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Portrait of a Thirty-Year-Old Man
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Portrait of a Thirty-Year-Old Man andPortrait of a Twenty-Five-Year-Old
Woman: Portrait of a Thirty-Year-Old
Man

1669

Frans van Mieris(Leiden 1635 – 1681 Leiden)

figure’s upper arm, AE in ligature: “AE T. 30

oil on panel with arched top
23.5 x 16.8 cm
signed and dated in dark paint, center left, left ofFvan Mieris Ao 1669”
FM-110.a

How To Cite
Buvelot, Quentin. "Portrait of a Thirty-Year-Old Man and Portrait of a Twenty-Five-Year-Old Woman." InThe Leiden Collection Catalogue. Edited by Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. New York, 2017.
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Portrait of a Thirty-Year-Old Man
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In 1669 Cosimo III de’ Medici visited a number of painters in their studios

Comparative Figures

as a 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 that important seventeenth-century artistic center.
Like most of his genre pieces, Van Mieris’s portraits are small andexecuted in a very refined technique.[2] These pendant paintings, whichhave a long and distinguished provenance but whose whereabouts were
unknown for more than half a century,[3] are the only pair of his portraits ofa husband and his wife that has not been separated over the course oftime (see FM-109).[4] The two panels show Van Mieris’s great qualities as
a portraitist. We see a young couple (according to the inscriptions, “At. 30”
and “AET. 25,” the husband was 30 and his wife five years his junior)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

standing in the open air 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 andhair all are decorated with expensive 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 theman, a sculpture, probably depicting Venus, the goddess of love, is acounterpoint to the sculpture of Cupid with his arrow behind the woman.
This juxtaposition of pictorial elements suggests that a loving bond exists
between the spouses. She smiles enigmatically, holding her hand on her
belly, as if to suggest 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 bepregnant.[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
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pendant portraits by Van Mieris that are still extant.[7] Despite the different
orientation in the two sets, many similarities exist in Van Mieris’s
approach. In both sets of paintings, the man gazes at his wife, while she
looks at the viewer. They also share a similar contrast between the dressof 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 thevarious fabrics of the figures’ clothing. When the French connoisseur andscholar-diplomat 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 noted that her cream-colored satin dress was executed sowell that it looks real: “si bien faits qu’on eust assuré que c’estoit del’estoffe.”[9] In 1675 Joachim von Sandrart (1606–88), describing The
Cloth Shop (Gemäldegalerie, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna), thesubject of which is germane to this theme, emphasized that the painterhad depicted a wide range of fabrics and done so with total
conviction.[10] In order to render convincingly shimmering fabrics such as
satin, Van Mieris applied extremely fine, fluid brushstrokes with infinite
patience, to convey folds, gleams of light, or reflections. It is in fact thesubtle rendering of the light reflected by the different fabrics that makes
them so convincing, almost tactile. The painter’s great eye for detail is also
evident from the small chips in the stone balustrade that he depicted withthe utmost care.
Only four names of those depicted in Van Mieris’s 20 extant portraits canbe identified with some certainty, but these sitters indicate the prominent
status of 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 ofCornelis Paets (1636–94), who served several terms as burgomaster ofLeiden and was an important client of the artist;[13] Florentius Schuyl(1619–69), a Leiden professor whom Van Mieris portrayed in 1666, thistime painted on copper;[14] and, finally, Franciscus de le Boë Sylvius(1614–72), a professor of chemistry and medicine, and his second wife,© 2017 The Leiden Collection

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Margareta Lucretia Schlezer (see FM-104), who sat for a double portraitby 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
Mieris” than in knowing who was represented, particularly once thepaintings left 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 a number 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 notwant this information known.[16] Making things more difficult, in the past theprovenance of the portrait of Jacob van Heemskerk was confused withthat of the male portrait discussed here, in part because both paintings are
executed on panels of the same size.[17] Whether or not the present
pendant paintings once had covering doors is not known, but without
identifying coats of arms it is unlikely that the identities of these charming
sitters can be determined.[18]-Quentin Buvelot© 2017 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. Rudi Ekkart in T. H. Lunsingh Scheurleer, ed., 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. B. 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),
1:168–69.
9. B. 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 the painting, 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. A. R. Peltzer, Joachim von Sandrarts Academie der Bau-, Bild- und Mahlery-Künste von1675 (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., Frans van Mieris 1635–1681 (Exh. cat.
The Hague, Mauritshuis; Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art) (New Haven, 2005), 30,
fig. 4.
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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) (NewHaven, 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 T. H. Lunsingh
Scheurleer, ed., Het Rapenburg: Geschiedenis van een Leidse gracht , 6 vols. and index(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 withcostly peeces’: Two Case Studies of Paintings in Wealthy Interiors,” inArt & Home: Dutch
Interiors in the Age of Rembrandt , ed. M. 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; T. H. Lunsingh Scheurleer, ed., Het Rapenburg: Geschiedenis
van een Leidse gracht, 6 vols. and index (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; R. E. O. Ekkart inHet Rapenburg: Geschiedenis
van een Leidse gracht, ed. T. H. Lansing Scheurleer, 6 vols. and index (Leiden, 1986–92),
6a:25, 112, 135, no. 3, 147 n. 215 and fig. 31; Quentin Buvelot, ed.,Frans van Mieris
1635–1681 (Exh. cat. The Hague, Mauritshuis; Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art)
(New Haven, 2005), 238, no. 126. The reference to the Heemskerk sale of 2 September
1771 was introduced in the provenance of FM-110.a as a hypothesis by Cornelis Hofstede
de Groot, Beschreibendes und kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke der hervorragendsten
höllandischen Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts , 10 vols. (Esslingen and Paris, 1907–28),
10:83, no. 307, 89, no. 330, and erroneously repeated thereafter. Otto Naumann,Frans van
Mieris (1635–1681) the Elder, 2 vols. (Doornspijk, 1981), 2, 89, already doubted this© 2017 The Leiden Collection

