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Portrait of Susanna Doublet Huygens
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Portrait of Susanna Doublet Huygens
Caspar Netscher(Prague or Heidelberg ca. 1639 – 1684 TheHague)1669
oil on panel
45.4 x 34.7 cm
signed and dated in light paint, lower rightcorner: “C. Netscher. Ao 1669.”
CN-102

How to cite
Wieseman, Marjorie E. “Portrait of Susanna Doublet Huygens” (2017). In The Leiden Collection Catalogue,
2nd ed. Edited by Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. New York, 2017–20. https://theleidencollection.com/artwork/portraitof-susanna-doublet-huygens/ (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 narrativeoccurs.

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Portrait of Susanna Doublet Huygens
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Susanna Doublet Huygens (1637–1725) was the youngest of five children

Comparative Figures(and the only daughter) born to Constantijn Huygens (1596–1687)—renowned
poet, connoisseur, and tireless secretary to three Dutch stadholders—and hiswife, Suzanna van Baerle (1599–1637). On 20 April 1660 Susanna Huygens
married her cousin Philips Doublet III (1633–1707), Heer van Sint Annalandand Mogershill and treasurer general of the United Provinces. Doublet, theson of Constantijn’s sister Geertruyd and Philips Doublet II, is credited withintroducing French-style gardens (based on the designs of the Frenchlandscape architect André Le Nôtre) to the Netherlands at his estate
Clingendael, near The Hague.[1] From 1687 Doublet was charged withremodeling the stadholder Willem III’s gardens at Huis ten Bosch also
according to French principles. Susanna and Philips Doublet had six
children, of whom three lived to adulthood.
From 1667 to 1672, Caspar Netscher painted six portraits of variousFig 1. Caspar Netscher, Portrait ofPhilips Doublet III, 1667, oil on
panel, 45.4 x 35.5 cm, Herzog
Anton Ulrich-Museum,Braunschweig, inv. 794

members of the Huygens family—prestigious commissions from one of theNetherlands’s most respected dynasties.[2] The first, a portrait of Philips
Doublet, is dated 1667 (fig 1), but may well have been started slightly earlier.
A letter from Christiaan Huygens to Doublet, dated 5 November 1666,
implies that Huygens had already asked his sister for copies of their portraits
by Netscher. A subsequent letter from Huygens to Doublet, dated 26
November 1666, suggests that Doublet had seen to the promised portraits: init, Huygens cautioned Doublet to pack them well and to make sure they were
dry before rolling them and sending them on to Paris. Nearly a year later, inOctober 1667, Huygens had yet to receive the paintings. He chided Doubletfor still leaving them with the painter, commenting “if you expect both of you
to become more beautiful than you are before [the painter puts] the last
touches to the faces, we will have to wait some time yet.” [3]Fig 2. Caspar Netscher, Portrait ofLady Philippina Staunton, 1668, oilon canvas, 86.5 x 68.5 cm,Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, inv. SKC-1611

We do not know when (or if) Huygens ever received the portraits of his sisterand brother-in-law: Christiaan’s letter to Susanna Doublet of 20 January
1668 complains “your painting has not yet arrived,” but it is not certain that
this refers to either or both paintings by Netscher.[4] As the dates on thependant portraits of Philips and Susanna differ (1667 for the former and 1669
for the latter), it may be that the portrait of Philips was completed first anddispatched to Paris, and the one of Susanna followed later. Huygens’sletters would also seem to suggest that there was more than one autographversion of each portrait—the primary version and the ones sent toParis—although only one example of each likeness can be traced. SusannaLouisa Huygens (1714–85), the first documented owner of the painting, wasFig 3. Caspar Netscher, Portrait of© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of Susanna Doublet Huygens
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the granddaughter (on her maternal side) of Susanna and Philips Doubletand (on her paternal side) of Susanna’s brother Lodewijk Huygens. As thea Woman, called the Duchess ofCleveland, 1669, oil on panel, 28.5
x 21.5 cm, private collection

