsz was the only son of Gerrit Roelofsz van der Mij (1521-?) and his wife Agatha Jacobsdr van Reigersbergen.⁷ Gerrit Roelofsz was for many years a member of the Leiden town council (1549-72), serving, among other things, as alderman, burgomaster, director of the Civic Orphanage and overseer of the Observant Franciscans.⁸ He was one of 16 councillors and magistrates who were forced to leave Leiden temporarily in 1572 after having encouraged reconciliation with the Spanish.⁹

Jacob Gerritsz van der Mij graduated from Leiden University on 16 March 1577.¹⁰ In 1594, he married Marytgen van Heusen and in 1602, after the death of his first wife, he married Beatrix Gillisdr van Heusen.¹¹ Both weddings took place not in the church, but in the town hall, indicating that he, or at least his wives, were not of the Reformed faith. If he had not already done so earlier, Jacob Gerritsz would probably have converted by 1604, in which year he was appointed to one of the four positions as director of the Civic Orphanage.¹² The orphanage directors were charged with the task of protecting and administering the estate and property of children without one or both parents, the mentally infirm and other citizens who needed help managing their affairs.¹³ Van der Mij held this position until 1631. In 1578, 1595 and 1599 he is also recorded as a civic guardsman.¹⁴ Jacob Gerritsz van der Mij can, perhaps, be identified with the ‘Jacob de Mey’ who was buried in the Pieterskerk in Leiden on 29 August 1635.¹⁵

Van Schooten’s portrait of the 71-year-old Van der Mij is one of his most vivacious single-figure compositions. The sitter’s spectacular ruff with its many folds contributes to this effect, but it is Van der Mij’s engaging look that lends the portrait an almost palpable quality. Van Ravesteyn’s influence is especially discernible in the soft modelling and ruddy colouring of Van der Mij’s face.

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. 271.