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Portrait of a Fifty-Two Year Old Man
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Portrait of a Fifty-Two Year Old Man
Frans van Mieris(Leiden 1635 – 1681 Leiden)

1665
oil on panel
19.2 x 15 cm
signed and dated, upper left corner, oversculptural niche: “AET. 52. (AE in ligature) / F.
van Mieris / 1665.”
FM-104

How to cite
Buvelot, Quentin. “Portrait of a Fifty-Two Year Old Man” (2017). In The Leiden Collection Catalogue, 3rd ed. Edited byArthur K. Wheelock Jr. and Lara Yeager-Crasselt. New York, 2020–23. https://www.theleidencollection.com/archive/(archived December 2023).
A PDF of every version of this entry is available in this Online Catalogue's Archive, and the Archive is managed by apermanent URL. New versions are added only when a substantive change to the narrative occurs.

© 2024 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of a Fifty-Two Year Old Man
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The refined paintings that Frans van Mieris produced with saintly patience made him

Comparative Figures

renowned during his lifetime both in his own country and abroad. Like Gerrit Dou(1613–75), he was among the best-paid painters of the Golden Age. From thevoluminous book of inventories of the estates of people living on Rapenburg inLeiden, it can be inferred that Van Mieris’s paintings were always more highly valued
than those by his contemporaries.[1] These inventories also provide a unique picture of
the varied social status, financial position and religious background of some of hisbuyers, as well as the composition and size of their collections. Van Mieris built adevoted clientele in Leiden that included Franciscus de le Boë Sylvius (1614–72), aninternationally famous professor of chemistry and medicine whom Houbraken
described as Van Mieris’s patron.[2] The 1673 inventory of Sylvius’s estate—his houseat Rapenburg 31 still stands today—indicates that he possessed seven works by VanMieris and an astonishing eleven by Dou.[3] Houbraken states explicitly that Sylvius
gave Van Mieris regular commissions and had the first right of purchase of his works
for a fixed fee.[4]Fig 1. Frans van Mieris the Elder,
Double Portrait of Franciscus de le BoëSylvius and His Wife, known as “TheMusic Lesson,” 1672, panel witharched top, 41 x 31 cm, Staatliche
Kunstsammlungen, Gemäldegalerie
Alte Meister, Dresden, 1743

Among the works by Van Mieris described in the inventory of Sylvius’s estate was apainting of “the deceased with his second wife by Van Mieris.”[5] Without doubt, theoverly labored double portrait of a couple of 1672 in Dresden is the painting
described in the inventory, which was drawn up only a year after the completion ofthe painting (fig 1).[6] This hypothesis was first proposed by Otto Naumann, whonoticed that the face of the man, with his wide, flat and square chin, is identical tothat in the engraving of Sylvius that Cornelis van Dalen (1638–64) made in 1659 (fig2).[7] The convincing likeness is confirmed by a description of the painting in the1678 inventory of Sylvius’s nephew Jean Rouyer: “The portrait of Professor Sylvius
and his wife playing the lute.”[8] The genre-like portrait is in effect an “in memoriam”
painting for Sylvius’s second wife, Margareta Lucretia Schlezer, who died before itwas finished. The lute is a well-known reference to the harmony of love.[9] Theprofessor is known to have owned at least six portraits of himself, painted, drawn, andengraved, including the 1659 print.[10]Fig 2. Cornelis van Dalen, Portrait ofFranciscus de le Boë Sylvius, 1659,engraving (fourth state), 306 x 238
mm, British Museum, London,
1864,0714.17, © Trustees of theBritish Museum

Naumann has tentatively proposed that the present painting, fully signed and dated
1665, also represents Sylvius; however, this identification cannot be supported.[11]The inscription in the upper left corner of the present painting, “Aetatis 52,” which isrepeated on the back of the panel, clearly gives the age of the sitter as fifty-two, but
Sylvius would not reach that age until 15 March 1666.[12] Moreover, the sitter does
not resemble the man portrayed in Van Dalen’s 1659 engraving.[13] Although themoustache and goatee are comparable, his face is narrower and his hair is less curly.
Finally, the inventory of Sylvius’s estate lists all the paintings in his collection,
including the family portraits, but this work is not among them.[14]© 2024 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of a Fifty-Two Year Old Man
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The sitter’s rich black cloak, which typifies the man as a well-to-do burgher fromLeiden, is brilliantly rendered, much to the liking of contemporary viewers (for moreon this subject, see FM-110.a and FM-110.b). In its depiction of such vestments, theportrait is akin to Portrait of a Man of 1663 (Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence)
and Portrait of Florentius Schuyl of 1666 (Royal Picture Gallery Mauritshuis, TheHague).[15] The simplicity and balance of the present painting is striking, as Van
Mieris’s portraits of male sitters are usually somewhat labored. The backdrop ofarchitecture with a classical ambience and a cloudy sky that Van Mieris introduced inthis work adds to the sitter’s grandeur. In a similar manner, Van Mieris modeled theman’s elegant gesture on the portrait idiom of the Flemish painter Anthony van Dyck
(1559–1641), whose famous series of portraits, the Iconographie, had been engravedin 1645.[16]- Quentin Buvelot, 2017

