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Portrait of the Pharmacist Dr. Ysbrand Ysbrandsz. (1634/35–1705) inan Interior
Page 2 of 8

Portrait of the Pharmacist Dr. YsbrandYsbrandsz. (1634/35–1705) in anInteriorCornelis de Man(Delft 1621 – 1706 Delft)ca. 1667
oil on canvas
58.2 x 49.7 cm
inscribed with sitter’s family name on
painting with coat-of-arms, upper center:“Circumfpecte. YSBRANS.” inscribed on
book, center left: “ALL’ILLUSTRISSIMO
SIGNOR CONTE NICOLO PONZONI”
CdM-100

How to cite
Rahusen, Henriette. “Portrait of the Pharmacist Dr. Ysbrand Ysbrandsz. (1634/35–1705) in an Interior”(2017). In The Leiden Collection Catalogue, 2nd ed. Edited by Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. New York, 2017–20.
https://theleidencollection.com/artwork/a-portrait-of-the-pharmacist-dr-ysbrand-ysbrandsz-in-an-interior/(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 the Pharmacist Dr. Ysbrand Ysbrandsz. (1634/35–1705) inan Interior
Page 3 of 8Dr. Ysbrand Ysbrandsz, a pharmacist from a prominent Rotterdam family, isComparative Figuresseen gazing wistfully to his left, having momentarily interrupted his writing togather his thoughts.[1] His personal motto, Circumspecte, visible on the coatof-arms hanging on the wall, means “with caution” or “with meticulouscare,” a highly appropriate sentiment for a pharmacist. His father had asuccessful career in the Dutch East India Company, even serving as its
governor of the Coromandel Coast, the southeastern coast of the Indian
subcontinent.[2] Ysbrandsz trained for his profession at the medical school of
the University of Leiden. Following his studies he returned to Rotterdam,
where he married Maria Blaeu in 1664.

Fig 1. Cornelis de Man, Three
Pharmacists, 1670s, oil on canvas,
90 × 112 cm, National Museum,Warsaw, inv. no. M.ob. 22

Ysbrandsz must have been well respected by his peers, because
between 1667 (when he was 32 years old) and 1704 they regularly chose
him to serve as headman of Rotterdam’s Apothecary Guild. Ysbrandsz may
have commissioned Cornelis de Man to paint this portrait to celebrate his firstelection as headman in 1667. Apart from his professional leadership,
Ysbrandsz was also active in municipal politics; from 1673 on he served on
Rotterdam’s City Council, and in 1703 he was elected burgomaster.[3]Ysbrandsz’s decision to have Cornelis de Man paint his likeness may wellhave been influenced by professional connections: De Man’s grandfather,
uncle, and a cousin were pharmacists as well. Sometime in the 1670s, DeMan included his uncle and cousin in a group portrait known as Three
Pharmacists, which contains laboratory equipment and a view of anapothecary (fig 1). The Ysbrandsz and De Man families certainly would have
known each other professionally, given that Cornelis’s family lived andFig 2. Thomas de Keyser,
Constantijn Huygens and His
Clerk, 1627, oil on panel, 92.4 cm
x 69.3 cm, National Gallery,London, inv. no. NG21

worked in Delft, only fifteen kilometers from Rotterdam.[4]Cornelis de Man, who became a member of the Guild of Saint Luke of Delftin 1642, travelled to France and Italy before settling back in Delft around1653. He often merged portrait and genre traditions to depict professionals atwork. This type of portraiture was first popularized in the Dutch Republic in
the 1620s by Thomas de Keyser (1596–1667), as in his 1627 portrait
Constantijn Huygens and His Clerk (fig 2).
Like De Keyser, Cornelis de Man had the ability to depict his sitters so thatthey seem thoughtfully and emotionally engaged in their work. De Man’spaintings have a remarkable clarity of style that not only comes from his
mastery of perspective, but also from his ability to clearly define the shapeand character of individual objects, in part through color.

