© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of a Twenty-Five-Year-Old Woman
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Portrait of a Twenty-Five-Year-Old
Woman
Frans van Mieris(Leiden 1635 – 1681 Leiden)

1669
oil on panel with arched top
23.5 x 16.8 cm
signed and dated in dark paint, lower rightbackground, right of figure: “Fvan
Mieris. 1669” inscribed above the shoulder:“ÆT. 25”
FM-110.b

How to cite
Buvelot, Quentin. “Portrait of a Thirty-Year-Old Man and Portrait of a Twenty-Five-Year-Old Woman” (2017).
In The Leiden Collection Catalogue, 2nd ed. Edited by Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. New York, 2017–20.
https://theleidencollection.com/artwork/portrait-of-a-twenty-five-year-old-woman/ (archived May 2020).
A PDF of every version of this entry is available in this Online Catalogue's Archive, and the Archive ismanaged by a permanent URL. New versions are added only when a substantive change to the narrative
occurs.

© 2020 The Leiden Collection

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In 1669 Cosimo III de’ Medici visited a number of painters in their studios as

Comparative Figuresa part of his “grand tour” through the Northern Netherlands. In his travel
journal he referred to three painters as being famous: Rembrandt van Rijn
(1606–69), Rembrandt’s pupil Gerrit Dou (1613–75), and Frans van Mieris,“pittore assai celebre.”[1] Cosimo visited the latter artist in Leiden on 22 June
1669, the year Van Mieris executed these pendant portraits of an unknown
couple, which are among the best portraits to have emerged from thatimportant seventeenth-century artistic center.
Like most of his genre pieces, Van Mieris’s portraits are small and executedin a very refined technique.[2] These pendant paintings, which have a longand distinguished provenance but whose whereabouts were unknown for
more than half a century,[3] are the only pair of his portraits of a husband andhis wife that has not been separated over the course of time (see FM-109).
[4]

The two panels show Van Mieris’s great qualities as a portraitist. We seea young couple (according to the inscriptions, “At. 30” and “AET. 25,” thehusband was 30 and his wife five years his junior) standing in the open air

Fig 1. Frans van Mieris, Double
Portrait of Franciscus de le Boe
Sylvius and His Wife, known as“The Music Lesson,” 1672, panel
with arched top, 41 x 31
cm, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen,Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister,
Dresden, 1743

before a dwelling in a parklike setting. That they belong to the upper classes
is evident from their expensive clothing. He is dressed in a fashionable
Japonse rok with lace chemise, while she wears a white and red silk dress
decorated with red bows. Her hands, neck and hair all are decorated withexpensive strands of small pearls, and the large wedding ring on her pinky
finger can hardly be missed.
The poses are remarkably lively and interrelated: the man leans on thebalustrade in a relaxed manner and gazes at his wife who turns slightly
toward him while looking out at the spectator. In the garden behind the man,a sculpture, probably depicting Venus, the goddess of love, is a counterpoint
to the sculpture of Cupid with his arrow behind the woman. This juxtapositionof pictorial elements suggests that a loving bond exists between the
spouses. She smiles enigmatically, holding her hand on her belly, as if tosuggest she is with child.[5] Indeed, the gesture can be linked to a Dutch
expression of “pushing one’s apron to a side,” meaning to be pregnant.[6]The arrangement of these pendants, with the husband placed on his wife’s
left, is traditional for such a pairing, an approach from which Van Mieris
departed four years later when he painted another set of pendants depicting
a married couple (see FM-109). These four panels are the only pendant
portraits by Van Mieris that are still extant.[7] Despite the different orientationin the two sets, many similarities exist in Van Mieris’s approach. In both sets
© 2020 The Leiden Collection

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of paintings, the man gazes at his wife, while she looks at the viewer. They
also share a similar contrast between the dress of the male, who wears a
comfortable Japonse rok, and that of the female, who is decked out in a satin
dress with many ribbons.
Contemporary viewers would have admired the exquisite rendering ofvirtually every conceivable texture in these paintings, especially the various
fabrics of the figures’ clothing. When the French connoisseur and scholardiplomat Balthasar de Monconys (1611–65) visited Leiden on 13 August
1663, he met “ce fameux Peintre Mirris” (this famous painter Mieris).[8] In his
travel journal, De Monconys extolled the red velvet cloak of the woman in
Van Mieris’s Doctor’s Visit (J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles) and notedthat her cream-colored satin dress was executed so well that it looks real: “sibien faits qu’on eust assuré que c’estoit de l’estoffe.”[9] In 1675 Joachim vonSandrart(1606–88),

