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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, 3rd ed. Edited
by Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. and Lara Yeager-Crasselt. New York, 2020–23. https://www.theleidencollection.com/archive/(archived December 2023).
A PDF of every version of this entry is available in this Online Catalogue's Archive, and the Archive is managed by apermanent URL. New versions are added only when a substantive change to the narrative occurs.

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

only daughter) born to Constantijn Huygens (1596–1687)—renowned poet,connoisseur, and tireless secretary to three Dutch stadholders—and his wife, Suzannavan Baerle (1599–1637). On 20 April 1660 Susanna Huygens married her cousin
Philips Doublet III (1633–1707), Heer van Sint Annaland and Mogershill andtreasurer general of the United Provinces. Doublet, the son of Constantijn’s sister
Geertruyd and Philips Doublet II, is credited with introducing French-style gardens(based on the designs of the French landscape architect André Le Nôtre) to theNetherlands at his estate Clingendael, near The Hague.[1] From 1687 Doublet wascharged with remodeling the stadholder Willem III’s gardens at Huis ten Bosch also
according to French principles. Susanna and Philips Doublet had six children, ofwhom three lived to adulthood.
From 1667 to 1672, Caspar Netscher painted six portraits of various members of theFig 1. Caspar Netscher, Portrait ofPhilips Doublet III, 1667, oil on panel,
45.4 x 35.5 cm, Herzog Anton UlrichMuseum, Braunschweig, inv. 794

Huygens family—prestigious commissions from one of the Netherlands’s mostrespected 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 toDoublet, dated 5 November 1666, implies that Huygens had already asked his sisterfor copies of their portraits by Netscher. A subsequent letter from Huygens toDoublet, dated 26 November 1666, suggests that Doublet had seen to the promised
portraits: in it, 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 Doublet for stillleaving 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, wewill have to wait some time yet.” [3]We do not know when (or if) Huygens ever received the portraits of his sister andFig 2. Caspar Netscher, Portrait ofLady Philippina Staunton, 1668, oil oncanvas, 86.5 x 68.5 cm, Rijksmuseum,
Amsterdam, inv. SK-C-1611

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 orboth paintings by Netscher.[4] As the dates on the pendant portraits of Philips andSusanna differ (1667 for the former and 1669 for the latter), it may be that theportrait of Philips was completed first and dispatched to Paris, and the one of
Susanna followed later. Huygens’s letters would also seem to suggest that there wasmore than one autograph version of each portrait—the primary version and the ones
sent to Paris—although only one example of each likeness can be traced. SusannaLouisa Huygens (1714–85), the first documented owner of the painting, was thegranddaughter (on her maternal side) of Susanna and Philips Doublet and (on herpaternal side) of Susanna’s brother Lodewijk Huygens. As the last direct descendantof Constantijn Huygens, she was the heir to several family collections, and it is not

Fig 3. Caspar Netscher, Portrait of aWoman, called the Duchess ofCleveland, 1669, oil on panel, 28.5 x© 2024 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of Susanna Doublet Huygens
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recorded from whom she may have inherited Netscher’s portrait of her grandmother21.5 cm, private collection

and namesake.[5]Netscher’s portraits of Susanna and Philips Doublet exemplify the fashionable andhighly decorative likenesses that he began to produce in the second half of the 1660s:
small, seductive images, projecting an aura of affluence and savoir faire that suitedthe increasingly cosmopolitan aspirations of a wealthy Dutch patriciate.[6] Netscher
depicted Susanna in three-quarter length before a lush red velvet curtain and a distantgarden 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 ruched chemise,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 salmon-pink lining, the only touch ofcolor in her otherwise pristine attire. The folds of her skirt are swept back lightly togive the figure an impression of forward movement. Susanna holds a sprig of orange
blossoms in her left hand; the flowers were a traditional symbol of purity and thus asuitable attribute for brides and married women.[7] When the portrait was cleaned in2006, overpaint around the sitter’s head was removed to reveal an extravagant
coiffure representing the epitome of French-inspired fashion in the years prior to1670.[8] Popularized in France by the Marquise de Sévigné, the style (known as “à lahurluberlu”) featured massive clusters of dangling curls to either side of the head.
In composition and execution the Portrait of Susanna Doublet Huygens can becompared with a number of other female portraits painted by Netscher during thesame period in both three-quarter and full length, such as the Portrait of Lady
Philippina Staunton, dated 1668 (fig 2), or the Portrait of a Woman, called theDuchess of Cleveland, dated 1669 (fig 3). Particularly successful in the present
portrait is the way in which Netscher used the flashes of salmon-colored lining at thesleeves to link the figure with the ruby velvet curtain and the ruddy tones of thebackground landscape.

