© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of Susanna Doublet Huygens
Page 2 of 9

Portrait of Susanna Doublet Huygens

1669

Caspar Netscher(Prague or Heidelberg ca. 1639 – 1684 TheHague)

oil on panel
45.4 x 34.7 cm
signed and dated in light paint, lower rightcorner: “C. Netscher. Ao 1669.”
CN-102Currently on view at: The National Museum ofChina, Beijing

How To Cite
Wieseman, Marjorie E. "Portrait of Susanna Doublet Huygens." In The Leiden Collection Catalogue. Editedby Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. New York, 2017.
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Portrait of Susanna Doublet Huygens
Page 3 of 9Susanna Doublet Huygens (1637–1725) was the youngest of five children(andtheonlydaughter)borntoConstantijn

Comparative Figures

Huygens(1596–1687)—renowned poet, connoisseur, and tireless secretary to threeDutch stadholders—and his wife, Suzanna van Baerle (1599–1637). On20 April 1660 Susanna Huygens married her cousin Philips Doublet III(1633–1707), Heer van Sint Annaland and Mogershill and treasurer
general of the United Provinces. Doublet, the son of Constantijn’s sister
Geertruyd and Philips Doublet II, is credited with introducing French-stylegardens (based on the designs of the French landscape architect André
Le Nôtre) to the Netherlands at his estate Clingendael, near The Hague.[1]From 1687 Doublet was charged with remodeling the stadholder Willem
III’s gardens at Huis ten Bosch also according to French principles.
Susanna and Philips Doublet had six children, of whom three lived toadulthood.

Fig 1. Caspar Netscher, Portraitof Philips Doublet III, 1667, oil on
panel, 45.4 x 35.5 cm, Herzog
Anton Ulrich-Museum,Braunschweig, inv. 794

From 1667 to 1672, Caspar Netscher painted six portraits of various
members of the Huygens family—prestigious commissions from one of theNetherlands’s most respected 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 to Doublet, dated 5 November
1666, implies that Huygens had already asked his sister for copies of theirportraits by Netscher. A subsequent letter from Huygens to Doublet, dated
26 November 1666, suggests that Doublet had seen to the promised
portraits: in it, Huygens cautioned Doublet to pack them well and to makesure they were dry before rolling them and sending them on to Paris.
Nearly a year later, in October 1667, Huygens had yet to receive thepaintings. He chided Doublet for still leaving them with the painter,commenting “if you expect both of you to become more beautiful than you

Fig 2. Caspar Netscher, Portraitof Lady Philippina Staunton,
1668, oil on canvas, 86.5 x 68.5
cm, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam,
inv. SK-C-1611

are before [the painter puts] the last touches to the faces, we will have towait some time yet.” [3]We do not know when (or if) Huygens ever received the portraits of his
sister and brother-in-law: Christiaan’s letter to Susanna Doublet of 20January 1668 complains “your painting has not yet arrived,” but it is notcertain that this refers to either or both paintings by Netscher.[4] As thedates on the pendant portraits of Philips and Susanna differ (1667 for theformer and 1669 for the latter), it may be that the portrait of Philips wascompleted first and dispatched to Paris, and the one of Susanna followed
later. Huygens’s letters would also seem to suggest that there was more

Fig 3. Caspar Netscher, Portraitof a Woman, called the Duchessof Cleveland, 1669, oil on panel,© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of Susanna Doublet Huygens
Page 4 of 9than one autograph version of each portrait—the primary version and the28.5 x 21.5 cm, private collection

ones sent to Paris—although only one example of each likeness can betraced. Susanna Louisa Huygens (1714–85), the first documented ownerof the painting, was the granddaughter (on her maternal side) of Susannaand Philips Doublet and (on her paternal side) of Susanna’s brother
Lodewijk Huygens. As the last direct descendant of Constantijn Huygens,she was the heir to several family collections, and it is not recorded fromwhom she may have inherited Netscher’s portrait of her grandmother andnamesake.[5]Netscher’s portraits of Susanna and Philips Doublet exemplify thefashionable and highly decorative likenesses that he began to produce inthe second half of the 1660s: small, seductive images, projecting an auraof affluence and savoir faire that suited the increasingly cosmopolitan
aspirations of a wealthy Dutch patriciate.[6] Netscher depicted Susannain three-quarter length before a lush red velvet curtain and a distantgarden view; she is turned slightly to the left, acknowledging the pendant
likeness of her husband (fig 1). Susanna wears a white satin gown over atightly 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 toreveal a salmon-pink lining, the only touch of color in her otherwise pristine
attire. The folds of her skirt are swept back lightly to give the figure animpression of forward movement. Susanna holds a sprig of orange
blossoms in her left hand; the flowers were a traditional symbol of purity
and thus a suitable attribute for brides and married women.[7] When theportrait was cleaned in 2006, overpaint around the sitter’s head wasremoved to reveal an extravagant coiffure representing the epitome ofFrench-inspired fashion in the years prior to 1670.[8] Popularized in France
by the Marquise de Sévigné, the style (known as “à la hurluberlu”)
featured massive clusters of dangling curls to either side of the head.
In composition and execution the Portrait of Susanna Doublet Huygens
can be compared with a number of other female portraits painted byNetscher during the same period in both three-quarter and full length, suchas the Portrait of Lady Philippina Staunton, dated 1668 (fig 2), or thePortrait of a Woman, called the Duchess 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 the sleeves to link the figure
with the ruby velvet curtain and the ruddy tones of the background© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of Susanna Doublet Huygens
Page 5 of 9