© 2024 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of a Fifty-Two Year Old ManPage 5 of 8Endnotes
1. See Cornelia Willemijn Fock, in Het Rapenburg: Geschiedenis van een Leidse gracht, ed. Theodoor
Hermann Lunsingh Scheurleer, Cornelia Willemijn Fock, and A.J. van Dissel, 6 vols. (Leiden,1986–92), 5a:17.
2. Arnold Houbraken, De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen, 3 vols.
(Amsterdam, 1718–21; revised edition published in The Hague, 1753; reprinted in Amsterdam, 1980),
3: 3; For Sylvius’s life, see the references in Otto Naumann, Frans van Mieris (1635–1681) the Elder, 2vols. (Doornspijk, 1981), 1: 25 n. 23, 137 n. 247.
3. For the inventory, see Otto Naumann, Frans van Mieris (1635–1681) the Elder, 2 vols. (Doornspijk,1981), 1: 175; Theodoor Hermann Lunsingh Scheurleer, Cornelia Willemijn Fock, and A.J. van Dissel,eds., Het Rapenburg: Geschiedenis van een Leidse gracht, 6 vols. (Leiden, 1986–92), 1: 31–32, 3a:278–95, 335–42, 5a: 10, 25. For a detailed discussion of the collection, see Eric Jan Sluijter, “‘All
striving to adorne their houses with costly peeces’: Two Case Studies of Paintings in Wealthy Interiors,”in Art & Home: Dutch Interiors in the Age of Rembrandt, ed. Mariët Westermann (Exh. cat. NewarkMuseum; Denver, Denver Art Museum) (Zwolle, 2001), 105–16; cf. also Pamela H. Smith, “Scienceand Taste: Painting, Passions, and the New Philosophy in Seventeenth-Century Leiden,” Isis 90 (1999):
421–61.
4. See also Theodoor Hermann Lunsingh Scheurleer, Cornelia Willemijn Fock, and A.J. van Dissel, eds.,
Het Rapenburg: Geschiedenis van een Leidse gracht, 6 vols. (Leiden, 1986–92), 5a: 10; Eric Jan Sluijter,“‘All striving to adorne their houses with costly peeces’: Two Case Studies of Paintings in WealthyInteriors,” in Art & Home: Dutch Interiors in the Age of Rembrandt, ed. Mariët Westermann (Exh. cat.
Newark Museum; Denver, Denver Art Museum) (Zwolle, 2001), 110, 229 n. 34.
5. “Den overleden[en] met sijn laetste huysvr[ouw] van Mi[e]ris.” Quoted from Theodoor Hermann
Lunsingh Scheurleer, Cornelia Willemijn Fock, and A.J. van Dissel, eds., Het Rapenburg: Geschiedenis
van een Leidse gracht, 6 vols. (Leiden, 1986–92), 3a:337. See Otto Naumann, Frans van Mieris(1635–1681) the Elder, 2 vols. (Doornspijk, 1981), 2:101; Eirc Jan Sluijter, “‘All striving to adorne theirhouses with costly peeces’: Two Case Studies of Paintings in Wealthy Interiors,” in Art & Home: DutchInteriors in the Age of Rembrandt, ed. Mariët Westermann (Exh. cat. Newark Museum; Denver, Denver
Art Museum) (Zwolle, 2001), 107, 110, 113 (and fig. 141), 228 n. 27.
6. Otto Naumann, Frans van Mieris (1635–1681) the Elder, 2 vols. (Doornspijk, 1981), 1:80, 83 (and n.
23), 138, 140, 2:101, no. 89; Theodoor Hermann Lunsingh Scheurleer, Cornelia Willemijn Fock, andA.J. van Dissel, eds., Het Rapenburg: Geschiedenis van een Leidse gracht, 6 vols. and index (Leiden,1986–92), 3a: 290, 291, 292 (fig. 5); Rudi Ekkart, “Leidse Burgers in Beeld: Portrettisten in Leiden vande late zestiende tot de vroege achttiende eeuw,” in ibid., 6a: 24, 38 n. 109; Eric Jan Sluijter “Allstriving to adorne their houses with costly peeces’: Two Case Studies of Paintings in Wealthy Interiors,”in Art & Home: Dutch Interiors in the Age of Rembrandt, ed. Mariët Westermann (Exh. cat. Newark© 2024 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of a Fifty-Two Year Old Man
