Portrait of a Boy with a MiniatureThree-Master

1696

Pieter van der Werff(Kralingen 1665 – 1722 Rotterdam)

48.2 x 39.2 cm

oil on canvas
signed and dated in light paint, centered alonglower edge: “P:v. weRff fec / 1696”
PW-101© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of a Boy with a Miniature Three-Master
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How To Cite
Jansen, Guido. "Portrait of a Boy with a Miniature Three-Master." In The Leiden Collection Catalogue.
Edited by Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. New York, 2017.
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Portrait of a Boy with a Miniature Three-Master
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Looking at us from his place in a decorative oval frame of palm branches

Comparative Figures

painted to imitate a relief in stone, a blond-haired boy, whose sumptuous
clothing includes a red velvet beret with three white feathers, is seenagainst a parklike background. He wears a yellow-and-gray striped suitover a shirt with lace cuffs and collar. A blue shawl trimmed with gold braid
is draped over his left shoulder. Floating in the rectangular stone basinnext to him is a small three-master with a reddish orange ribbon tied to it,which he holds in his right hand. As far as is known, this portrait of a boy
playing with a miniature three-master is unique in Dutch painting of theseventeenth century. The miniature three-master flies the red, white andblue flag of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands atop themainmast and the mizzen, and a golden lion rampant adorns the taffrail(taffarel), the part of a ship that rises above the stern and is often
decorated with ornate woodcarving. An arm holding a raised sword isdiscernible on the orange flag flying above the taffrail.
The canvas was signed and dated 1696 by Pieter van der Werff. This dateis significant in the artist’s oeuvre, because in that year he embarked on
the most important commission of his career: 30 oval portraits of thedirectors of the Rotterdam Chamber of the Dutch East India Company(VOC) and their illustrious predecessors, going all the way back to thechamber’s founding in 1602.[1] The series, intended as a gallery of honor,
was meant to hang in the trade hall of the new Oost-Indisch Huis, locatedon the Boompjes. The cornerstone was laid in 1695 and the building wasfinished in 1698. Pieter van der Werff painted the first portraits fromexisting works—including originals by Frans Hals (1582/83–1666), Ludolfde Jongh (1616–79), and Pieter’s elder brother, Adriaen van der Werff(1659–1722)—which is why he did not sign them. He did, however, sign
the portraits in this series he painted from life after 1698.
Thanks to this commission, from 1696 onward Pieter van der Werff
regularly found himself in the company of the most prominent families ofRotterdam, searching for portraits of deceased directors of the VOC thathe could use as examples. The boy portrayed here must therefore belong
to a family with VOC connections, as evidenced by both the portrait’s date
and the sitter’s toy ship. The three-master can in fact be identified as an
East Indiaman. Ships of this type, which averaged 40 meters in length,were generally used by the VOC for trade with Asia.

© 2017 The Leiden Collection

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In addition to obvious connections with the VOC, the boy’s family probably
also had ties to the Admiralty on the Maze (Meuse), which would not havebeen unusual in Rotterdam. This link is suggested by the golden lion on
the stern. The most famous ship with the name and taffrail decoration ofGouden Leeuw (Golden Lion) was the over 50-meter long, 82-gun threemaster built in 1666 by the Amsterdam Admiralty. It became the flagship ofAdmiral Cornelis Tromp, the Rotterdam-born son of Admiral Maarten
Harpertsz Tromp. The Gouden Leeuw was one of the most famous Dutch
men-of-war of its time, alongside De Zeven Provinciën (The SevenProvinces), the flagship of Admiral Michiel de Ruyter. Willem van de Velde
the Elder (1611–93), his son Willem van de Velde the Younger(1633–1707), and Ludolf Bakhuizen (1631–1708) portrayed the Gouden
Leeuw on several occasions, even after the vessel was retired fromservice in 1686.[2] In contrast to the Rotterdam Chamber of the VOC,
which played a less influential role within the organization, the Admiralty on
the Maze was second in importance in Holland only to the Amsterdam
Admiralty. The Maze Admiralty was in fact the oldest and most venerable
admiralty college in the Dutch Republic. Serving as a representative of thisadmiralty was a great honor, certainly in Rotterdam. We may therefore
assume that Pieter van der Werff deliberately portrayed this boy with a toy
three-master that refers to the legendary Gouden Leeuw.[3]-Guido Jansen© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of a Boy with a Miniature Three-Master
Page 5 of 6Endnotes
1. Martine Fleurke, “‘. . . by meenigt’ aan de wanden en mueren . . .’: De portretten van debewindhebbers van de Kamer Rotterdam,” in Peter Grimm et al., Heeren in zaken: De
Kamer Rotterdam van de Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie (Zutphen, 1994), 93–105,
with illustrations of all the portraits in the series.

2. Margarita Russell, Willem van de Velde de Jonge: Het IJ voor Amsterdam met de Gouden
Leeuw (Bloemendaal, 1992).
3. Johan Hendrik Willem Unger, De regeering van Rotterdam, 1328–1892: Naamlijst vanpersonen die in of van wege de regeering ambten hebben bekleed, voorafgegaan door
eene geschiedkundige inleiding over den regeeringsvorm van Rotterdam (Rotterdam,1892), 536, 538–39. Unger’s Naamlijst shows that only a limited number of Rotterdam
families can be connected with this portrait. The directors of the Rotterdam Chamber of theVOC in this period (1696–98) were Josua van Belle (a well-known art collector), Dirck deRaedt, Jacob Dane (who remained a bachelor), Willem van Hogendorp, and Marinus
Groeninx. In those years the representatives of the Admiralty on the Maze were Jean Beyerand Marinus Groeninx.

Provenance(Sale, Frederick Muller, Amsterdam, 1 June 1926, no. 1073).
Private collection, The Netherlands [Noortman Master Paintings, Maastricht; Salomon Lilian
B. V., Amsterdam, 2004].
From whom acquired by the present owner in 2004.

Exhibition History
Norfolk, Va., Chrysler Museum of Art, on loan with the permanent collection, 2005 [lent bythe present owner].

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The support, a fine, plain-weave, rectangular fabric, has been lined. All four tacking margins
have been removed and paper tape extends into the face of the painting. Pronounced cuspingalong the left edge and slight cusping along the remaining edges suggests the composition’sdimensions have not been significantly altered, however, the feigned oval is narrower along theupper left quadrant than along the upper right and the elements along the midpoint of the upperedge appear compressed, which suggests these edges may have been trimmed slightly. Thereis one numerical inscription, but no wax seals, canvas stamps, paper labels, or stencils on thereverse.
A thin, smooth, light ground layer was applied overall. The feigned oval image was constructedwith layers of opaque paint followed by thin glazes and delicate dabs that create the illusion ofwhite lace along the cuffs and collar, gold trim along the blue robe, and the richly decorated sternof the three-mast sailing ship.
No underdrawing is readily apparent in infrared images captured at 780–1000 nanometers. The
images reveal a compositional change along the rectangular stone basin in which the miniature
three-mast ship sails. Originally, the left edge of the basin was similar in width to the front andback edges and the left rear corner of the basin remained exposed. During the paint stage, thewidth of the left edge was increased by a third and the blue drapery was shifted so it cascades
diagonally over and obscures the left rear corner of the basin. In addition, a slight shift was madeto the figure’s proper left hand and adjacent drapery fold.
The painting is signed and dated in light-colored paint along the center of the lower edge.
The painting has not undergone conservation treatment since its acquisition in 2004 and remains
in a good state of preservation despite drying cracks and a few small areas of loss confined to ahorizontal band across the width of the lower edge.

Technical Summary Endnotes© 2017 The Leiden Collection