describing

The

Cloth

Shop

(Gemäldegalerie,

Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna), the subject of which is germane to thistheme, emphasized that the painter had depicted a wide range of fabrics anddone so with total conviction.[10] In order to render convincingly shimmeringfabrics such as satin, Van Mieris applied extremely fine, fluid brushstrokes
with infinite patience, to convey folds, gleams of light, or reflections. It is infact the subtle rendering of the light reflected by the different fabrics thatmakes them so convincing, almost tactile. The painter’s great eye for detailis also evident from the small chips in the stone balustrade that he depictedwith the utmost care.
Only four names of those depicted in Van Mieris’s 20 extant portraits can be
identified with some certainty, but these sitters indicate the prominent statusof his clientele.[11] The earliest identifiable portrait is the striking depiction of
Ulrik Frederik Gyldenløve, a Danish count who visited Leiden briefly in
1662.[12] The other known sitters are all important Leiden citizens: Agatha
Paets, whom Van Mieris portrayed in 1665, was the wife of Cornelis Paets(1636–94), who served several terms as burgomaster of Leiden and was animportant client of the artist;[13] Florentius Schuyl (1619–69), a Leiden
professor whom Van Mieris portrayed in 1666, this time painted on
copper;[14] and, finally, Franciscus de le Boë Sylvius (1614–72), a professorof chemistry and medicine, and his second wife, Margareta Lucretia Schlezer(see FM-104), who sat for a double portrait by the artist in 1672 (fig 1).[15]The names of the sitters in most of Van Mieris’s portraits are unknown
because, as is the case here, identifications were often omitted at public
sales of family pieces. Buyers were interested more in acquiring a “Van© 2020 The Leiden Collection

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Mieris” than in knowing who was represented, particularly once the paintingsleft Leiden. The history of Van Mieris’s portrait of Jacob van Heemskerck(1643–64), which the artist probably made in 1663, exemplifies the fate of anumber of his portraits. The doors covering that portrait were removed in
1771 when the painting was sold at auction, likely because the doors
displayed a family a coat of arms and the sellers did not want this information
known.[16] Making things more difficult, in the past the provenance of theportrait of Jacob van Heemskerk was confused with that of the male portrait
discussed here, in part because both paintings are executed on panels of thesame size.[17] Whether or not the present pendant paintings once hadcovering doors is not known, but without identifying coats of arms it isunlikely that the identities of these charming sitters can be determined.[18]- Quentin Buvelot© 2020 The Leiden Collection

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Endnotes

1. Otto Naumann, Frans van Mieris (1635–1681) the Elder, 2 vols. (Doornspijk, 1981), 1: 27,
173, 185–86. Cosimo III must have contacted Van Mieris before 1669 (but see ibid., 1: 27 n.
37, 137), because when he visited in 1669 he came to see paintings he had commissioned
the year before.
2. Rudolf E.O. Ekkart in Theodoor Hermann Lunsingh Scheurleer, Cornelia Willemijn Fock, and
A.J. van Dissel, eds., Het Rapenburg: Geschiedenis van een Leidse gracht, 6 vols. and index(Leiden, 1986–92), 6a: 24–25.
3. Otto Naumann was unable to trace the paintings for his authoritative monograph on Van
Mieris; see Otto Naumann, Frans van Mieris (1635–1681) the Elder, 2 vols. (Doornspijk,
1981), 1:139 n. 253.
4. Otto Naumann, Frans van Mieris (1635–1681) the Elder, 2 vols. (Doornspijk, 1981), 2: nos.
90, 94, 95 (and perhaps 91).
5. See the remarks by Otto Naumann in Quentin Buvelot, ed., Frans van Mieris 1635–1681(Exh. cat. The Hague, Mauritshuis; Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art) (New Haven,2005), 41.
6. As kindly communicated by Marieke de Winkel.
7. There must have been more sets of portraits; see Otto Naumann, Frans van
Mieris (1635–1681) the Elder, 2 vols. (Doornspijk, 1981), 1: 139; 2: 102.
8. Balthasar de Monconys, and Sieur de Liergues, Iovrnal des voyages de monsieur deMonconys . . . Lyons (Paris, 1665–66), 2: 153; Otto Naumann, Frans van
Mieris (1635–1681) the Elder, 2 vols. (Doornspijk, 1981), 1:168–69.
9. Balthasar de Monconys, Journal des Voyages de Monsieur de Monconys, 3 vols. (Paris,
1665–66), 2: 153; Otto Naumann, Frans van Mieris (1635–1681) the Elder, 2 vols.
(Doornspijk,

1981),

2:168.