Fig 3. Johannes Vermeer, The
Astronomer, ca. 1668, oil oncanvas, 51 cm × 45 cm, Musée duLouvre, Paris, inv. no. R.F.
1983-28

In this striking portrait, De Man alludes to the range of Ysbrandsz’s scholarly© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of the Pharmacist Dr. Ysbrand Ysbrandsz. (1634/35–1705) inan Interior
Page 4 of 8interests through the objects in the still life on the table. A gleaming skullrests amidst various books and papers, a pictorial element that warns theviewer that life, which is finite, should be lived to its fullest. Ysbrandsz’s
professional and public life confirm that he took this advice seriously. The
violin indicates that music and the liberal arts were important components of
his cultural life, but also shows that he knew how to relax and entertain. The
text on the musical score next to the violin reads “All’Illustrissimo Signor
Conte Nicolo Ponzoni,” identifying it as Tarquinio Merula’s Opus XVII. Thisscore contains twenty-five songs for violin and viola that Merula dedicated toNiccolo Ponzoni, Count of Cremona, in 1651. Cremona had by that time
already become famous for the violins produced by several generations of
the Amati family, and for those by Nicolo Amati (1596–1684) in particular.[5] It
is intriguing to think that De Man’s painting could depict one of Nicolo’scelebrated violins.

Fig 4. Johannes Vermeer, The
Geographer, ca. 1668–69, oil oncanvas, 52 cm × 45.5 cm,
Städelsches Kunstinstitut,Frankfurt, inv. no. 1149

The celestial globe on the table serves a dual purpose. In addition toreaffirming Ysbrandsz’s wide-ranging scholarly interests, the globe alsopays homage to his wife, Maria Blaeu. Maria’s paternal grandfather, WillemJansz. Blaeu (1571–1638), and uncle, Joan Blaeu (1596–1673), wereinternationally famous cartographers, whose globes and maps were prized
for their accuracy and beauty.[5] Willem Blaeu had produced his first of aseries of celestial globes in 1597 and, based on its size and character, thisBlaeu globe was made between 1602 and 1606.[6] The globe as an attributeof learning also connects De Man’s painting to Johannes Vermeer’s slightly
later paintings The Astronomer, 1668 (fig 3) and The Geographer, 1669 (fig4). As with his Delft colleague, De Man’s depiction of his sitter’s quiet
reflection is profoundly evocative.

- Henriette Rahusen, 2017

© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of the Pharmacist Dr. Ysbrand Ysbrandsz. (1634/35–1705) inan Interior
Page 5 of 8Endnotes

1. This entry is based on the catalogue entry “Cornelis De Man: The Pharmacist Dr. YsbrandYsbrandsz.,” in Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., with Daniëlle H. A. C. Lokin, Human Connections in
the Age of Vermeer (Exh. cat. Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art; Miyagi, Miyagi Museum of Art;
Tokyo, Bunkamura Museum of Art) (London, 2011), 93–95, no. 25.
2. The robe worn by Ysbrandsz was known in the Dutch Republic as a Japonse rok (“Japaneserobe”). These loose-fitting and padded robes were modeled on the precious silk kimonos(keyserrocken, “imperial gowns,” or schenckagierocken, “gift gowns”) that the Tokugawa
Shogun gave to high-ranking officials of the Dutch East India Company during their annual
visits to Edo, Japan. The Japonse rok was worn indoors by men and women alike to ward off
the cold. See Charlotte van Rappard-Boon, Imitation and Inspiration: Japanese Influence on
Dutch Art from 1650 to the Present, ed. Nanne Dekking (Amsterdam, 1991).
3. For the biography of Ysbrandsz (also Ysbrans), see Petrus Johannes Blok and Philip
Christian Molhuysen, Nieuw Nederlands biografisch Woordenboek, 10 vols. (Leiden,1911–37), 1: 1596, no. 2303; 10: 74–78. See also the three articles on De Man by Clotilde
Brière-Misme in Oud Holland 52 (1935): 1–26, 97–120, and 281–82.
4. See M. E. Lambrechtsen, “Cornelis de Man (1621–1706), een selectie uit het oeuvre van een
veelzijdige Delftse schilder” (master’s thesis, University of Amsterdam, 2005). For thepharmacists in the De Man family, see the article on the residence of Cornelis’s cousin, also
named Cornelis de Man, at Koornmarkt 93 in Delft.
5. A photograph of the front and back of a violin made ca. 1650 by Nicolo Amati that shows
distinct similarities to the one in this painting appears in an article about Florian Leonhard, aleading international dealer in string instruments: Helen Wybrew-Bond, “Plenty of StringsAttached,” Centurion, 10 August 2011.
6. For the biographies of Willem and Joan Blaeu, see Petrus Johannes Blok and Philip Christian
Molhuysen, Nieuw Nederlands Biografisch Woordenboek, 10 vols. (Leiden, 1911), 10: 74–78.
Willem Blaeu’s son Jacob married Maria Soetens in Rotterdam on 20 October 1643; theirdaughter Maria Blaeu was baptized on 20 September 1644. See Digitale Stamboom,
Gemeentearchief Rotterdam.
7. Rob van Gent, “De nieuwe sterren van 1572, 1600 en 1604 op de hemelglobes van Willem
Jansz. Blaeu,” Caert-Thresoor 12, no. 2 (1993): 40–46.