last direct descendant of Constantijn Huygens, she was the heir to several
family collections, and it is not recorded from whom she may have inherited
Netscher’s portrait of her grandmother and namesake.[5]Netscher’s portraits of Susanna and Philips Doublet exemplify thefashionable and highly decorative likenesses that he began to produce in thesecond half of the 1660s: small, seductive images, projecting an aura ofaffluence and savoir faire that suited the increasingly cosmopolitan
aspirations of a wealthy Dutch patriciate.[6] Netscher depicted Susannain three-quarter length before a lush red velvet curtain and a distant garden
view; she is turned slightly to the left, acknowledging the pendant likeness ofher husband (fig 1). Susanna wears a white satin gown over a tightly ruchedchemise, the sleeves of which are rolled back and pinned up at the elbows
with a single pearl. The sleeves of her gown are slashed to reveal a salmonpink lining, the only touch of color in her otherwise pristine attire. The folds ofher skirt are swept back lightly to give the figure an impression of forward
movement. Susanna holds a sprig of orange blossoms in her left hand; theflowers were a traditional symbol of purity and thus a suitable attribute forbrides and married women.[7] When the portrait was cleaned in 2006,
overpaint around the sitter’s head was removed to reveal an extravagant
coiffure representing the epitome of French-inspired fashion in the years
prior to 1670.[8] Popularized in France by the Marquise de Sévigné, the style(known as “à la hurluberlu”) featured massive clusters of dangling curls toeither side of the head.
In composition and execution the Portrait of Susanna Doublet Huygens canbe compared with a number of other female portraits painted by Netscher
during the same period in both three-quarter and full length, such as thePortrait of Lady Philippina Staunton, dated 1668 (fig 2), or the Portrait of aWoman, called the Duchess of Cleveland, dated 1669 (fig 3). Particularly
successful in the present portrait is the way in which Netscher used theflashes of salmon-colored lining at the sleeves to link the figure with the rubyvelvet curtain and the ruddy tones of the background landscape.

- Marjorie E. Wieseman, 2017

© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of Susanna Doublet Huygens
Page 5 of 9Endnotes

1. Vanessa Bezemer-Sellers, “Clingendael: An Early Example of a Le Nôtre-style Garden inHolland,” Journal of Garden History 7, no. 1 (1987): 1–42.
2. In addition to the present painting, these are: Portrait of Philips Doublet III, 1667, oil on panel,
45.4 x 35.5 cm, Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum, Braunschweig, inv. 794; Portrait of Geertruyd
Huygens, 1668, oil on panel, 46.5 x 39.5 cm, Huygensmuseum Hofwijk, Voorburg; Portrait ofa Young Man, possibly of the Huygens Family, 1669, oil on panel, 47.5 x 39.5 cm, presentwhereabouts unknown; Portrait of Christiaan Huygens, 1671, oil on paper mounted on panel,
30 x 24 cm, Haags Historisch Museum, The Hague, inv. 73.26; and Portrait of Constantijn
Huygens, 1672, oil on panel, 27 x 23 cm, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, inv. A 292. See Marjorie
E. Wieseman, Caspar Netscher and Late Seventeenth-Century Dutch Painting (Doornspijk,2002), 215–16, 221, 231, 244–45, and 247–48, nos. 66, 73, 89, 107, and 112 respectively.
3. See Marjorie E. Wieseman, Caspar Netscher and Late Seventeenth-Century Dutch Painting(Doornspijk, 2002), 127–28, docs. 22, 23, 25, 26; and Christiaan Huygens, Oeuvrescomplètes, vol. 6, Correspondance 1666–1669, ed. Johannes Bosscha Jr. (The Hague,1895), nos. 1562 (Christiaan Huygens to Philips Doublet, 5 November 1666); 1565
(Christiaan Huygens to Philips Doublet, 26 November 1666); 1592 (Christiaan Huygens toLodewijk Huygens, 15 July 1667); and 1607 (Christiaan Huygens to Philips Doublet, 23October 1667); accessed online, 17 May 2013.
4. Christiaan Huygens, Oeuvres complètes, vol. 6, Correspondance 1666–1669, ed. Johannes
Bosscha Jr. (The Hague, 1895), no. 1620 (Christiaan Huygens to Susanna Huygens, 20January 1668); accessed online, 17 May 2013.
5. On the history and dispersal of the Huygens family collections, see Ernst Wilhelm Moes, “Eenverzameling familieportretten der Huygensen in 1785,” Oud Holland 14 (1896): 176–84; andA. M. Th. Leerintveld, “Ter goeder memorie van mynen naem: De nalatenschap vanConstantijn Huygens,” in Soeticheydt des Buyten-levens: leven en leren op Hofwijck, ed.
Victor Freijser (Delft, 1988), 97–115.
6. On Netscher’s crafting of his distinctive portrait style, see Marjorie E. Wieseman, Caspar
Netscher and Late Seventeenth-Century Dutch Painting (Doornspijk, 2002), 92–101.
7. Eddy de Jongh, Portretten van echt en trouw: Huwelijk en gezin in de Nederlandse kunst vande zeventiende eeuw (Exh. cat. Haarlem, Frans Hals Museum) (Zwolle, 1986), 189.
8. The overpainted hairstyle is illustrated in (among others) Marjorie E. Wieseman, Caspar
Netscher and Late Seventeenth-Century Dutch Painting (Doornspijk, 2002), pl. 88.
9. Marjorie E. Wieseman, Caspar Netscher and Late Seventeenth-Century Dutch Painting(Doornspijk, 2002), 223–24, 230, nos. 77 and 87 respectively.
© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of Susanna Doublet Huygens
Page 6 of 9ProvenancePossibly Christiaan Huygens (1629–95), Paris; by descent to Susanna Louisa Huygens,Baroness van Wassenaer van Rijven (1714–85); by descent to her nephew, Johan Phillips
Hoeufft (1769–1821) (sale, Joannes Huygens, The Hague, 4 October 1825, no. 51 [for 26florins to Camberlyn together with its pendant, no. 50, Portrait of Philips Doublet III]).
Joseph Guillaume Jean Camberlyn (1783–1861), Amougies, Pepinghem, Belgium, by 1825;
by descent to Hyacinthe Camberlyn (1829–90), Amougies; by descent to Joseph Camberlyn,Amougies (his sale, Frederik Muller, Amsterdam, 13 July 1926, no. 629 [for 5,200 florins to“Van Groningen op Hoevelaken,” together with its pendant, no. 628, Portrait of Philips
Doublet III]).
Dr. C. J. K. van Aalst (1866–1939), Hoevelaken, The Netherlands, possibly by 1926; bydescent until ca. 1957.
[Cramer Oude Kunst Gallery, The Hague, 1965–66].
Private collection, Germany, by 1966 (sale, Sotheby’s, London, 22 April 2004, no. 42[Salomon Lilian, B. V., 2004]).
From whom acquired by the present owner in 2004.