For

thepainting,

see

Otto

Naumann,

Frans

van

Mieris (1635–1681) the Elder, 2 vols. (Doornspijk, 1981), 2: no. 71-I; Quentin Buvelot, ed.,Frans van Mieris 1635–1681 (Exh. cat. The Hague, Mauritshuis; Washington D.C., National
Gallery of Art) (New Haven, 2005), no. 40.
10. Joachim von Sandrart, Joachim von Sandrarts Academie der Bau-, Bild- und MahlereyKünste von 1675: Lebem der berühmten Maler, Bildhauer und Baumeister, ed. Arthur R.
Peltzer, 4 vols. (Nuremburg 1675–79, reprinted in Munich, 1925), 196; Otto Naumann, Frans
van Mieris (1635–1681) the Elder, 2 vols. (Doornspijk, 1981), 1: 183. Later on, De Piles would
repeat this positive criticism (see ibid., 192–93); see also G. de Lairesse, Groot Schilderboek,
2 vols. (Haarlem, 1740) 1:174. For the painting, see Otto Naumann, Frans van
Mieris (1635–1681) the Elder, 2 vols. (Doornspijk, 1981), 2: no. 31; Quentin Buvelot, ed.,© 2020 The Leiden Collection

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Frans van Mieris 1635–1681 (Exh. cat. The Hague, Mauritshuis; Washington D.C., National
Gallery of Art) (New Haven, 2005), 30, fig. 4.
11. See Otto Naumann, Frans van Mieris (1635–1681) the Elder, 2 vols. (Doornspijk, 1981),
1:134–41. A portrait that Van Mieris made of the Leiden burgher Francois Gomarus was
described in an inventory in 1669, its present whereabouts unknown (not mentioned in
Naumann 1981; see Eric Jan Sluijter, Leidse fijnschilders: van Gerrit Dou tot Frans van Mieris
de Jonge, 1630–1760 [Exh. cat. Leiden, Stedelijk Museum De Lakenhal] [Leiden, 1988], 53 n.
213).
12. Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen; Otto Naumann, Frans van Mieris (1635–1681) the
Elder, 2 vols. (Doornspijk, 1981), 2: no. 40; Quentin Buvelot, ed., Frans van Mieris 1635–1681(Exh. cat. The Hague, Mauritshuis; Washington, National Gallery of Art) (New Haven, 2005),
no. 30.
13. Private collection, United States; Otto Naumann, Frans van Mieris (1635–1681) the Elder, 2
vols. (Doornspijk, 1981), 2: no. 60; Buvelot 2005, no. 35.
14. Mauritshuis, The Hague; Otto Naumann, Frans van Mieris (1635–1681) the Elder, 2 vols.
(Doornspijk, 1981), 2: no. 63; Buvelot 2005, no. 37.
15. “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;
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. Newark, Newark Museum; Denver, Denver Art Museum)(Zwolle, 2001), 107, 110, 113 (and fig. 141), 228 n. 27.
16. See R. E. O. Ekkart, “Frans van Mieris en het portret van Jacob van Heemskerk,” Leids
Jaarboekje 77 (1985): 48; 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), 6a: 112 and fig. 31.
17. For the Portrait of Jacob Willemsz van Heemskerck (1643–1664), made around 1663, panel,
22.5 x 16.5 cm, present whereabouts unknown, see Otto Naumann, Frans van
Mieris (1635–1681) the Elder, 2 vols. (Doornspijk, 1981), 2:137–38, no. B 28 and fig. CB 28;
R. E. O. Ekkart, “Frans van Mieris en het portret van Jacob van Heemskerk,” Leids
Jaarboekje 77 (1985): 48–51 and fig. 1; Rudolf E. O. Ekkart in Het Rapenburg: Geschiedenis
van een Leidse gracht, ed. Thedoor Hermann Lunsingh Scheurleer, Cornelia Willemijn Fock,and A.J. van Dissel, 6 vols. and index (Leiden, 1986–92), 6a: 25, 112, 135, no. 3, 147 n. 215
and fig. 31; Quentin Buvelot, Otto Naumann, and Eddy de Jongh, Frans van Mieris
1635–1681, ed. Quentin Buvelot (Exh. cat. The Hague, Mauritshuis; Washington D.C.,
National Gallery of Art) (New Haven, 2005), 238, no. 126. The reference to the Heemskerk© 2020 The Leiden Collection

