Portrait of Dina Margareta de Bye
Willem van Mieris(Leiden 1662 – 1747 Leiden)

1705
oil on panel
32.4 x 26.7 cm
signed and dated in dark paint on gray rock,
upper right: “W. Van. Mieris. Fec Anno.
1705”
WM-102© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of Dina Margareta de ByePage 2 of 8

How to cite
Aono, Junko. “Portrait of Dina Margareta de Bye” (2017). In The Leiden Collection Catalogue, 2nd ed. Edited
by Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. New York, 2017–20. https://theleidencollection.com/artwork/portrait-of-dinamargareta-de-bye/ (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.

© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of Dina Margareta de ByePage 3 of 8Standing before an imaginary rocky landscape, a woman handsomely attired

Comparative Figuresin an orange-tinged brown satin dress with an aqua-blue shawl draped
across her body smiles charmingly out at the viewer. On the left, behind apartially drawn curtain and in front of a pillar, stands a fountain with a statueof a cupid riding a sea monster. The woman holds an orange in her left handand carefully selects a red carnation from a bunch of flowers lying on a stone
plinth faced with a carved relief sculpture of an unidentified allegoricalsubject.[1] Resting on this garden plinth is a colored drawing of a flower, asmall wooden box, some paintbrushes, and a couple of shells containing
pigments.
The identification of the sitter is established by an eighteenth-century
inscription written in Dutch on the back of the panel: “Dina Margareta deBye, born on 7 May 1680 and deceased on 26 August 1740.”[2] DinaMargareta was the second daughter of Johan Paeuw de Bye, a lawyer fromFig 1. Caspar Netscher, Portrait ofMaria Timmers (1657–1753),
1683, oil on canvas, 48.2 x 39.7cm, Mauritshuis, The Hague, inv.
no. 127

Leiden, and his wife, Anna van Oorthoorn. In 1703 Dina Margareta married
Pieter van der Dussen (1675–1726), also a lawyer, and moved from Leiden,
where she apparently had been living with her parents on the Rapenburg, toher husband’s native city of Dordrecht.[3] As Willem van Mieris alreadyenjoyed a great reputation among the Leiden elite, he was a suitable choice
to portray the esteemed Dina Margareta, even after she had moved toDordrecht.
It was common for young, wealthy couples to commission pendant portraits
upon

theoccasion

oftheirmarriage.

Such“marriageportraits” (huwelijksportretten) would become important elements of theirpersonal possessions.[4] Although no documents list pendant portraits of themarried couple, Dina Margareta’s inventory at her death in 1740 mentions aportrait of her husband and two portraits of her.[5]Fig 2. Willem van Mieris,
Preparatory Study for Portrait ofDina Margareta de Bye, ca. 1705,
signed, above the relief: Willem /van Mieris. f, black chalk and washon paper, 159 x 133 mm, Leiden
Collection, New York (WM-107)

The pictorial elements and date of this portrait two years after her marriage
indicates that it was made within the marriage portrait tradition. Dina
Margareta’s face and right arm are directed toward the left, that is, in thedirection of her husband, assuming the traditional arrangement of pendant
portraits. The setting and her attributes, moreover, embody virtues that wereexpected of a young wife in early modern Dutch society: purity, chastity, andlove.[6] The water from the fountain and the statue of cupid allude to loveand purity, and the carnation she holds was a popular bridal
flower.[7] Oranges symbolize chastity and, hence, they were often depicted
as an attribute for brides and married women. For example, in a portrait ofFig 3. Arnold Boonen, Portrait of© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of Dina Margareta de ByePage 4 of 8

Maria Timmers by Caspar Netscher (ca. 1639–84), the sitter gestures toward
an orange branch along the basin of a fountain containing a statue of cupid (fig 1).[8] Willem’s father, Frans van Mieris the Elder (1635–81), also depicted
a woman holding an orange in his 1678 portrait of a married couple