Provenance© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of the Pharmacist Dr. Ysbrand Ysbrandsz. (1634/35–1705) inan Interior
Page 6 of 8

Probably private collection, Boston, Lincolnshire.[1](Sale, Sotheby’s, London, 17 May 1961, no. 99, as by Michiel van Musscher [for £320 toDaan Cevat]).
Jan Richard van Reekum, Laren, the Netherlands, by 1965.
Private collection (sale, Sotheby’s, Amsterdam, 14 November 2006, no. 121 [Johnny van
Haeften Ltd., London, 2006]).
From whom acquired by the present owner in 2006.

Provenance Notes

1. This provenance is based on a label adhered to the reverse of the painting: “G. Sinclair,
Carver and Gilder, Boston. N. B. Old Glass & Picture Frames [illegible] Equal To New.
Ladies’ Needlework Mounted & Framed in the [illegible] style.” This label is very likely
associated with the framing business of Charles George Sinclair, active in Boston,
Lincolnshire, during the last quarter of the nineteenth century. The business probably closedin the 1890s.

Exhibition History
Kansas City, The Nelson-Atkins Museum, 15 December 2008–31 December 2009, on loan
with the permanent collection [lent by the present owner].
Kyoto, Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, “Communication: Visualizing the Human Connectionin the Age of Vermeer,” 25 June–16 October 2011; Miyagi, The Miyagi Museum of Art, 27October–12 December 2011; Tokyo, Bunkamura Museum of Art, 23 December 2011–14
March 2012 [lent by the present owner].
Ithaca, Cornell University, Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, “An Eye For Detail: Dutch
Painting from the Leiden Collection,” 20 September 2014–21 June 2015 [lent by the presentowner].
Toronto, Aga Khan Museum, “A Thirst for Riches: Carpets from the East in Paintings from theWest,” 4 June–15 October 2015 [lent by the 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].
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 [lentby the present owner].
Moscow, The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, “The Age of Rembrandt and Vermeer:Masterpieces of The Leiden Collection,” 28 March 2018–22 July 2018 [lent by the present© 2020 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of the Pharmacist Dr. Ysbrand Ysbrandsz. (1634/35–1705) inan Interior
Page 7 of 8owner].
St. Petersburg, The State Hermitage Museum, “The Age of Rembrandt and Vermeer:Masterpieces of The Leiden Collection,” 5 September 2018–13 January 2019 [lent by thepresent owner].
Abu Dhabi, Louvre Abu Dhabi, “Rembrandt, Vermeer and the Dutch Golden Age.
Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection and the Musée du Louvre,” 14 February–18 May
2019 [lent by the present owner].

