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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 an Interior
Cornelis 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 CONTENICOLO 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, 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.

© 2024 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, is seen

Comparative Figures

gazing wistfully to his left, having momentarily interrupted his writing to gather histhoughts.[1] His personal motto, Circumspecte, visible on the coat-of-arms hanging on
the wall, means “with caution” or “with meticulous care,” a highly appropriate
sentiment for a pharmacist. His father had a successful 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.
Ysbrandsz must have been well respected by his peers, because between 1667 (whenFig 1. Cornelis de Man, Three
Pharmacists, 1670s, oil on canvas, 90
× 112 cm, National Museum, Warsaw,
inv. no. M.ob. 22

he was 32 years old) and 1704 they regularly chose him to serve as headman ofRotterdam’s Apothecary Guild. Ysbrandsz may have commissioned Cornelis de Manto paint this portrait to celebrate his first election 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 well have been
influenced by professional connections: De Man’s grandfather, uncle, and a cousin
were pharmacists as well. Sometime in the 1670s, De Man included his uncle andcousin in a group portrait known as Three Pharmacists, which contains laboratory
equipment and a view of an apothecary (fig 1). The Ysbrandsz and De Man families
certainly would have known each other professionally, given that Cornelis’s family
lived and worked in Delft, only fifteen kilometers from Rotterdam.[4]Cornelis de Man, who became a member of the Guild of Saint Luke of Delft in 1642,

Fig 2. Thomas de Keyser, Constantijn
Huygens and His Clerk, 1627, oil onpanel, 92.4 cm x 69.3 cm, NationalGallery, London, inv. no. NG21

travelled to France and Italy before settling back in Delft around 1653. He often
merged portrait and genre traditions to depict professionals at work. This type ofportraiture was first popularized in the Dutch Republic in the 1620s by Thomas deKeyser (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 that they seem
thoughtfully and emotionally engaged in their work. De Man’s paintings have aremarkable clarity of style that not only comes from his mastery of perspective, butalso from his ability to clearly define the shape and character of individual objects, inpart through color.
In this striking portrait, De Man alludes to the range of Ysbrandsz’s scholarly interests
through the objects in the still life on the table. A gleaming skull rests amidst various
books and papers, a pictorial element that warns the viewer that life, which is finite,should be lived to its fullest. Ysbrandsz’s professional and public life confirm that heFig 3. Johannes Vermeer, TheAstronomer, ca. 1668, oil on canvas,
51 cm × 45 cm, Musée du Louvre,Paris, inv. no. R.F. 1983-28© 2024 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of the Pharmacist Dr. Ysbrand Ysbrandsz. (1634/35–1705) inan Interior
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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 relaxand 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 to Niccolo
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’s celebrated violins.
The celestial globe on the table serves a dual purpose. In addition to reaffirming
Ysbrandsz’s wide-ranging scholarly interests, the globe also pays homage to his wife,
Maria Blaeu. Maria’s paternal grandfather, Willem Jansz. Blaeu (1571–1638), andFig 4. Johannes Vermeer, TheGeographer, ca. 1668–69, oil oncanvas, 52 cm × 45.5 cm, Städelsches
Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt, inv. no. 1149

uncle, Joan Blaeu (1596–1673), were internationally famous cartographers, whoseglobes and maps were prized for their accuracy and beauty.[5] Willem Blaeu had
produced his first of a series of celestial globes in 1597 and, based on its size andcharacter, this Blaeu globe was made between 1602 and 1606.[6] The globe as anattribute of learning also connects De Man’s painting to Johannes Vermeer’s slightly
later paintings The Astronomer, 1668 (fig 3) and The Geographer, 1669 (fig 4). As
with his Delft colleague, De Man’s depiction of his sitter’s quiet reflection isprofoundly evocative.

