Portrait of Dirck van Beresteyn
Gerrit Dou(Leiden 1613 – 1675 Leiden)

ca. 1652
oil on oval silver-copper alloy
10.2 x 8.2 cm
signed in blue paint at upper right: “G Dou” (GD
in ligature)
GD-111© 2024 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of Dirck van Beresteyn
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How to cite
Surh, Dominique. “Portrait of Dirck van Beresteyn” (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.

This small, enamel-like portrait, which portrays Dirck van Beresteyn (1627–53)

Comparative Figures

shortly before his untimely death at the age of twenty-six, is one of the few instancesin which the identity of one of Gerrit Dou’s sitters is known.[1] His name and life
dates are inscribed on the reverse of the painting (fig 1).[2] Dirck was the fourth offive children from a well-to-do family in Delft, whose father and grandfather had
both held prominent civic positions as burgomasters of Delft.[3] In the fall of 1647, at
the age of twenty, Dirck moved to Leiden to study law at Leiden University. After thecompletion of his studies, he was appointed to the prestigious position of Counsel tothe Hof van Holland. In November 1652 Dirck married his young cousin, Magdalena
van Adrichem (1639–84) and settled in Delft on the west side of the Oude Delft.[4] In
1653 Dirck made a series of visits to the notary to establish and revise his will, which

Fig 1. Reverse of GD-111

suggests that he had fallen ill or was otherwise concerned about his mortality.[5] Hemade his last notarial visit in September 1653 to ensure that his unborn child would
be placed in the custody of his wife, mother and brother Zacharias.[6] A week later hedied, leaving behind his young bride Magdalena, who would give birth to a boy some
six months later. Sadly, the child would only live for a matter of hours.[7]Dou has depicted Dirck as a composed yet dashing young man dressed in the latest
fashion. He wears a small ornamental band around his neck, edged with fine lace andclosed with tasseled band-strings. His black doublet, faced with buttons down its
front, allows his billowing shirt to show through at the cuffs and along the slits of his
sleeves.[8] A velvet-lined black cloak with additional buttons along its arms is slungaround his shoulders. With beaming eyes, Dirck’s bright countenance is accentuatedby his long, wavy hair cascading over his shoulders. His golden hair and black-andwhite attire are set off by a vibrant blue-green backdrop that appears to be a curtain.[9]Fig 2. Gerrit Dou, Portrait of a Man(‘Johan Wittert van der Aa’), 1646, oil
on panel, 28 x 24 cm, Rijksmuseum,
Amsterdam, inv. no. SK-A-686© 2024 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of Dirck van Beresteyn
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Dou must have executed this portrait sometime between 1647, when Dirck first
moved to Leiden, and 1653, the year of his death. Ronni Baer suggests a date close to1647 and relates the painting stylistically to Dou’s 1646 signed and dated Portrait of a
Man in the Rijksmuseum (fig 2).[10] However, Dirck’s fashionable attire would seemto indicate a slightly later date for this portrait. In particular, the style of the sleevesof his doublet, which allow for much of his blousy shirt to show through, is consistent
with men’s fashion of the early 1650s.[11]Portrait of Dirck van Beresteyn is the smallest known work by Dou. The miniaturescale implies a sentimental connection between the subject and the viewer, a scale theviewer experiences in the intimacy of one’s hands. Baer suggests that the portrait

Fig 3. Caspar Netscher, Presentationof a Medallion Portrait, ca. 1658–60,
oil on canvas, 62 x 67.5 cm,
Szépmüveszéti Muzeum, Budapest, no.
250