Exhibition History
Brussels, Société de Saint Vincent de Paul, “L’Exposition de Tableaux,”1855, no. 89 [lent byJoseph Guillaume Jean Camberlyn].
Brussels, Académie Royale de Belgique, “Exposition de tableaux de maîtres anciens,” 1886
[lent by Joseph Guillaume Jean Camberlyn].
Utrecht, Centraal Museum, “Lustrumtentoonstelling uit het kunstbezit der reünisten van het
Utrechts Studenten Corps,” 22 June–11 July 1956, no. 22 [lent by the heirs of Dr. C. J. K. vanAalst].
The Hague, Galerie Hans Cramer, 1965–66, no. 20.
Norfolk, The Chrysler Museum of Art, on loan with the permanent collection, 2005 (lent by thepresent owner).
Beijing, National Museum of China, “Rembrandt and His Time: Masterpieces from TheLeiden Collection,” 17 June–3 September 2017 [lent by the present owner].
Shanghai, Long Museum, West Bund, “Rembrandt, Vermeer and Hals in the Dutch Golden© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of Susanna Doublet Huygens
Page 7 of 9Age: Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection,” 23 September 2017–25 February 2018 [lentby the present owner].
Moscow, The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, “The Age of Rembrandt and Vermeer:
Masterpieces of The Leiden Collection,” 28 March 2018–22 July 2018 [lent by the presentowner].
St. Petersburg, The State Hermitage Museum, “The Age of Rembrandt and Vermeer:Masterpieces of The Leiden Collection,” 5 September 2018–13 January 2019 [lent by thepresent owner].
Abu Dhabi, Louvre Abu Dhabi, “Rembrandt, Vermeer and the Dutch Golden Age.
Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection and the Musée du Louvre,” 14 February–18 May
2019 [lent by the present owner].

References
Société de Saint Vincent de Paul. Catalogue de l’exposition de tableaux. Exh. cat. Brussels,Société de Saint Vincent de Paul. Brussels, 1855, 56, no. 89.
Académie Royale de Belgique. Exposition de tableaux de maîtres anciens. Exh. cat.
Brussels, Académie Royale de Belgique. Brussels, 1886.
Hymans,Henri.