Catharina Backer, 1713, oil oncanvas, 47.5 x 40 cm, Amsterdam
Museum, Amsterdam, on loanfrom Backer Stichting, inv. no. SB
2530, photo Amsterdam Museum,René Gerritsen(Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam).[9]Although it is highly probable that Van Mieris painted the male portrait at
the same time, it is also possible that he created this portrait of Dina
Margareta as a pendant to a preexisting portrait of Pieter van der Dussen,
one perhaps even created by a different artist prior to the marriage.[10] Van
Mieris completed Dina Margareta’s portrait only in 1705, two years after hermarriage, perhaps because she had a baby in 1704 and likely had no time tosit for a portrait.[11]In preparation for his portrait, Van Mieris made a rough but precise
preparatory drawing in black chalk, which fortunately is also in the LeidenCollection (fig 2) (WM-107).[12] The drawing’s composition and other pictorial
elements are mostly consistent with those of the painting, although heredirected Dina Margareta’s gaze so she looks out toward the viewer rather
than to the left. He also shifted the direction of the sculpture of the cupid andsea monster in much the same manner, somewhat reinforcing the central
focus of this image on Dina Margareta. The most significant alteration to thepainting is the addition of the drawing, wooden box, paintbrushes, and shells
on the stone plinth. As these are not typical attributes for a marriage portrait,
the motifs can be considered personal attributes of this particular young
woman. In those days, upper-class women often demonstrated their culturaland intellectual capabilities by drawing or painting. For example, in Arnold
Boonen’s marriage portrait of Catharina Backer, who was likewise from a
distinguished family on the Rapenburg, the young bride is depicted not onlywith flowers in a basket but also with a floral still-life painting on an easel (fig3).[13] Such objects probably were meant to convey the same message about
Dina Margareta, who was portrayed as a virtuous woman with a taste for art.

- Junko Aono, 2017

© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of Dina Margareta de ByePage 5 of 8Endnotes

1. The relief, which is only partially visible, may represent a “Triumph of Bacchus” or a festive
scene of drinking cupids. A depiction of excessive drinking could be interpreted as amoralizing warning and as an encouragement of temperance—one of the virtues expected ofwomen—but the relief could also function simply as a decorative scene of merriment.
2. The RKD (Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie/Netherlands Institute for ArtHistory) archive houses a letter by R. J. te Rijdt dated 24 November 1993, which confirmsthat the inscription is in eighteenth-century script.
3. Genealogical information about this couple is based on Piet Bakker’s unpublished research
into the baptism, marriage, and burial registers in the Regionaal Archief Leiden (RAL) and
Gemeente-archief Dordrecht (GAD). Dina Margareta’s father, Johan Pauw de Bye(1650–1715), owned Rapenburg 2 and lived there with his family from 1676 until 1715.
According to the marriage register dated 5 May 1703, Dina Margareta resided on theRapenburg: RAL, Arch. no. 1004, inv. no. 28, “Nederlands Hervormd Ondertrouw(1575–1795)”.
4. 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).
5. After ressettling in Leiden after her husband’s death in 1732, Dina purchased her parents’house on the Rapenburg. According to the estate inventory made after her death in 1740, she
had decorated the large room facing the Rapenburg with “three paintings in gilt frames, thatis, one portrait of Mr. and two of Mrs. Van der Dussen.”
6. 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), 55–57,184–91.
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), 33, 36, fig. 28,
63 n. 5; 189–91.
8. 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), 189–91, no.
38, 244–45; Marjorie E. Wieseman, Caspar Netscher and Late Seventeenth-Century DutchPainting (Doornspijk, 2002), 310, no. 215. For a marriage portrait of a woman holding anorange, see, for example, Thierry Beherman, Godfried Schalcken (Paris, 1988), no. 76.
9. Otto Naumann, Frans van Mieris (1635–1681) the Elder, 2 vols. (Doornspijk, 1981), 2: 119,no. 113; Eddy de Jongh, Portretten van echt en trouw: Huwelijk en gezin in de Nederlandse© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of Dina Margareta de ByePage 6 of 8