might have been commissioned on the occasion of Dirck’s extended absence from thefamily home in Delft upon his matriculation at Leiden University in 1647.[12] The
possibility of a slightly later dating, based on his dress, leads to another, perhaps morecompelling, possibility. Because of its unusually small format, it is conceivable thatthe portrait was commissioned by Dirck as a gift for his wife, either for their
betrothal or as a token of his love around the time of their marriage in 1652. Suchsmall portrait gifts presented at a marriage proposal were not uncommon. This
tradition is recorded in a painting by Caspar Netscher (ca. 1639–84), Presentation of
a Medallion Portrait (fig 3), ca. 1658–60, in the Szépmüveszéti Muzeum, Budapest,
which portrays a young suitor offering a small portrait medallion to his beloved.[13]In addition to its diminutive size, the present portrait is also the only known work by
the artist painted on a metal support, which laboratory testing has indicated to be an
unusual alloy of silver and copper.[14] Its uncommon metallurgical content has raised
the possibility that the plate was adopted from a prior use and reappointed here as thesmooth, stable support of a painting. One compelling proposition, which accounts forboth the size and oval shape of the plate yet warrants further consideration and study,
is that it was originally fashioned as a hand-mirror or component of a locket.[15] Asidefrom its distinctive historical and technical qualities, this diminutive painting is ofgreat significance to the present collector, as it was the first Dutch painting heacquired, and served as the springboard for assembling this remarkable collection ofpaintings by Gerrit Dou and his contemporaries.