landscape.
-Marjorie E. Wieseman© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of Susanna Doublet Huygens
Page 6 of 9Endnotes
1. Vanessa Bezemer-Sellers, “Clingendael: An Early Example of a Le Nôtre-style Garden inHolland,” 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 onpanel, 45.4 x 35.5 cm, Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum, Braunschweig, inv. 794; Portrait ofGeertruyd 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 of Christiaan Huygens, 1671, oil on
paper mounted on panel, 30 x 24 cm, Haags Historisch Museum, The Hague, 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 SeventeenthCentury Dutch Painting (Doornspijk, 2002), 215–16, 221, 231, 244–45, and 247–48, nos.
66, 73, 89, 107, and 112 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, Oeuvrescomplètes, vol. 6, Correspondance 1666–1669, ed. Johannes Bosscha Jr. (The Hague,1895), nos. 1562 (Christiaan Huygens to Philips Doublet, 5 November 1666); 1565
(Christiaan Huygens to Philips Doublet, 26 November 1666); 1592 (Christiaan Huygens toLodewijk Huygens, 15 July 1667); and 1607 (Christiaan Huygens to Philips Doublet, 23October 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, 20January 1668); accessed online, 17 May 2013.
5. On the history and dispersal of the Huygens family collections, see E. W. Moes, “Eenverzameling familieportretten der Huygensen in 1785,” Oud Holland 14 (1896): 176–84; andA. M. Th. Leerintveld, “Ter goeder memorie van mynen naem: De nalatenschap van
Constantijn Huygens,” in Soeticheydt 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 and Late 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 de zeventiende eeuw (Exh. cat. Haarlem, Frans Hals Museum) (Zwolle, 1986), 189.
8. The overpainted hairstyle is illustrated in (among others) Marjorie E. Wieseman, Caspar
Netscher and Late 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.
© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of Susanna Doublet Huygens
Page 7 of 9ProvenancePossibly Christiaan Huygens (1629–95), Paris; by descent to Susanna Louisa Huygens,
Baroness van Wassenaer 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 its pendant, no. 50, Portrait of Philips Doublet III]).
Joseph Guillaume Jean Camberlyn (1783–1861), Amougies, Pepinghem, Belgium, by 1825;
by descent to Hyacinthe Camberlyn (1829–90), Amougies; by descent to Joseph
Camberlyn, Amougies (his sale, Frederik Muller, Amsterdam, 13 July 1926, no. 629 [for5,200 florins to “Van Groningen op Hoevelaken,” together with its pendant, no. 628,Portraitof Philips Doublet III]).
Dr. C. J. K. van Aalst (1866–1939), Hoevelaken, The Netherlands, possibly by 1926; bydescent until ca. 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 byJoseph Guillaume Jean Camberlyn].
Brussels, Académie Royale de Belgique, “Exposition de tableaux de maîtres anciens,” 1886
[lent by Joseph 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 bythe present owner).
Beijing, National Museum of China, “Rembrandt and His Time: Masterpieces from The
Leiden Collection,” 17 June–3 September 2017 [lent by the present owner].

© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of Susanna Doublet Huygens
Page 8 of 9References
Catalogue de l’exposition de tableaux . Exh. cat. Brussels, Société de Saint Vincent de Paul.
Brussels, 1855, 56, no. 89.
Exposition de tableaux de maîtres anciens . Exh. cat. Brussels, Académie Royale deBelgique. Brussels, 1886.
Hymans, Henri. “Correspondance de Belgique: L’exposition retrospective de Bruxelles.”Gazette des Beaux-Arts 34, no. 2 (1886): 434.
Moes, E. W. “Een verzameling familieportretten der Huygensen in 1785.” Oud Holland 14(1896): 182 n. 3 (as signed and dated “C. Netscher 1690” and attributed to ConstantijnNetscher).
Von Moltke, J. W. Dutch and Flemish Old Masters in the Collection of Dr. C. J. K. van Aalst,Huis te Hoevelaken. Verona, 1939, 242.
Catalogus lustrumtentoonstelling uit het kunstbezit der reünisten van het Utrechts
Studenten Corps. Exh. cat. Utrecht, Centraal Museum. Utrecht, 1956, no. 22.
Van Gelder, H. E. Ikonografie van Constantijn Huygens en de zijnen . The Hague, 1957, 54,no. 4.
Galerie Hans Cramer. Sales cat. The Hague, Galerie Cramer. The Hague, 1965–66, no. 20.
De Jongh, Eddy. Portretten van echt en trouw: Huwelijk en gezin in de Nederlandse kunst
van de zeventiende eeuw. Exh. cat. Haarlem, Frans Hals Museum. Zwolle, 1986, 189 (as“Portret van een jonge vrouw”).
Heesing, Elisabeth. “De kinderen onderling: Een hechte familietrouw.” In Soeticheydt desBuyten-levens: Leven en Leren op Hofwijck. Edited by Victor Freijser, 76. Delft, 1988.
Wieseman, Marjorie E. Caspar Netscher and Late Seventeenth-Century Dutch Painting .
Doornspijk, 2002, 99 n. 3; 230–31, no. 88.

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 Ulrich-Museum, Braunschweig, inv. no. 794.
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Portrait of Susanna Doublet Huygens
Page 9 of 9Versions Notes

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 redwax 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 through the drapery folds, satin dress, and foliage.
No underdrawing is readily apparent in infrared images captured at 780–1000 nanometers. No
compositional changes are noted, although the X-radiograph suggests the vegetation may haveoriginally 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.

© 2017 The Leiden Collection