- Marjorie E. Wieseman, 2017

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Portrait of Susanna Doublet Huygens
Page 5 of 8Endnotes
1. Vanessa Bezemer-Sellers, “Clingendael: An Early Example of a Le Nôtre-style Garden in Holland,”
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 of a Young Man, possibly of
the Huygens Family, 1669, oil on panel, 47.5 x 39.5 cm, present whereabouts unknown; Portrait ofChristiaan Huygens, 1671, oil on paper mounted on panel, 30 x 24 cm, Haags Historisch Museum, TheHague, 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, and112 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, Oeuvres complètes, vol. 6, Correspondance
1666–1669, ed. Johannes Bosscha Jr. (The Hague, 1895), nos. 1562 (Christiaan Huygens to PhilipsDoublet, 5 November 1666); 1565 (Christiaan Huygens to Philips Doublet, 26 November 1666); 1592
(Christiaan Huygens to Lodewijk Huygens, 15 July 1667); and 1607 (Christiaan Huygens to Philips
Doublet, 23 October 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, 20 January 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; and A. M. Th.
Leerintveld, “Ter goeder memorie van mynen naem: De nalatenschap van Constantijn Huygens,” inSoeticheydt 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 andLate Seventeenth-Century Dutch Painting (Doornspijk, 2002), 92–101.
7. Eddy de Jongh, Portretten van echt en trouw: Huwelijk en gezin in de Nederlandse kunst van dezeventiende eeuw (Exh. cat. Haarlem, Frans Hals Museum) (Zwolle, 1986), 189.
8. The overpainted hairstyle is illustrated in (among others) Marjorie E. Wieseman, Caspar Netscher andLate 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.

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Portrait of Susanna Doublet Huygens
Page 6 of 8ProvenancePossibly Christiaan Huygens (1629–95), Paris; by descent to Susanna Louisa Huygens, Baroness vanWassenaer 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 26 florins to Camberlyn together with itspendant, no. 50, Portrait of Philips Doublet III]).
Joseph Guillaume Jean Camberlyn (1783–1861), Amougies, Pepinghem, Belgium, by 1825; by descentto 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; by descent untilca. 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 by Joseph
Guillaume Jean Camberlyn].
Brussels, Académie Royale de Belgique, “Exposition de tableaux de maîtres anciens,” 1886 [lent byJoseph 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. van Aalst].
The Hague, Galerie Hans Cramer, 1965–66, no. 20.
Norfolk, The Chrysler Museum of Art, on loan with the permanent collection, 2005 (lent by the presentowner).
Beijing, National Museum of China, “Rembrandt and His Time: Masterpieces from The Leiden
Collection,” 17 June–3 September 2017 [lent by the present owner].
Shanghai, Long Museum, West Bund, “Rembrandt, Vermeer and Hals in the Dutch Golden Age:
Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection,” 23 September 2017–25 February 2018 [lent by the presentowner].
Moscow, The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, “The Age of Rembrandt and Vermeer: Masterpieces© 2024 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of Susanna Doublet Huygens
Page 7 of 8of The Leiden Collection,” 28 March 2018–22 July 2018 [lent by the present owner].
St. Petersburg, The State Hermitage Museum, “The Age of Rembrandt and Vermeer: Masterpieces ofThe Leiden Collection,” 5 September 2018–13 January 2019 [lent by the present owner].
Abu Dhabi, Louvre Abu Dhabi, “Rembrandt, Vermeer and the Dutch Golden Age. Masterpieces fromThe Leiden Collection and the Musée du Louvre,” 14 February–18 May 2019 [lent by the presentowner].

References
Société de Saint Vincent de Paul. Catalogue de l’exposition de tableaux. Exh. cat. Brussels, Société deSaint Vincent de Paul. Brussels, 1855, 56, no. 89.
Académie Royale de Belgique. Exposition de tableaux de maîtres anciens. Exh. cat. Brussels, AcadémieRoyale de Belgique. Brussels, 1886.
Hymans, Henri. “Correspondance de Belgique: l’exposition retrospective de Bruxelles.” Gazette desBeaux-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 to Constantijn 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 deNederlandse kunst van de zeventiende eeuw. Exh. cat. Haarlem, Frans Hals Museum. Zwolle, 1986, 189.
Heesing, Elisabeth. “De kinderen onderling: een hechte familietrouw.” In Soeticheydt des Buyten-levens:leven en leren op Hofwijck. Edited by Victor Freijser, 76, fig. 30. Delft, 1988.
Wieseman, 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. Translatedby 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 fromThe Leiden Collection. Exh. cat. Shanghai, Long Museum, West Bund. Shanghai, 2017, 168–69.
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Portrait of Susanna Doublet Huygens
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Yeager-Crasselt, Lara. “Portrait of Susanna Doublet Huygens.” In The Age of Rembrandt and Vermeer:
Masterpieces of The Leiden Collection. Edited by Polina Lyubimova, 152– 53; 240, no. 43. Translated byDaria 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 Golden Age.
Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection and the Musée du Louvre. Exh. cat. Abu Dhabi, Louvre Abu
Dhabi. London, 2019, 138–39, no. 62. [Exhibition catalogue also published in 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 UlrichMuseum, 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 paint has been
thinly and smoothly applied through the flesh tones and background and with low, visible brushwork throughthe drapery folds, satin dress, and foliage.
No underdrawing is readily apparent in infrared images captured at 780–1000 nanometers. No compositionalchanges are noted, although the X-radiograph suggests the vegetation may have 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 Ian Tyers.

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