- Henriette Rahusen, 2017

© 2024 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. Ysbrand Ysbrandsz.,”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 (“Japanese robe”).
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 wasworn indoors by men and women alike to ward off the cold. See Charlotte van Rappard-Boon, Imitationand 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 the pharmacists 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, a leadinginternational dealer in string instruments: Helen Wybrew-Bond, “Plenty of Strings Attached,” 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; their daughter 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© 2024 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of the Pharmacist Dr. Ysbrand Ysbrandsz. (1634/35–1705) inan Interior
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Probably private collection, Boston, Lincolnshire.[1](Sale, Sotheby’s, London, 17 May 1961, no. 99, as by Michiel van Musscher [for £320 to Daan 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 andGilder, 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 businessof Charles George Sinclair, active in Boston, Lincolnshire, during the last quarter of the nineteenthcentury. The business probably closed in the 1890s.

Exhibition HistoryKansas City, The Nelson-Atkins Museum, 15 December 2008–31 December 2009, on loan with thepermanent collection [lent by the present owner].
Kyoto, Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, “Communication: Visualizing the Human Connection in theAge of Vermeer,” 25 June–16 October 2011; Miyagi, The Miyagi Museum of Art, 27 October–12
December 2011; Tokyo, Bunkamura Museum of Art, 23 December 2011–14 March 2012 [lent by thepresent 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 present owner].
Toronto, Aga Khan Museum, “A Thirst for Riches: Carpets from the East in Paintings from the West,”
4 June–15 October 2015 [lent by the present owner].
Beijing, National Museum of China, “Rembrandt and His Time: Masterpieces from The LeidenCollection,” 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: 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 ofThe Leiden Collection,” 5 September 2018–13 January 2019 [lent by the present owner].
© 2024 The Leiden Collection

Portrait of the Pharmacist Dr. Ysbrand Ysbrandsz. (1634/35–1705) inan Interior
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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
De Bruyn Kops, Henriette. “The Pharmacist Dr. Ysbrand Ysbrandz.” In Human Connections in the Ageof 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 and His Time:
Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection. Edited by Lara Yeager-Crasselt, 144; 187, no. 62. Translatedby 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 fromThe 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 ofThe Leiden Collection. Edited by Polina Lyubimova, 116–17; 236, no. 24. Translated by Daria Babichand Daria Kuzina. Exh. cat. Moscow, The Pushkin State Museum of 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 French and Arabic.]
Blanc, Jan. “Being Modern, Being Dutch: The Seventeenth-Century Invention of the Golden Age.” InRembrandt, Vermeer and the Dutch Golden Age. Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection and the Muséedu Louvre. Edited by Blaise Ducos and Lara Yeager-Crasselt, 40. 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, 172, no. 88. [Exhibition catalogue also published in French and Arabic.]
Pettegree, Andrew, and Arthur der Weduwen. The Bookshop of the World: Making and Trading Books in
the Dutch Golden Age. New Haven, 2019, 347, fig. 59.
Bellingradt, Daniel. Vernetzte Papiermärkte: Einblicke in den Amsterdamer Handel mit Papier in 18.
Jahrhundert. Cologne, 2020, 65, fig. 10.
Bellingradt, Daniel. Vervlechting van de papiermarkt: De Amsterdamse papierhandel in de achttiende© 2024 The Leiden CollectionPowered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

Portrait of the Pharmacist Dr. Ysbrand Ysbrandsz. (1634/35–1705) inan InteriorPage 8 of 8eeuw. Hilversum, 2021, 60, fig. 10.

Technical Summary
The support, a medium-weight, plain-weave fabric with tacking margins removed, has been lined. There ispronounced cusping along the lower edge, slight cusping along the upper and left edges but none along theright edge, and a small triangular canvas insert along the lower half of the right edge.[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-intowet, 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 thecontours of the figure’s facial features, hair and hands suggests further investigation with longer wavelengths
of infrared may be useful.
The painting is unsigned and undated, but is inscribed with the sitter’s family name on the painting with acoat-of-arms in the upper center; a second inscription appears on the book at the center left.
The painting has not undergone conservation treatment since its acquisition. It is in good condition and in agood state of preservation.

Technical Summary Endnotes

1. 3 cm H x 2 cm W

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