Page 6 of 8Museum; Denver, Denver Art Museum) (Zwolle, 2001), 107, 110, 113 and fig. 141, 196, no. 85, 228 n.
27; Quentin Buvelot, ed., Frans van Mieris 1635–1681 (Exh. cat. The Hague, Mauritshuis; Washington
D.C., National Gallery of Art) (New Haven, 2005), 18, fig. 7, 236, no. 89.
7. Otto Naumann, Frans van Mieris (1635–1681) the Elder, 2 vols. (Doornspijk, 1981), 1: 138 and fig. 10.
8. Eric Jan Sluijter, “‘All striving to adorne their houses with costly peeces’: Two Case Studies of Paintingsin Wealthy Interiors,” in Art & Home: Dutch Interiors in the Age of Rembrandt, ed. Mariët Westermann(Exh. cat. Newark Museum; Denver Art Museum) (Zwolle, 2001), 228 n. 27.
9. Eddy de Jongh, Portretten van echt en trouw: Huwelijk en gezin in de nederlandse kunst van de zeventiendeeeuw (Exh. cat. Haarlem, Frans Hals Museum) (Zwolle 1986), 40–45.
10. Eric Jan Sluijter, “‘All striving to adorne their houses with costly peeces’: Two Case Studies of Paintingsin Wealthy Interiors,” in Art & Home: Dutch Interiors in the Age of Rembrandt, ed. Mariët Westermann(Exh. cat. Newark Museum; Denver Art Museum) (Zwolle, 2001), 113.
11. Otto Naumann, Frans van Mieris (1635–1681) the Elder, 2 vols. (Doornspijk, 1981), 1:70, 138, 2:78–79,
no. 62.
12. Otto Naumann, Frans van Mieris (1635–1681) the Elder, 2 vols. (Doornspijk, 1981), 1:138, mistakenly
writes that in 1665 Sylvius “would have passed from fifty-two to fifty-three years of age.”
13. Eric Jan Sluijter, “‘All striving to adorne their houses with costly peeces’: Two Case Studies of Paintingsin Wealthy Interiors,” in Art & Home: Dutch Interiors in the Age of Rembrandt, ed. Mariët Westermann(Exh. cat. Newark Museum; Denver, Denver Art Museum) (Zwolle, 2001), 228 n. 27, even writes: “Inmy opinion, the other portrait that Naumann thinks might be Sylvius definitely represents a different
face.”
14. As already pointed out by Rudi Ekkart, “Leidse Burgers in Beeld: Portrettisten in Leiden van de latezestiende tot de vroege achttiende eeuw,” in Het Rapenburg: Geschiedenis van een Leidse gracht, ed.
Theodoor Hermann Lunsingh Scheurleer, Cornelia Willemijn Fock, and A.J. van Dissel, 6 vols. (Leiden,1986–92), 6a: 25. The inventory is fully listed in Otto Naumann, Frans van Mieris (1635–1681) theElder, 2 vols. (Doornspijk, 1981), 1:175. A portrait of Sylvius by Van Mieris listed by Cornelis Hofstede
de Groot, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the SeventeenthCentury Based on the Work of John Smith, ed. and trans. Edward G. Hawke, 8 vols. (London, 1907–28);
originally published as Beschreibendes und kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke der hervorragendsten
höllandischen Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts, 10 vols. (Esslingen and Paris, 1907–28), 10: 70-71, no. 261,
was larger and only bore the monogram of the artist (see Otto Naumann, Frans van Mieris (1635–1681)
the Elder, 2 vols. [Doornspijk, 1981], 2:79; Theodoor Hermann Lunsingh Scheurleer, Cornelia
Willemijn Fock, and A.J. van Dissel, eds., Het Rapenburg: Geschiedenis van een Leidse gracht, 6 vols.
[Leiden, 1986–92], 3a: 291, 353 n. 102).
15. For the painting in Florence, see Otto Naumann, Frans van Mieris (1635–1681) the Elder, 2 vols.
(Doornspijk, 1981), 2: no. 57; Quentin Buvelot, ed., Frans van Mieris 1635–1681 (Exh. cat. The Hague,Mauritshuis; Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art) (New Haven, 2005), 235, no. 57; for the© 2024 The Leiden Collection

