© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of Mrs. van Acker (?)
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Portrait of Mrs. van Acker (?)

1683
oil on panel
39.4 x 30.8 cm
signed and dated in light paint, upper rightcorner: “W. V. Mieris. Fecit Anno 168(3).”WM-106.bWillem van Mieris(Leiden 1662 – 1747 Leiden)

How to cite
Aono, Junko. “Pendant Portraits of Samuel van Acker and His Wife (?), 1683” (2017). In The Leiden Collection
Catalogue,

2nded.

EditedbyArthurK.

WheelockJr.

NewYork,

2017–20.

https://theleidencollection.com/artwork/portrait-of-mrs-van-acker/ (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

Portrait of Mrs. van Acker (?)
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These two paintings, dated 1683, are outstanding examples of the early work

Comparative Figuresof the promising young artist Willem van Mieris, who painted these portraits
in the very year he joined the Leiden Guild of Saint Luke.[1] These portraits
must have been one of the earliest commissions that he received as anindependent painter. He painted another pair of portraits one year later thatshow a comparable approach, not only in the strong chiaroscuro effects andbrownish tonalities, but also in the sitters’ fashionable appearance ((fig 1)and (fig 2)).[2]The male sitter, Samuel van Acker, wears a luminous brown Japanese gown
and stands in an interior with a pedimented door in the background. Throughthe door can be seen a garden with a statue of cupid. Holding a letter in hisleft hand, he rests his right hand on three bolts of fabric lying on the wooden
table. His female counterpart also poses in an interior with a table and anFig 1. Willem van Mieris, Portraitof Gualtherus Kolff, 1684, oil on
panel, 18.5 x 14.5 cm, private
collection

open doorway, partially obscured by a curtain, in the background.
Handsomely attired in a decorative black lace cap and a brown satin dress,
she holds a rose in one hand and with the other feeds a small white dog
standing on a chair beside her. On the table behind her is additional caninesustenance, together with a vase of flowers. In both paintings, bright lightfalling from the upper left illuminates the sitters and casts a deep shadow on
the right side of their faces. The artist’s virtuosity in minutely rendering
different kinds of materials and textures is evident in the shimmering
highlights on the sitters’ clothing, as well as in the specular reflections
glancing off the silver writing set beside Samuel van Acker.
The identification of the male is known from the letter he holds, which isaddressed to: “Monsr Samuel van Acker” (fig 3). Van Acker was born inLeiden in 1658 as the eighth child of carpenter Jan van Acker and Adriaentje

Fig 2. Willem van Mieris, Portraitof Petronella van Duyren, 1684, oil
on panel, 18 x 14.5 cm, private
collection

Samuels de Haen.[3] In 1679 he married Maria le Maistre, daughter ofgreinwercker Pieter le Maistre and Maria Catoir. Samuel was at that time
also a greinwercker, which means that he was manufacturing grein, a very
delicate fabric, partly silk, used for ribbons and stockings.[4] His profession isclearly indicated by the textile bolts on the table. Maria le Maistre died after
giving birth to ten children, whereupon Samuel married Johanna de Hoest in1697.
Considering that the two portraits were already described as pendants inseveral records in the nineteenth century, the female portrait probably
depicts Maria le Maistre. In those days a young, wealthy couple would often
commission an artist to paint their likeness to celebrate their marriage, andFig 3. Detail of the letter in Samuelvan Acker’s hand, WM-106.a© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of Mrs. van Acker (?)
Page 4 of 7such huwelijksportretten (“marriage portraits”) were considered status
symbols.[5] Although the portraits are dated 1683, four years after thecouple’s wedding, their marriage could have been the reason for thecommission. The rose that the woman holds traditionally alluded to love, andmight correspond to the garden statue of cupid in Samuel’s portrait.
The character of the woman’s pose, however, leaves some question as toher identity. In contrast to traditional companion pieces, in which couples
face each other, the woman in this pendant pair does not turn toward hercompanion.[6] The hanging curtain at the left further isolates her from him.
Although it is rather difficult to imagine a young couple commissioning Van
Mieris to portray them in such an unconventional way, the paintings’
identical dimensions, the matching scale of the sitters, the harmonious color
scheme, and the complementary chiaroscuro effects relate the two pictures
to each other extremely well. If the sitter is Maria, then there must have beena specific reason that Van Mieris depicted her in this unusual manner.
An alternative explanation is that the female sitter was another, perhaps
unmarried, member of the Van Acker family. It could be that these two works
originally belonged to a larger suite of family portraits and that they came tobe joined as pendants only through the accident of history.[7] In fact, it islikely that Van Mieris also made portraits of other members of the Van Acker
family. According to his probate inventory, Samuel’s son owned a pair ofportraits that Frans van Mieris the Elder (1635–81) had painted of his
grandparents, Jan van Acker and Adriaentje Samuels de Haen. This pendant
pair was appraised at the enormous amount of 500 guilders.[8] The personalconnection that Jan van Acker had with Frans van Mieris the Elder probably
induced his son, Samuel, to turn to the fledgling artist Willem van Mieris topaint his portrait and other members of his family. Whatever the identity ofthe female sitter, these splendid portraits bear witness to the younger Van
Mieris’s artistic talent and social connections, both of which he would
develop further throughout the course of his career.