- Dominique Surh, 2017

© 2024 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of Dirck van Beresteyn
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Endnotes
1. Ronni Baer notes that none of Dou’s sitters have been definitively identified, although early sourcesindicate that he painted portraits of Spiering and his family, Jurgen Ovens, the Burgomaster Tulp,
Abraham de Pape, and Johan Wittert van der Aa and his wife. See Ronni Baer, “Dou and the Delft
Connection: The Portrait of Dirk van Beresteyn,” in Face Book: Studies on Dutch and Flemish Portraitureof the 16th–18th Centuries Liber Amicorium Presented to Rudolf E.O. Ekkart on the Occasion of his 65th
Birthday, ed. Edwin Buijsen, Charles Dumas, and Volker Manuth (Leiden, 2012), 279.
2. Executed in a script that is difficult to date, the inscription was probably added by a descendant in orderto preserve information passed down by oral tradition. The inscription identifies the sitter and records
his birth and death dates: “G. Dou. fecit. / Dirck Van / Berestein Corn.z / Geboren / 1627 / Overleden
1653.” Also on the verso of the painting, but written in a rectangular box, is: “VAN BERESTEYN / van
Stolkweg 8 / DEN HAAG,” presumably the name and address of the owner at that time. The inscription
must predate the appearance of the painting in a Paris sale in 1866, where the sitter’s identity was notedin the auction catalogue. See Herman de Kat van Oost- en West-Barendrecht’s sale in Paris, Lamme andPetit, 2 May 1866, no. 24. The earliest record of the inscription dates from 1941, when the painting was
reproduced in the published genealogy of the Beresteyn family. See Eltjo Aldegondus van Beresteyn,
Genealogie van het Geslacht van Beresteyn, 3 vols. (The Hague, 1941), 1: 262–64; 2: 72–74, fig. 51, no.
145. This distant relative of the sitter had acquired the painting at an auction in Amsterdam in 1919.
3. Dirck van Beresteyn’s father, Cornelis Paulusz. Van Beresteyn (1586–1638), was Lord of Middelharnisand held many public offices, including a place on the Council of Forty in 1625, alderman 1626–28, andburgomaster of Delft in 1632, 1635, and 1636. See Eltjo Aldegondus van Beresteyn, Genealogie van het
Geslacht van Beresteyn, 3 vols. (The Hague, 1941), 1: 262–64; 2: 72–74, fig. 51, no. 145.
4. On the idea that Young Mother in the Mauritshuis might have been commissioned to celebrate thewedding of Dirck van Beresteyn to Magdalena van Adrichem, see Ben Broos, Meesterwerken in het
Mauritshuis (The Hague, 1987), 117; and Ronni Baer, “The Young Mother,” in Gerrit Dou 1613–1675:
Master Painter in the Age of Rembrandt, ed. Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. (Exh. cat. Washington D.C.,
National Gallery of Art; London, Dulwich Picture Gallery; The Hague, Royal Cabinet of Paintings
Mauritshuis) (New Haven and London, 2000–1), 106–7, no. 21. This theory, however, has provenincorrect. For a description of the Van Beresteyn’s proper coat of arms, see Ronni Baer, “Dou and theDelft Connection: The Portrait of Dirk van Beresteyn,” in Face Book: Studies on Dutch and Flemish
Portraiture of the 16th–18th Centuries Liber Amicorium Presented to Rudolf E.O. Ekkart on the Occasionof his 65th Birthday, ed. Edwin Buijsen, Charles Dumas, and Volker Manuth (Leiden, 2012), 284, n. 6.
5. For the notarial references in the Delft archives that foretell Dirck’s concern for his mortality, see Eltjo
Aldegondus van Beresteyn, Genealogie van het Geslacht van Beresteyn, 3 vols. (The Hague, 1941), 1:263.
6. Dirck’s last visit to the notary occurred on 16 September 1653, a week before he passed away on 23
September. He was buried in the Oude Kerk in Delft on 29 September. See Eltjo Aldegondus van© 2024 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of Dirck van Beresteyn
Page 5 of 9Beresteyn, Genealogie van het Geslacht van Beresteyn, 3 vols. (The Hague, 1941), 1:263.
7. Dirck’s son would only live for five hours. See Eltjo Aldegondus van Beresteyn, Genealogie van het
Geslacht van Beresteyn. 3 vols. (The Hague, 1941), 1: 263.
8. Marieke de Winkel, Fashion and Fancy: Dress and Meaning in Rembrandt’s Paintings (Amsterdam,
2006), 102.
9. For a discussion of Dou’s use of the blue pigment smalt, see the unpublished report by John Twilley“Scientific Examination of the Portrait of Dirck van Beresteyn by Gerrit Dou (GD-111),” dated 23
February 2012, curatorial files, the Leiden Collection, New York. See also Dominique Surh, Ilona van
Tuinen and John Twilley, “Insights from Technical Analysis on a Group of Paintings by Gerrit Dou in
The Leiden Collection,” JHNA 6, no. 1 (Winter 2014): n. 12.
10. Ronni Baer, “Dou and the Delft Connection: The Portrait of Dirk van Beresteyn,” in Face Book: Studies
on Dutch and Flemish Portraiture of the 16th–18th Centuries Liber Amicorium Presented to Rudolf E.O.
Ekkart on the Occasion of his 65th Birthday, ed. Edwin Buijsen, Charles Dumas, and Volker Manuth(Leiden, 2012), 279.
11. I am grateful to Marieke de Winkel, who suggested that the portrait was executed between 1650 and
1653 based on the features of the sitter’s costume (personal communication, September 2013,
correspondence kept on file, The Leiden Collection, New York).
12. Ronni Baer, “Dou and the Delft Connection: The Portrait of Dirk van Beresteyn,” in Face Book: Studies
on Dutch and Flemish Portraiture of the 16th–18th Centuries Liber Amicorium Presented to Rudolf E.O.
Ekkart on the Occasion of his 65th Birthday, ed. Edwin Buijsen, Charles Dumas, and Volker Manuth(Leiden, 2012), 281–83.
13. Peter Sutton, ed., Masters of Seventeenth-Century Dutch Genre Painting (Exh. cat. Philadelphia Museumof Art; London, Royal Academy of Arts; Berlin, Gemaldegalerie, Staatliche Museen Preussicher
Kulturbesitz) (Philadelphia, 1984), 275–76, no. 85; Marjorie E. Wieseman, Caspar Netscher and Late
Seventeenth-Century Dutch Painting (Ghent, 2002), 54–55, 172–73, no. 8; and Arthur K. Wheelock Jr.,
“Caspar Netscher, Presentation of a Medallion Portrait,” in Rembrandt and the Golden Age of Dutch
Painting, ed. Ildikó Ember (Exh. cat. Szépművészeti Muzeum, Budapest) (Budapest, 2014), 464–65. I
would like to thank Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. for sharing this essay and suggesting the interpretation
presented here.
14. Metallographic study and quantitative analysis show that the alloy consists of 80% silver and 19%
copper with minor trace elements making up the balance, thus resulting in a considerable increase inhardness and stiffness relative to silver in purer form. See the unpublished report by John Twilley,“Scientific Examination of the Portrait of Dirck van Beresteyn by Gerrit Dou (GD-111), Addendum,”
dated 13 April 2014, curatorial files, the Leiden Collection, New York.
15. John Twilley suggests that the size, shape, and material of the support could account for its adaptationfrom some prior use, perhaps in decorative art. Inquiry into the history of silver standards in the period
continues (personal communication, September 2013, correspondence kept on file, The Leiden© 2024 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of Dirck van Beresteyn
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Collection, New York).