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sale of 2 September 1771 was introduced in the provenance of FM-110.a as a hypothesis by
Cornelis Hofstede de Groot, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch
Painters of the Seventeenth Century Based on the Work of John Smith, ed. and trans.
Edward G. Hawke, 10: 83, no. 307, 89, no. 330, and erroneously repeated thereafter, 8 vols.
(London, 1907–28); originally published as Beschreibendes und kritisches Verzeichnis derWerke der hervorragendsten höllandischen Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts, 10 vols. (Esslingen
and Paris, 1907–28) Otto Naumann, Frans van Mieris (1635–1681) the Elder, 2 vols.
(Doornspijk, 1981), 2, 89, already doubted this provenance.
That the painting came from the famous collection of Gerret Braamcamp has been doubted
by Clara Bille, De Tempel der Kunst of het Kabinet van den Heer Braamcamp, 2 vols.
(Amsterdam, 1961), 2:106, no. 136, quite wrongly in my opinion, as the catalogues of thesales in 1834 and again in 1868 clearly refer to this famous collection. See References andProvenance. This provenance was already proposed by John Smith, A Catalogue Raisonnéof the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish and French Painters, 9 vols. (London,
1829–42), 1:71, who as a dealer was very well informed; see also Otto Naumann, Frans van
Mieris (1635–1681) the Elder, 2 vols. (Doornspijk, 1981), 2:89.
18. The same applies to certain double portraits by Van Mieris (Otto Naumann, Frans van
Mieris (1635–1681) the Elder, 2 vols. [Doornspijk, 1981], 2: nos. 105, 113; Quentin Buvelot,
ed., Frans van Mieris 1635–1681 (Exh. cat. The Hague, Mauritshuis; Washington D.C.,
National Gallery of Art) (New Haven, 2005), no. 46 and 58, fig. 18).

Provenance
Gerard Bicker, Lord of Swieten, The Hague, by 1738 (his sale, The Hague, 12 April 1741,
nos. 60 and 61 [for 105 florins]).
Probably Gerret Braamcamp, Amsterdam (his sale, Van der Schley, de Bosch, Ploos vanAmstel, de Winter and Yver, Amsterdam, 31 July 1771, no. 136 [Ploos van Amstel for 54
florins]).
Cornelis Ploos van Amstel, Amsterdam, 1771.
Possibly Simon Stinstra, Haarlem (his sale, Amsterdam, 26 March 1783, no. 82 [Fouquet for
30 florins]).
[Pieter Fouquet, Amsterdam].
Charles-Ferdinand, Duc de Berry, Paris, before 1820.
His widow, Marie-Caroline de Bourbon, Duchesse de Berry, Galerie du Palais l’Elysee
Bourbon, Paris, 1820–37 (put up for sale in London, 17 April 1834, nos. 76 and 78, not sold;sale Paillet, Paris, 4–6 April 1837, nos. 66 and 67 [Prince Demidoff for 4,200 and 5,250© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of a Twenty-Five-Year-Old Woman
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francs, respectively]).
Anatole N. Demidoff, Prince of San Donato (1812–70), Florence, by 1837 (his sale, Hôtel
Drouot, Paris, 18 April 1868, nos. 7 and 8 [Madame de Caussin for 10,700 francs]).
Adèle Caussin, “Madame la Marquise Landolfo Carcano” (1831–1921), Paris, 1868–1912(her sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 30 May 1912, nos. 164 and 165 [Baron Cassel van
Doorn for 15,200 francs]).
Baron Cassel van Doorn, Brussels, by 1912.
Collection of Mrs. Jacobs, New York.
Collection of H. Moser, Berlin and Aerdenhout (his sale, Mensing, Amsterdam, 9 April 1940,
no. 719 [for 3,600 florins]).
Private collection, Netherlands; by inheritance to the son of this Dutch couple, until 2003.
[Marina Aarts, Amsterdam, 2003; Bijl-van Urk, B. V., Alkmaar, 2003].
From whom purchased by the present owner.