- Junko Aono© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of Mrs. van Acker (?)
Page 5 of 7Endnotes

1. For biographic information on Willem van Mieris, see Piet Bakker’s biography in the current
catalogue, and see also Eric Jan Sluijter, Marlies Enklaar, and Paul Niewenhuizen, Leidse
fijnschilders: van Gerrit Dou tot Frans van Mieris de Jonge, 1630–1760 (Exh. cat. Leiden,
Stedelijk Museum De Lakenhal) (Zwolle, 1988), 152.
2. Private collection. Ref., RKD, artwork nos. 125566, 128832.
3. Genealogical information on Samuel van Acker and his family is based on Piet Bakker’s
unpublished research into the baptism, marriage, and burial registers and the Notarial Archive(NA) in the Regionaal Archief Leiden (RAL).
4. Samuel may have met Maria in her father’s workshop, where Samuel could have received
his training.
5. For this type of portrait, see Eddy de Jongh, Portretten van echt en trouw: Huwelijk en gezin
in de Nederlandse kunst van de zeventiende eeuw (Exh. cat. Haarlem, Frans Hals Museum)(Zwolle, 1986).
6. The possibility that the woman’s portrait was intended to hang on the left side should not beeliminated. In fact, the sales catalogue from 8 July 1981 (Sotheby’s, London) illustrates thispair with Van Acker on the right and the woman on the left. This arrangement, however, isodd in that the woman turns toward her companion but he does not acknowledge her. A
female portrait could be hung on the left when the pendants depict two sisters, as seen in
Willem van Mieris’s pendant portraits dated 1688 (RKD artwork nos. 167533, 167538).
7. A woman, either a widow or unmarried, could be portrayed in this way. Portraits of unmarried
women were not typically designed to accommodate a companion painting hung on its left
side. For examples of such portraits, see Eddy de Jongh, Portretten van echt en trouw:
Huwelijk en gezin in de Nederlandse kunst van de zeventiende eeuw (Exh. cat. Haarlem,Frans Hals Museum) (Zwolle, 1986), 73–75, 79–80, 83–86, 93–95, nos. 4, 6, 8, 10. Throughthe process of inheritance, some family portraits may have stayed together while others could
have been dispersed or combined with unrelated pictures. Furthermore, pendant pictures did
not always depict married couples. In the 1749 probate inventory of Samuel’s son, forexample, two portraits were mentioned in one lot. These were portraits of Samuel van Acker
and his daughter Susan, who remained unmarried throughout her life. It is possible that
Samuel’s son inherited this pendant pair from his sister Susan, who died in 1747. Samuel
had two older and two younger sisters, but we lack information about their marriage statuses.
One of them could be a candidate for the female sitter in this pair of portraits.
8. Regionaal Archief Leiden, NA notary G. Camper de Jonge, inv. 2164, documents 72 and 73;
16 August 1749. The inventory mentions only “Van Mieris” as the painter of the portraits.
© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of Mrs. van Acker (?)
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Considering that Jan van Acker died around 1680, this attribution must refer to Frans theElder, as Willem was too young to have executed these pictures.

ProvenanceAnthony Oberman (1781–1845) (his sale, Amsterdam, 31 March 1846, no. 54 [500 florins toRoos], as by Frans van Mieris).
(Sale, Amsterdam, 17 March 1857, no. 78).
(Sale, Sotheby’s, London, 8 July 1981, no. 211).
Private collection, Amsterdam [Salomon Lilian B. V., Amsterdam, 2002; to Noortman Master
Paintings, Maastricht, 2004].
From whom acquired by the present owner in 2004.

References
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, 10:207, no. 394; 212, no. 413. 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.
Burgemeister, Wendela and Dominique Surh. “A Pair of Portraits of Mr. and Mrs. Samuel vanAcker.” In Salomon Lilian: Old Masters 2002. Sales cat. Amsterdam, Salomon Lilian B.V.
Amsterdam, 2002, 48–49, no. 19.
Schavemaker, Eddy. “A Pair of Portraits of Mr and Mrs Samuel van Acker.” In Noortman: One
Hundred Master Paintings. Sales cat. Noortman Master Paintings, Maastricht and London.
Zwolle, 2003, 77, no. 25.

Technical Summary
The support, a single plank of vertically grained, rectangular wedge-shaped, non-Baltic oak, hasbevels on all four sides.[1] The unthinned and uncradled panel has three numerical inscriptions
and machine tool marks but no wax seals, import stamps, labels or panel maker’s marks.

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Portrait of Mrs. van Acker (?)
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A light-colored ground has been thinly and evenly applied followed by a warm brown underlayer,
which is also present in the pendant portrait WM-106.a. The paint has been smoothly applied wetinto-wet along the background and with slightly raised contours along the drapery swag and thefigure’s costume.
No underdrawing is readily apparent in infrared images captured at 780–1000 nanometers;
however, the images reveal a compositional change to the figure’s costume. Two narrow ribbons
previously formed a V-shape and were tied in a bow with two loops along the jacket’s opening. In
addition, the cushion on which the small dog is standing and the upper arm of the figure’s properleft sleeve were both originally slightly wider.
The painting is signed and dated in light paint along the upper right corner.
The painting was cleaned and restored in 2001 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 andpanel reverse images by Ian Tyers. According to Tyers, the panel has good potential fordendrochronology.

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