Provenance
Herman de Kat van Oost- en West-Barendrecht, Dordrecht, by 1854 (his sale, Paris, Lamme and Petit, 2
May 1866, no. 24, for 170 francs).
M*** Collection (sale, Paris, Hotel Drouot, 1 February 1875, no. 22).
Mrs. U.M. Kneppelhout-van Braam Egbert de Langen and Count Bottaro Costa (sale, Amsterdam,
Frederik Műller, 16 December 1919, no. 19).
Dr. E.A. van Beresteyn, The Hague; by descent to his wife Mrs. Van Beresteyn Vierhouten, by 1952(sale, Christie’s, London, 17 April 2002, no. 43 [to van Haeften, Ltd. and Otto Naumann Ltd.).
[Johnny Van Haeften, Ltd., London and Otto Naumann Ltd., New York (through Derek Johns Ltd.,
London).]From whom acquired by the present owner in 2003.

Exhibition History
The Hague, Gemeentemuseum, “Oude Kunst uit Haagse Bezit,” 12 December 1936–31 January 1937,
no. 63 [lent by E.A. van Beresteyn].
Amsterdam, The Rijksmuseum, “Drie Eeuwen Portret in Nederland 1500–1800,” 29 June–5 October
1952, no. 31 [lent by Mrs. E.A. van Beresteyn].
Oxford, Ashmolean Museum of Art, on loan with the permanent collection, December 2009–January
2011 [lent by the present owner].
Philadelphia, Philadelphia Museum of Art, “Dutch Treat,” 11 October 2011–6 January 2012 [lent by thepresent owner].
Leiden, Museum De Lakenhal, “Gerrit Dou: The Leiden Collection from New York,” 9 March–31
August 2014 [lent by the present owner].
Raleigh, North Carolina Museum of Art, “Small Treasures: Rembrandt, Vermeer, Hals, and Their
Contemporaries,” 12 October 2014–4 January 2015, no. 10 [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 [lent by the present© 2024 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of Dirck van Beresteyn
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owner].
Moscow, The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, “The Age of Rembrandt and Vermeer: Masterpiecesof 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 of
The 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 present
owner].