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painting in The Hague, see Otto Naumann, Frans van Mieris (1635–1681) the Elder, 2 vols. (Doornspijk,1981), 2: no. 63; Quentin Buvelot, ed., Frans van Mieris 1635–1681 (Exh. cat. The Hague, Mauritshuis;
Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art) (New Haven, 2005), no. 37. Schuyl was a Leiden professor
who commissioned only one work from Van Mieris, after having obtained his doctorate two years
earlier under the supervision of Sylvius, who probably introduced the two men.
16. Marie Mauquoy-Hendrickx, L’iconographie d’Antoine van Dyck, 2 vols. (Brussels, 1991); Ger Luijten inCarl Depauw, Ger Luijten, et al., Antoon van Dyck en de prentkunst (Exh. cat. Antwerp, Museum PlantinMoretus; Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum) (Antwerp, 1999), 73–91.

Provenance
Probably Adam Gottlob, Count Moltke, Copenhagen; by inheritance to Frederik Christian Moltke vanBregentved, Copenhagen, until 1931 (Moltke sale, V. Winkel & Magnussen, Copenhagen, 1 June 1931,no. 85).
(Sale, Stockholm, Bukowski, 27 April 1955, no. 177).
(Sale, Paris, Drouot, Rieunier & Bailly-Pommery, 24 March 1999, no. 19, not sold; Paris, Drouot,Rieunier & Associés, 2 December 2002, no. 58 [Otto Naumann Ltd., New York, 2003].
From whom acquired by the present owner.

ReferencesCatalogue des tableaux de la collection du comte de Moltke. Copenhagen, 1885, 25, no. 44.
Champlin, John Denison, and Charles C. Perkins, eds. Cyclopedia of Painters and Paintings. 3 vols.
New York, 1887, 3:265.
Von Wurzbach, Alfred. Niederländisches Künstler-Lexikon: Auf Grund Archivalischer Forschungen
Bearbeitet. 3 vols. Vienna and Liepzig, 1906–11, 2:165.
Hofstede de Groot, Cornelis. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of
the Seventeenth Century Based on the Work of John Smith. Edited and translated by Edward G. Hawke. 8vols. London, 1907–28, 10:77, no. 287. Originally published as Beschreibendes und kritisches Verzeichnis
der Werke der hervorragendsten höllandischen Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts. 10 vols. Esslingen andParis, 1907–28.
Naumann, Otto. Frans van Mieris (1635–1681) the Elder. 2 vols. Doornspijk, 1981, 1:70, 138,
2:78–79, no. 62.
Lunsingh Scheurleer, Theodoor Hermann, C. Willemijn Fock, A. J. van Dissel. Het Rapenburg:© 2024 The Leiden CollectionPowered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

Portrait of a Fifty-Two Year Old Man
Page 8 of 8Geschiedenis van een Leidse gracht. 6 vols. Leiden, 1986–92, 3a: 291, 292, fig. 6, 353 n. 102.
Ekkart, Rudolf E.O. “Leidse Burgers in Beeld: Portrettisten in Leiden van de late zestiende tot devroege achttiende eeuw.” In Het Rapenburg: Geschiedenis van een Leidse gracht. Edited by Theodoor
Herman Lunsingh Scheurleer, Cornelia Willemijn Fock, and A.J. van Dissel. 6a:24–25. 6 vols. Leiden,1986–92.
Sluijter, Eric Jan.“‘All striving to adorne their houses with costly peeces’: Two Case Studies of Paintingsin Wealthy Onteriors.” In Art & Home: Dutch Interiors in the Age of Rembrandt. Edited by MariëtWestermann, 102–27, 228 no. 27. Exh. cat. Newark, Newark Museum; Denver, Denver Art Museum.
Zwolle, 2001.
Buvelot, Quentin, Otto Naumann, and Eddy de Jongh. Frans van Mieris 1635–1681. Edited by Quentin
Buvelot, 40, fig. 22, 41, 235, no. 62. Exh. cat. The Hague, Mauritshuis; Washington, National Gallery ofArt. Zwolle, 2005.

Technical Summary
The support, a single plank of vertically grained, rectangular-shaped oak, has bevels and wood shims adheredwith brads along all four sides.[1] The unthinned and uncradled panel has machine tool marks along the left
side of the reverse but no wax collection seals, import stamps, labels or panel maker’s marks.
A light-colored ground is followed by a dark underlayer. The image was constructed with thin layers oftransparent glazing through the background and somewhat thicker paint along the figure’s black cape, whitecollar, cuff, and proper right hand.
The painting is signed and dated in dark paint over the arched niche in the upper left corner. The upper edgeof the AE written in ligature is cropped, which suggests the upper panel edge has been trimmed slightly.
No underdrawing or compositional changes are readily apparent in infrared images captured at 780–1000
nanometers or in the X-radiograph.
The painting was cleaned and restored in 2003 and remains in a good state of preservation.

Technical Summary Endnotes

1. The characterization of the wood is based on visual examination of the X-radiograph and panel reverse
images by Ian Tyers. According to Tyers, the panel has good potential for dendrochronology but wouldrequire removal of either the upper or the lower shim.

© 2024 The Leiden Collection