Object data
oil on panel
support: height 66 cm × width 51.8 cm
outer size: depth 6 cm (support incl. frame)
Jacob Lambrechtsz Loncke
Portrait of Philippe le Mire (1596-?)
1618
Inscriptions
- date, bottom right: ANNO: 1618:
- inscription, bottom left: ÆTATIS. 22
- inscription, on the reverse: Philippe Le Mire. / Trouwt Antoinette / Walleran. / Geb: / Overl: / 22 (Philippe le Mire. Marries Antoinette Walleran. B[orn] D[ied] 22)
Technical notes
The support consists of three oak panels with a vertical grain and is bevelled on all sides. The ground layer, visible in the contour lines of the sitter, is probably buff, and was applied with broad brushstrokes. The figure was painted before the brown background was applied loosely along the contours. The painting was economically and swiftly executed with visible brushstrokes, particularly in the background and in the trompe l’oeil framing.
Scientific examination and reports
- technical report: M. Chavannes, RMA, 6 June 2003
Condition
Fair. The paint layers have become more transparent and are abraded, while there are some discoloured areas of retouching, especially along the joins. The varnish is discoloured, desiccated and crazed.
Provenance
? Commissioned by or for the sitters Philippe le Mire (1596-?) and his wife Antoinette Walleran (1598-?), Middelburg; ? by descent through the families Walleran, Sandra, Boudaen, Van Citters, Verheije van Citters, to Jonkheer Jacob de Witte van Citters (1817-76), The Hague; by whom bequeathed to the Nederlandsch Museum voor Geschiedenis en Kunst, The Hague (inv. nos. 3235, 3236), 1876; transferred to the museum, as anonymous, 1885
Object number: SK-A-906
Credit line: Jonkheer J. de Witte van Citters Bequest, The Hague
Copyright: Public domain
The artist
Jacob Lambrechtsz Loncke (Zierikzee c. 1580 - ? Zierikzee in or after 1644)
It is not known precisely when Jacob Lambrechtsz Loncke was born but it must have been around 1580, for in 1603 he was an independent painter in Zierikzee when he became betrothed to Sara Reynbrants Verboom, who was born in Schiedam in 1583. In 1618 he was dean of the Guild of St Luke in Zierikzee. He married his second wife, Maijken Waersegger of Antwerp in 1625.
Only a few portraits by the artist are known, all of them painted for Zeeland patrons. Two pendants of Jacob Simonsz Hollenboom and his wife Suzanna de Cocq date from 1618, as do the two portraits of the Rijksmuseum discussed here, and there is a portrait of their son Jacob Hollenboom from 1623.1 His last dated portrait is from 1644.2 At the beginning of the century he was paid 8 guilders for the portrait of David Cornelisz den Dagh of Zierikzee.
His son from his first marriage, Reinbrand Loncke (?-1657/58), worked as a painter in Middelburg.
Yvette Bruijnen, 2007
References
Obreen VI, 1884-87, pp. 176, 182, 189, 191; Hofstede de Groot 1901; Staring 1947; Schuurbeque Boeye 1949, pp. 101-08; De Vos 1982, p. 398
Entry
These 1618 companion pieces showing Philippe le Mire (shown here) and his wife Antoinette Walleran (SK-A-907) are in oval frames with trompe l’oeil painted decoration. The inscription on Le Mire’s portrait states that he is 22 years old, meaning that he was born in 1596. He was the son of Louis le Mire.3 The inscription on Antoinette Walleran’s portrait, which is also dated 1618, records that she was 20 years old at the time, so she was born in 1598. The couple married in Middelburg on 18 February 1618, so it can be assumed that the portraits were made on the occasion of their wedding.
Hofstede de Groot rightly attributed these companion pieces to Jacob Lambrechtsz on the evidence of a comparison with three portraits, two of which are signed with that name.4 After the discovery of the signature ‘jacob l. loncke’ on the third portrait, all the works could be assigned to the artist with that surname.5
The simple compositions of these two swiftly executed portraits are almost identical to those of the other three works, which are also similar in size. A fourth portrait, of Jan Cornelisz Stavenisse, closely matches them, and can probably be added to Loncke’s oeuvre.6
Yvette Bruijnen, 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. 169.
Literature
Hofstede de Groot 1901, pp. 134-35; Staring 1947
Collection catalogues
1886, p. 98, nos. 448L, 448M (as Anonymous); 1887, p. 74, nos. 600, 601 (as Dutch School); 1903, p. 164, nos. 1480, 1481; 1960, p. 180, nos. 1480, 1481; 1976, p. 352, nos. A 906, A 907; 2007, no. 169
Citation
Y. Bruijnen, 2007, 'Jacob Lambrechtsz. Loncke, Portrait of Philippe le Mire (1596-?), 1618', in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.8923
(accessed 23 November 2024 05:21:00).