References
Martin, Wilhelm. “Het leven en de werken van Gerrit Dou beschouwd in verband met het schilderslevenvan zijn tijd.” PhD diss., Leiden University, 1901, 204, no. 139.
Hofstede de Groot, Cornelis. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of
theSeventeenth Century Based on the Work of John Smith. Edited and translated by Edward G. Hawke,
Esslingen, 1907, 1: 440, no. 293.
Staring, Adolph. “Nederlandsche portretminiaturen.” Haagsche Post, 789 (Kerstnummer) (December
1928): 12.
Gemeentemuseum. Oude Kunst uit Haagsch Bezit. Exh. cat. The Hague, Gemeentemuseum. The Hague,
1937, 25, no. 63.
Van Beresteyn and Eltjo Aldegondus. Genealogie van het Geslacht van Beresteyn. The Hague, 1941, 1:
262–64; 2: 72–74, fig. 51, no. 145.
Staring, Adolph. Kunsthistorische Verkenningen. The Hague, 1948, pl. 39.
Rijksmuseum. Drie Eeuwen Portret in Nederland. Exh. cat. Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum. Amsterdam,
1952, 15, no. 31.
Baer, Ronni. “Dou and the Delft Connection: The Portrait of Dirk van Beresteyn.” In Face Book: Studies
on Dutch and Flemish Portraiture of the 16th–18th Centuries: Liber Amicorium Presented to Rudolf E.O.
Ekkart on the Occasion of his 65th Birthday. Edited by Edwin Buijsen, Charles Dumas, and Volker
Manuth, 279–84. Leiden, 2012.
Weller, Dennis P. “Portrait of Dirck van Beresteyn.” In Small Treasures: Rembrandt, Vermeer, Hals, andTheir Contemporaries. Exh. cat. Raleigh, North Carolina Museum of Art; Birmingham, Birmingham
Museum of Art. Raleigh, 2014, 77–79, no. 10.
Surh, Dominique, Ilona van Tuinen, and John Twilley. “Insights from Technical Analysis on a Group of
Paintings by Gerrit Dou in the Leiden Collection.” JHNA 6:1 (Winter 2014): 1, 3–6, 13, figs. 8a–b, 32,
33, 34a–b. DOI:10.5092/jhna.2014.6.1.3.
Yeager-Crasselt, Lara. “Portrait of Dirck van Berestyn.” In Rembrandt and His Time: Masterpieces of© 2024 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of Dirck van Beresteyn
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The Leiden Collection. Edited by Lara Yaeger-Crasselt. Translated by Li Ying, 84–85; 179, no. 32. 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, 105.
Yeager-Crasselt, Lara. “The Leiden Collection and the Dutch Golden Age.” In The Age of Rembrandt
and Vermeer: Masterpieces of The Leiden Collection. Edited by Polina Lyubimova. Translated by Daria
Babich and Daria Kuzina, 17; 28, fig. 1. Exh. cat. Moscow, The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts; St.
Petersburg, The State Hermitage Museum. Moscow, 2018.
Yeager-Crasselt, Lara. “Portrait of Dirck van Beresteyn.” In The Age of Rembrandt and Vermeer:
Masterpieces of The Leiden Collection. Edited by Polina Lyubimova. Translated by Daria Babich andDaria Kuzina, 86–87; 233, no. 10. Exh. cat. Moscow, The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts; St.
Petersburg, The State Hermitage Museum. Moscow, 2018.
Yeager-Crasselt, Lara. “The Leiden Collection and the Dutch Golden Age.” In Rembrandt, Vermeer andthe Dutch Golden Age. Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection and the Musée du Louvre. Edited by
Blaise Ducos and Lara Yeager-Crasselt, 25. Exh. cat. Abu Dhabi, Louvre Abu Dhabi. London, 2019.
[Exhibition catalogue also published in French and Arabic.]
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, 53, 134–25, no. 60. [Exhibition catalogue also published in French and Arabic.]

Technical Summary
The support for the painting is an oval metal plate. Unlike the typical copper plates used for painting, thisplate is a silver/copper alloy.[1] The reason for this unusual support is unknown, but Dou may haverepurposed some other object.[2]A thin, light-colored ground is visible in the edges of a loss. Dou applied the paint smoothly using delicate
modeling to create intricate details in the sitter’s likeness and attire. Infrared photography indicates a slightcompositional change in the sitter’s hair, which was originally longer.[3]The panel remains in plane, but the reverse exhibits two layers of corrosion: a lower, light brown one
covering the entire surface; and an upper, mottled, dark brown one. There is an inscription on the reverse of
the panel which identifies the sitter as well as the years of his birth and death. Two layers of corrosion arepresent under this inscription, indicating a fair amount of time passed between the creation of the panel andthe application of the inscription.
The painting is in good condition, and it was last treated in 2002. At that time, two large areas of paint loss
were inpainted. A circular loss, 2 cm in diameter, is located above the sitter’s proper left hand, and a 2.6 cm
long, vertical, rectangular loss is located in the blue background in the middle of the left edge. Pinpoint losses© 2024 The Leiden CollectionPowered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

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are also located throughout the composition, but are most noticeable in the sitter’s face. These look dark andappear to be related to the problem of metal–fatty acid soap formation.[4]Technical Summary Endnotes

1. John Twilley, scientific examination report, 23 February 2012, and addendum, 13 April 2014.
2. John Twilley, scientific examination report, 23 February 2012, and addendum, 13 April 2014.
3. Infrared photographs were taken at 780, 850, and 1000 nm.
4. John Twilley, scientific examination report, 23 February 2012.

© 2024 The Leiden Collection