“CorrespondancedeBelgique:l’exposition

retrospectivedeBruxelles.” Gazette des Beaux-Arts 34, no. 2 (1886): 434.
Moes, Ernst Wilhem. “Een verzameling familieportretten der Huygensen in 1785.” Oud
Holland 14 (1896): 182 no. 3, as signed and dated “C. Netscher 1690” and attributed toConstantijn Netscher.
Von Moltke, Joachim Wilhem Dutch and Flemish Old Masters in the Collection of Dr. C.J.K.
van Aalst, Huis te Hoevelaken. Verona, 1939, 242.
Centraal Museum. Catalogus lustrumtentoonstelling uit het kunstbezit der reünisten van het
Utrechts Studenten Corps. Exh. cat. Utrecht, Centraal Museum. Utrecht, 1956, no. 22.
Van Gelder, Hendrik Enno Ikonografie van Constantijn Huygens en de zijnen. The Hague,1957, 54, no. 4.
Galerie Cramer. Galerie Hans Cramer. Sales cat. The Hague, Galerie Cramer. The Hague,
1965–66, no. 20.
De Jongh, Eddy. “Portret van een jonge vrouw.” In Portretten van echt en trouw: Huwelijk en
gezin in de Nederlandse kunst van de zeventiende eeuw. Exh. cat. Haarlem, Frans HalsMuseum. Zwolle, 1986, 189.
Heesing, Elisabeth. “De kinderen onderling: een hechte familietrouw.” In Soeticheydt desBuyten-levens: leven en leren op Hofwijck. Edited by Victor Freijser, 76. Delft, 1988.
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Portrait of Susanna Doublet Huygens
Page 8 of 9Wieseman, Marjorie E. Caspar Netscher and Late Seventeenth-Century Dutch Painting.
Doornspijk, 2002, 99 no. 3; 230–31, no. 88.
Yeager-Crasselt, Lara. “Portrait of Susanna Doublet Huygens.” In Rembrandt and His Time:Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection. Edited by Lara Yeager-Crasselt, 150; 188, no. 65.
Translated by Li Ying. Exh. cat. Beijing, National Museum of China. Beijing, 2017.
Long Museum, West Bund. Rembrandt, Vermeer and Hals in the Dutch Golden Age:
Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection. Exh. cat. Shanghai, Long Museum, West Bund.
Shanghai, 2017, 168–69.
Yeager-Crasselt, Lara. “Portrait of Susanna Doublet Huygens.” In The Age of Rembrandt andVermeer: Masterpieces of The Leiden Collection. Edited by Polina Lyubimova, 152– 53; 240,no. 43. Translated by Daria Babich and Daria Kuzina. Exh. cat. Moscow, The Pushkin State
Museum of Fine Arts; St. Petersburg, The State Hermitage Museum. Moscow, 2018.
Ducos, Blaise, and Lara Yeager-Crasselt, eds. Rembrandt, Vermeer and the Dutch GoldenAge. Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection and the Musée du Louvre. Exh. cat. AbuDhabi, Louvre Abu Dhabi. London, 2019, 138–39, no. 62. [Exhibition catalogue also publishedin French and Arabic.]

Versions
Versions and Copies
Pendant

1. Caspar Netscher, Portrait of Philips Doublet III, 1667, oil on panel, 45.4 x 35.5 cm, Herzog
Anton Ulrich-Museum, Braunschweig, inv. no. 794.

Technical Summary
The support, a single plank of knotty, vertical wavy-grained, rectangular-shaped non-Baltic oak,has bevels on all four sides,[1] is thinned and uncradled, and has machine tool marks and one red
wax collection seal but no import stamps or panel maker’s marks.
A light-colored ground has been thinly and evenly applied followed by a light gray layer. The painthas been thinly and smoothly applied through the flesh tones and background and with low,visible brushwork through the drapery folds, satin dress, and foliage.
No underdrawing is readily apparent in infrared images captured at 780–1000 nanometers. No
compositional changes are noted, although the X-radiograph suggests the vegetation may have
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Portrait of Susanna Doublet Huygens
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originally extended lower along the lower right.
The painting is signed and dated in light paint along the lower right corner.
The painting was cleaned and restored in 2006 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 by IanTyers.

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