kunst van de zeventiende eeuw (Exh. cat. Haarlem, Frans Hals Museum) (Zwolle, 1986),
192–94, no. 39; Quentin Buvelot, ed., Frans van Mieris, 1635–1681 (Exh. cat. The Hague,Mauritshuis; Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art) (New Haven, 2005), 204–6, no. 46.
10. Some portraits by Caspar Netscher have similar compositions and motifs. See, for example,Portrait of a Man (1680, oil on canvas, 48.3 x 39.3 cm, present location unknown): Marjorie E.
Wieseman, Caspar Netscher and Late Seventeenth-Century Dutch Painting (Doornspijk,2002), no. 187.
11. Dina may have wished to have a different type of portrait—one as a mother—when she got
pregnant after her marriage, leading her to pose for Van Mieris only after the birth of her childin 1704. The date inscribed on the picture plane has usually been read as “1705.” Although
the last digit is rather unclear and could be read as a 1 instead of a 5, it is less plausible thatthe portrait was made in 1701. Portraits of unmarried women typically did not have acomposition designed for a companion painting to be hung on the left side of the picture. 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 HalsMuseum) (Zwolle, 1986), 73–75, 79–80, 83–86, 93–95, nos. 4, 6, 8, 10.
12. Willem van Mieris made preparatory drawings for his paintings; most of them are the same
size as his paintings. The present drawing, however, is half the size of the final picture. For
Willem van Mieris’s preparatory drawings, see Emke Elen-Clifford Kocq van Breugel,“Tekeningen van Willem van Mieris (1662–1747) in relatie tot zijn schilderijen,” LeidsKunsthistorisch Jaarboek 4 (1985): 152–58.
13. Theodoor Hermann Lunsingh Scheurleer, Cornelia Willemijn Fock, and A.J. van Dissel, eds.,
Het Rapenburg: Geschiedenis van een Leidse gracht, 6 vols. and index (Leiden 1986–92), 2:
329–36. Catharina (1689–1766), married to the textile manufacturer and art collector Allard dela Court, indeed made flower paintings. A few examples survive, such as the one in theStedelijk Museum De Lakenhal. She even made drawn copies after drawings by Willem vanMieris.

ProvenanceDina Margareta de Bye (1680–1740); by descent in her family to Baron Jules deWyckerslooth de Rooyestein, by 1831; by descent in his family (sale, Sotheby’s, Amsterdam,17 November 1993, no. 19 [to Johnny van Haeften Ltd., London; to a private collector, MonteCarlo, 1994]).
Private collection, Monte Carlo (sale, Christie’s, London, 9 July 2003, no. 51, unsold);[Johnny van Haeften Ltd., London, Richard Green, London, and Otto Naumann Ltd., New© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of Dina Margareta de ByePage 7 of 8York, 2004].
From whom acquired by the present owner in 2004.

Exhibition History
London, Richard Green Gallery, “The Cabinet Picture: Dutch and Flemish Masters of theSeventeenth Century,” 14 April–7 May 1999 [lent by a private collector, Monte Carlo].

References
Wright, Christopher. The Cabinet Picture: Dutch and Flemish Masters of the SeventeenthCentury. Sales cat. London, Richard Green Gallery. London, 1999, 170–71, 195–96.

Technical Summary
The support, a single plank of vertically grained, rectangular oak, has bevels on all foursides.[1] The unthinned and uncradled panel has machine toolmarks along the upper third andhandwritten inscriptions but no wax seals, import stamps or panel maker’s marks along thereverse.
A light-colored ground has been thinly and evenly applied followed by paint applied smoothly insuccessive thin layers of transparent glazing, with slightly raised low brushmarking along thefigure’s drapery folds, the stonework along the lower left corner, and the drapery swag along theupper left.
No underdrawing is readily apparent in infrared images captured at 780–1000 nanometers.
Compositional differences between the painting and its preparatory drawing (WM-107) include theaddition in the painting of the silk painting along the lower left corner, the paint box, paint-filled
seashells, paint brushes, and cut flowers, and the placing of the three putti along the frieze closer
together. In addition, in the painting the figure gazes toward the viewer, holds an orange in her
proper left hand, and pinches a flower stem between the pointer and thumb of her proper righthand. In the preparatory drawing, the figure gazes off to the left, holds nothing in her proper left
hand, and holds two flowers stems in her proper right hand. Also, in the painting the fountain
includes one putto blowing a horn facing toward the right. In the preparatory drawing, the fountain
includes two putti blowing horns facing toward the left.
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Portrait of Dina Margareta de ByePage 8 of 8

The painting is signed and dated in dark paint on a gray rock along the upper right corner.
The painting has not undergone conservation treatment since its acquisition and remains in agood 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.

© 2020 The Leiden Collection