Exhibition History
London, Messrs. Christie, Manson and Woods, “Catalogue of the Matchless Collection of
Dutch and Flemish Pictures of His Late Royal Highness the Duke de Berri,” April 1834, 36,
nos. 76 and 78.
Haarlem, Frans Hals Museum, “Winter-tentoonstelling van oude kunst uit particulier bezit,”
20 January–14 February 1940, 6, nos. 43 and 44.
Laren, Singer Museum, “Kunstbezit rondom Laren, 13de–20ste eeuw: Schilderijenbeeldhouwwerken,” 3 July–31 August 1958, 28, nos. 112 and 113.
Raleigh, North Carolina Museum of Art, “Small Treasures: Rembrandt, Vermeer, Hals, andTheir Contemporaries,” 12 October 2014–4 January 2015; Birmingham, Birmingham Museumof Art, 1 February–26 April 2015, no. 24 [lent by the present owner].

References
Hoet, Gerard, and Pieter Terwesten. Catalogus of naamlyst van schilderyen, met derzelver
pryzen, zedert een langen reeks van jaaren zoo. 3 vols. The Hague, 1752–70, 2:16, nos.
60–61.
Catalogue of the Matchless Collection of Dutch and Flemish Pictures of His Late RoyalHighness the Duke de Berri. London 1834, 36, nos. 76 and 78.
© 2020 The Leiden Collection

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Smith, John. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish andFrench Painters. 9 vols. London, 1829–42, 1:71; suppl., 1842, 9:49–50, nos. 50 and 51.
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 translatedby Edward G. Hawke, 10: 83, no. 307, 89, no. 330. 8 vols. London, 1907–28. Originallypublished as Beschreibendes und kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke der hervorragendsten
höllandischen Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts. 10 vols. Esslingen and Paris, 1907–28.
Bille, Clara.

De Tempel der Kunst of het Kabinet van den Heer Braamcamp.

2 vols.

Amsterdam, 1961, 2:106, no. 136.
Naumann, Otto. Frans van Mieris (1635–1681) the Elder. 2 vols. Doornspijk, 1981, 1:139 n.
253; 2:88–89, nos. 73 and 74.
Ekkart, Rudolf E.O.. “Leidse Burgers in Beeld: Portrettisten in Leiden van de late zestiende
tot de vroege achttiende eeuw.” In Het Rapenburg: Geschiedenis van een Leidse gracht.
Edited by Theodoor Hermann Lunsingh Scheurleer, Cornelia Willemijn Fock, and A.J. Van
Dissel, 6a:25. 10 vols. Leiden, 1986–92.
Buvelot, Quentin, Otto Naumann, and Eddy de Jongh. Frans van Mieris 1635–1681. Editedby Quentin Buvelot, 40–41, figs. 23 and 24, 235, nos. 73–74. Exh. cat. The Hague,
Mauritshuis; Washington, National Gallery of Art. Zwolle, 2005.
Weller, Dennis P. Small Treasures: Rembrandt, Vermeer, Hals, and Their Contemporaries.
Exh. cat. Raleigh, North Carolina Museum of Art; Birmingham, Birmingham Museum of Art.
Raleigh, 2014, 138-41, no. 24.

Technical Summary
The support, a single plank of horizontally grained but vertically oriented rectangular oak with anarched upper edge, has bevels on all four sides and a shim glued along the lower edge.[1]The unthinned and uncradled plank has one red wax collection seal with a crisp impression of an
octagonal-shaped starburst (similar to the impression on the seal on the panel reverse of thecompanion portrait FM-110.a), remnants of additional red wax with no impressions, and a
fragment of an old paper label with an iron gall ink inscription identifying the artist. Verticalscrapes expose light-colored wood (similar to the scrapes on the panel reverse of the companion
portrait FM-110.a), but there are no import stamps, stencils, panel maker’s marks or machine tool
marks.
The paint is applied over a smooth light gray ground in successive thin layers with low
brushmarking and transparent glazing. The horizontal wood grain is visible and appears as thinblue lines through the figure’s white dress, arms and neck but not in her face, which is painted© 2020 The Leiden CollectionPowered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

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slightly thicker. The figure’s pearl hair ornaments, bracelets, necklace and folds of her drapery
are painted with slightly raised brushwork.
The painting is signed and dated in dark paint along the background in the lower right quadrant, tothe right of the figure.
No underdrawing is readily apparent in infrared images. Compositional changes revealed in theimages include a slight shift to the right of the figure’s proper right profile and a change or shift tothe left of the curls along the proper left side of the figure’s hair.
The painting, which was cleaned and restored in 2003 and revarnished in 2009, remains in an
excellent state of preservation.

Technical Summary Endnotes

1. The characterization of the wood is based on visual examination of the X-radiograph andpanel reverse images by Ian Tyers. According to Tyers, the panel has good potential for
dendrochronology.

© 2020 The Leiden Collection