Pendant Portraits of Samuel vanAcker and His Wife (?), 1683: Portraitof Mrs. van Acker (?)

1683

Willem van Mieris(Leiden 1662 – 1747 Leiden)

signed and dated in light paint, upper rightoil on panel
39.4 x 30.8 cm
corner: “W. V. Mieris. Fecit Anno 168(3).”WM-106.b© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of Mrs. van Acker (?)
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How To Cite
Aono, Junko. "Pendant Portraits of Samuel van Acker and His Wife (?), 1683." InThe Leiden Collection
Catalogue. Edited by Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. New York, 2017.
https://www.theleidencollection.com/archive/.
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Portrait of Mrs. van Acker (?)
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These two paintings, dated 1683, are outstanding examples of the earlyComparative Figures

work of the promising young artist Willem van Mieris, who painted theseportraits in the very year he joined the Leiden Guild of Saint Luke.[1] Theseportraits must have been one of the earliest commissions that he received
as an independent painter. He painted another pair of portraits one year
later that show a comparable approach, not only in the strong chiaroscuro
effects and brownish tonalities, but also in the sitters’ fashionableappearance ((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.
Through the door can be seen a garden with a statue of cupid. Holding a
letter in his left hand, he rests his right hand on three bolts of fabric lying on

Fig 1. Willem van Mieris, Portraitof Gualtherus Kolff, 1684, oil on
panel, 18.5 x 14.5 cm, private
collection

the wooden table. His female counterpart also poses in an interior with atable and an open doorway, partially obscured by a curtain, in thebackground. Handsomely attired in a decorative black lace cap and abrown satin dress, she holds a rose in one hand and with the other feeds asmall white dog standing on a chair beside her. On the table behind her isadditional canine sustenance, together with a vase of flowers. In bothpaintings, bright light falling from the upper left illuminates the sitters andcasts 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 specularreflections glancing off the silver writing set beside Samuel van Acker.
The identification of the male is known from the letter he holds, which isFig 2. Willem van Mieris, Portraitof Petronella van Duyren, 1684,
oil on panel, 18 x 14.5 cm, private
collection

addressed to: “Monsr Samuel van Acker” (fig 3). Van Acker was born inLeiden in 1658 as the eighth child of carpenter Jan van Acker andAdriaentje Samuels de Haen.[3] In 1679 he married Maria le Maistre,
daughter of greinwercker Pieter le Maistre and Maria Catoir. Samuel wasat that time also a greinwercker, which means that he was manufacturinggrein, a very delicate fabric, partly silk, used for ribbons and stockings.[4]His profession is clearly indicated by the textile bolts on the table. Maria le
Maistre died after giving birth to ten children, whereupon Samuel married
Johanna de Hoest in 1697.
Considering that the two portraits were already described as pendants inseveral records in the nineteenth century, the female portrait probablydepicts Maria le Maistre. In those days a young, wealthy couple wouldFig 3. Detail of the letter inSamuel van Acker’s hand,
WM-106.a© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of Mrs. van Acker (?)
Page 4 of 7often commission an artist to paint their likeness to celebrate theirmarriage, and such huwelijksportretten (“marriage portraits”) wereconsidered status symbols.[5] Although the portraits are dated 1683, four
years after the couple’s wedding, their marriage could have been thereason for the commission. The rose that the woman holds traditionallyalluded to love, and might 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 twopictures to each other extremely well. If the sitter is Maria, then there musthave been a specific reason that Van Mieris depicted her in this unusualmanner.
An alternative explanation is that the female sitter was another, perhaps
unmarried, member of the Van Acker family. It could be that these twoworks originally belonged to a larger suite of family portraits and that theycame to be joined as pendants only through the accident of history.[7] Infact, it is likely that Van Mieris also made portraits of other members of theVan Acker family. According to his probate inventory, Samuel’s son owned
a pair of portraits that Frans van Mieris the Elder (1635–81) had painted ofhis grandparents, Jan van Acker and Adriaentje Samuels de Haen. Thispendant pair was appraised at the enormous amount of 500 guilders.[8]The personal connection that Jan van Acker had with Frans van Mieris theElder probably induced his son, Samuel, to turn to the fledgling artist
Willem van Mieris to paint his portrait and other members of his family.
Whatever the identity of the 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

© 2017 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, ed.,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 HalsMuseum) (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. Afemale 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’sson, for example, two portraits were mentioned in one lot. These were portraits of Samuelvan 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 in1747. Samuel had two older and two younger sisters, but we lack information about theirmarriage statuses. One of them could be a candidate for the female sitter in this pair ofportraits.
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.
© 2017 The Leiden Collection

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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. Beschreibendes und kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke derhervorragendsten höllandischen Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts. 10 vols. Esslingen andParis, 1907–28, 10:207, no. 394; 212, no. 413.
Burgemeister, Wendela and Surh, Dominique. “A Pair of Portraits of Mr. and Mrs. Samuelvan Acker.” 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.” InNoortman:
One Hundred Master Paintings. 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.
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
wet-into-wet along the background and with slightly raised contours along the drapery swag andthe figure’s costume.
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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 proper
left 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.

© 2017 The Leiden Collection