References
De Bruyn Kops, Henriette. “The Pharmacist Dr. Ysbrand Ysbrandz.” In Human Connections inthe Age of Vermeer. Edited by Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. and Daniëlle H. A. C. Lokin. Exh. cat.
93–95, no. 25. Kyoto, Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art; Miyagi, The Miyagi Museum of Art;
Tokyo, Bunkamura Museum of Art. London, 2011.
Yeager-Crasselt, Lara. “Portrait of the Pharmacist Dr. Ysbrand Ysbrandsz.” In Rembrandt andHis Time: Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection. Edited by Lara Yeager-Crasselt, 144;
187, no. 62. Translated by Li Ying. Exh. cat. Beijing, National Museum of China. Beijing,
2017.
Wang, Jia. “Dutch Painting in Golden Age.” In Journal of National Museum of China 169, no.
8 (2017): 38.
Long Museum, West Bund. Rembrandt, Vermeer and Hals in the Dutch Golden Age:
Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection. Exh. cat. Shanghai, Long Museum, West Bund.
Shanghai, 2017, 150–51.
Yeager-Crasselt, Lara. “Young Man Reading.” In The Age of Rembrandt and Vermeer:
Masterpieces of The Leiden Collection. Edited by Polina Lyubimova, 116–17; 236, no. 24.
Translated by Daria Babich and Daria Kuzina. Exh. cat. Moscow, The Pushkin State Museumof Fine Arts; St. Petersburg, The State Hermitage Museum. Moscow, 2018.
Ducos, Blaise. “The Dutch Miracle.” In Rembrandt, Vermeer and the Dutch Golden Age.
Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection and the Musée du Louvre. Edited by Blaise Ducos
and Lara Yeager-Crasselt, 37. London, 2019. [Exhibition catalogue also published in Frenchand Arabic.]
Blanc, Jan. “Being Modern, Being Dutch: The Seventeenth-Century Invention of the GoldenAge.” In Rembrandt, Vermeer and the Dutch Golden Age. Masterpieces from The Leiden
Collection and the Musée du Louvre. Edited by Blaise Ducos and Lara Yeager-Crasselt, 40.
Exh. cat. Abu Dhabi, Louvre Abu Dhabi. London, 2019. [Exhibition catalogue also publishedin French and Arabic.]© 2020 The Leiden CollectionPowered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

Portrait of the Pharmacist Dr. Ysbrand Ysbrandsz. (1634/35–1705) inan Interior
Page 8 of 8Ducos, Blaise, and Lara Yeager-Crasselt, eds. Rembrandt, Vermeer and the Dutch GoldenAge. Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection and the Musée du Louvre. Exh. cat. AbuDhabi, Louvre Abu Dhabi. London, 2019, 172, no. 88. [Exhibition catalogue also published inFrench and Arabic.]
Pettegree, Andrew, and Arthur der Weduwen. The Bookshop of the World: Making andTrading Books in the Dutch Golden Age. New Haven and London, 2019, 347, fig. 59.

Technical Summary
The support, a medium-weight, plain-weave fabric with tacking margins removed, has been lined.
There is pronounced cusping along the lower edge, slight cusping along the upper and left edges
but none along the right edge, and a small triangular canvas insert along the lower half of the rightedge.[1] There are no wax collection seals, stencils, paper labels or import stamps along the lining
canvas or stretcher reverse.
A light ground has been thinly and evenly applied followed by glazes and paint applied smoothly,
wet-into-wet, with no visible brushwork or use of impasto, although the dark paint of the pattern on
the oriental carpet is slightly raised.
No underdrawing is readily apparent in infrared images at 780–1000 nanometers, but a crispness
to the contours of the figure’s facial features, hair and hands suggests further investigation withlonger wavelengths of infrared may be useful.
The painting is unsigned and undated, but is inscribed with the sitter’s family name on thepainting with a coat-of-arms in the upper center; a second inscription appears on the book at thecenter left.
The painting has not undergone conservation treatment since its acquisition. It is in goodcondition and in a good state of preservation.

Technical Summary Endnotes

1. 3 cm H x 2 cm W

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