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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
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]).
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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 acquired 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
Museum of Art, 1 February–26 April 2015, no. 24 [lent by the present owner].

References
Hoet, Gerard and Terwesten, Pieter. Catalogus of Naamlyst van Schilderyen, met derzelver
pryzen. 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.
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. Beschreibendes und kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke derhervorragendsten höllandischen Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts . 10 vols. Esslingen andParis, 1907–28, 10:83, no. 307, 89, no. 330.
Bille, Clara. De Tempel der Kunst of het Kabinet van den Heer Braamcamp . 2 vols.
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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, R. E. O. “Leidse Burgers in Beeld: Portrettisten in Leiden van de late zestiende tot devroege achttiende eeuw.” In Het Rapenburg: Geschiedenis van een Leidse gracht. Edited
by T. H. Lunsingh Scheurleer. 10 vols. Leiden, 1986–92, 6a:25.
Naumann, Otto and Buvelot, Quentin. In Frans van Mieris 1635–1681. Edited by Quentin
Buvelot. Exh. cat. The Hague, Mauritshuis; Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art. New
Haven, 2005, 40–41, figs. 23 and 24, 235, nos. 73–74.
Weller, Dennis P. Small Treasures: Rembrandt, Vermeer, Hals, and Their Contemporaries .
Exh. cat. Raleigh, North Carolina Museum of Art; Birmingham Museum of Art. Raleigh, 2014,
138-41, no. 24.

Versions
Versions and Copies
1. Oil on panel, 22 x 16.5 cm, sale, A. Wollenberg, Berlin, Lepke, 17 March 1932, no. 202,
probably identical with the painting that appeared at sale, Sotheby’s, Amsterdam, 22 May
1990, no. 91, Sotheby’s, Amsterdam, 12 May 1992, no. 20, bought in, and Sotheby’s,
Amsterdam, 7 May 1993, no. 62; Otto Naumann, Frans van Mieris (1635–1681) the Elder , 2
vols. (Doornspijk, 1981), no. 73a.

2. Oil on panel, 22 x 17 cm, sale, Spitzer et al., Luzern, Fischer, 10 May 1939, no. 1595 andfig. Tafel 31; Otto Naumann, Frans van Mieris (1635–1681) the Elder , 2 vols. (Doornspijk,
1981), no. 73b.

Versions Notes

Technical Summary
The support, a single plank of vertically grained and 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 panel has machine toolmarks along the right bevel, one red wax© 2017 The Leiden CollectionPowered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

Portrait of a Thirty-Year-Old Man
Page 11 of 11collection seal with a crisp impression of an octagonal-shaped starburst (similar to theimpression on the seal on the panel reverse of the companion portrait FM-110.b), remnants ofadditional red wax, and an old paper label identifying J. C. Verhoeven as having restored thepainting in 1949. Vertical scrapes expose light-colored wood below the restorer’s label (similar tothe scrapes on the panel reverse of the companion portrait FM-110.b), but there are no importstamps, stencils or panel maker’s marks.
The paint is applied over a smooth light-colored ground in successive thin layers with low
brushmarking and transparent glazing. Visible strokes of brushwork occur along the folds of the
figure’s white shirt, jacket and sash, as well as along the balustrade. Lively brushwork is foundthrough the upper third of the sky and to the left of the tree.
The painting is signed and dated in dark paint to the left of the figure’s upper arm.
No underdrawing is readily apparent in infrared images captured at 780–1000 nanometers.
Compositional changes revealed in the images include a slight shift to the left of the verticalarchitectural element behind the figure’s head, which was originally located above the part in 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.

© 2017 The Leiden Collection