Portrait of Johannes Wtenbogaert (1557-1644)

1632

Object data

oil on panel

support: height 69.6 cm × width 58.6 cm
outer size: depth 8 cm (support incl. frame)

Inscriptions

inscription and date, centre left: Ætatis 75. / Aº 1632.

Technical notes

The support consists of three vertically grained oak planks and is bevelled on all sides. The thinly applied, light-coloured ground layer allows the wood to show through in the lighter passages. The paint layers were applied smoothly, with only some impasto for the collar.

Scientific examination and reports

technical report: G. Tauber, RMA, 28 September 2004

Condition

Fair. The right join as seen from the front has separated, but is stable. There are a number of discoloured retouchings in the figure’s face and his left shoulder. A coloured varnish was applied throughout in order to make the painting appear ‘old’. That varnish has been removed from the face and collar, but residues of it are still present.

Original framing

Ebony scotia frames¹

Provenance

...; collection Jacoba Petronella Hooft Graafland (1834-1911), 1903;² by descent to her grandson, M.J.P. Hooft Graafland; from whom purchased by the dealer, H. Bekker, Utrecht;³ from whom, fl. 6,500, to the museum, September 1953

Object number: SK-A-3875

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.⁴ 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

After obtaining a law degree, Johannes Wtenbogaert (or Uyttenbogaert) became secretary to Count Jan of Nassau in Arnhem in 1578. Beginning in 1580, he studied theology in Geneva, among other places, and became a minister in his native Utrecht. In 1591, he was called to The Hague, where he became tutor to Frederik Hendrik and Maurits’s army chaplain. Eventually, he was appointed the official minister to Maurits’s court. On 2 April 1606, he married Maria Petitpas, the widow of François Aux-Brebis. In the conflict between the Arminians and the Gomarists over such issues as predestination and church-state relations, Wtenbogaert chose the side of the first group and became its leader in 1609 upon the death of Arminius. It was under Wtenbogaert’s leadership that the so-called Remonstrance was formulated in 1610, which asserted the authority of the state over the church and restated Arminius’s position on predestination. After the Counter-Remonstrant (Gomarist) faction and Prince Maurits, who openly sided with them since 1617, gained political control over the United Provinces in 1618, Wtenbogaert was forced to flee, first to Antwerp and later to Rouen. He returned to the northern Netherlands only after Maurits’s death in 1625, settling in Rotterdam in 1626. In 1629, he returned to The Hague, where he spent the rest of his life.⁵

Wtenbogaert informs us in his diary that he sat for ‘the famous painter Master Michiel Mierevelt upon his earnest request’ during a visit to an ailing burgomaster of Delft that took place between 2 and 7 July 1631.⁶ Van Mierevelt’s portrait, showing the 74-year-old minister at half-length, belongs to the Remonstrant congregation in Rotterdam.⁷ Although it is dated 1632 and bears the inscription ‘Ætatis 75’, the bust-length portrait shown here is probably a studio version of the 1631 portrait, for apart from the format, it is an exact replica. The execution, however, especially in such details as the sitter’s beard, is noticeably less fine.

The portrait of Wtenbogaert’s wife, Maria Petitpas (SK-A-3876), is probably a workshop replica of a lost original. The panel is somewhat smaller than Wtenbogaert’s portrait, and there is a five-year discrepancy in the dating. Nonetheless, the shared provenance of the two paintings, and their common bust-length formats, leave little doubt that this Portrait of Maria Petitpas was, indeed, conceived as the pendant.

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. 198.

Literature

Tideman 1903, p. 126 (as Van Mierevelt); Kloek 1992, p. 349 (as Van Mierevelt)

Collection catalogues

1960, p. 205, no. 1586 (as Van Mierevelt); 1976, pp. 383-84, nos. A 3875, A 3876 (as Van Mierevelt); 2007, no. 198

Citation

J. Bikker, 2007, 'workshop of Michiel Jansz. van Mierevelt, Portrait of Johannes Wtenbogaert (1557-1644), 1632', in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.9107

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