Thomas de Keyser, 'Portrait of Constantijn Huygens and his (?) Clerk', 1627

Portrait of Constantijn Huygens and his (?) Clerk

Thomas de Keyser

Room 17

About the work

Overview

Constantijn Huygens was a senior diplomat who spoke several languages and had a wide knowledge of the arts and sciences. In this portrait, he’s caught in action, receiving a message from a young clerk. Interrupted in his work, he wears a riding outfit as if ready to be up and off in a moment on state business.

The items that de Keyser chose to put on Huygens’s table tell of his official duties and his many other interests and talents – there’s a chitarrone (a plucked instrument), architectural plans and a pair of terrestrial and celestial globes.

Huygens was probably the most influential figure in the cultural life of the Dutch Republic. He wrote poetry and designed gardens and knew the scientists and artists of his day, including Rembrandt. De Keyser’s portrait celebrates the spirit of the Dutch Republic in one urbane and brilliant man.

In-depth

Constantijn Huygens was a true Renaissance man –- someone who spoke several languages, had a wide knowledge of the arts and sciences and was practised in diplomacy. In this portrait, he turns in his chair, eyes wide and aware. He’s caught in action, receiving a message from a young man thought to be his clerk. Interrupted in his work, Huygens wears a riding outfit as if ready to be up and off in a moment on pressing state business.

His full title was Constantijn Huygens the elder, Lord of Zuylichem, and he was Secretary and Adviser to Prince Frederik Hendrik, Stadtholder of the Dutch Republic. Huygens travelled often and widely. As a young man, he was in England as Secretary to the Dutch Embassy; at the age of 31, when this portrait was painted, he had already been granted a knighthood by King James I for his service to both countries.

But there is perhaps another reason for his choice of costume. While in England and an inexperienced diplomat, Huygens had written to his parents to tell them how worried he was at the state of his satin courtier’s clothes, damaged from riding. Now able to afford new garments that were the height of fashion, he would have appreciated the fresh look of the fabric and elaborate detail of the decoration -– the lace at neck and knee, the beaded panels, the suede boots – that Thomas de Keyser portrays.

The items de Keyser chose to put on the expensive carpet on Huygens’s table tell of his official duties and his many other interests and talents. These objects include a chitarrone, a plucked instrument with an extremely long neck. Huygens not only played, but wrote songs and sang well himself. Beside the instrument are plans, apparently showing architectural projects, and a pair of terrestrial and celestial globes. Behind him on the wall hangs the Huygens coat of arms and a tapestry showing the Christian Saint Francis with the Muslim Sultan of Damietta in Egypt. This legendary encounter became a model for interfaith discussion that Huygens, a Calvinist but always tolerant of other religions, understood.

Most of all perhaps, Huygens is celebrated as a designer of internationally renowned gardens and as a fine poet and writer. He helped to create the building of the Mauritshuis, the home of Count John Mauritz van Nassau-Siegen, and designed the new gardens there, challenging French supremacy in garden design. His revolutionary ideas for the aristocratic garden found their way to England, especially at Hampton Court Palace. Subsequently, he made the elegant garden at his own summer house, Hofwijck, which can still be visited today.

Huygens was probably the most influential figure in the cultural life of the Dutch Republic. He knew the scientists and artists of his day, including Rembrandt, whose painting he admired greatly for its humanity, psychological insight and new techniques. Yet he chose to commission this portrait from de Keyser, from a generation before Rembrandt. De Keyser used an oak panel as a support on which paint could flow freely, allowing him to show immaculate detail difficult to achieve in Rembrandt’s looser style, but which suited Huygens’s taste at the time. The result is a portrait that celebrates the spirit of the new Dutch Republic embodied in one urbane and brilliant man.

Want to find out more?

Delve deeper and explore the catalogue entry for this painting.

Key facts

Details

Full title: Portrait of Constantijn Huygens and his (?) Clerk
Artist: Thomas de Keyser
Artist dates: 1596/7 - 1667
Date made: 1627
Medium and support: oil on wood
Dimensions: 92.4 × 69.3 cm
Inscription summary: Signed; Dated
Acquisition credit: Bequeathed by Richard Simmons, 1847
Inventory number: NG212
Location: Room 17
Collection: Main Collection
Previous owners: Richard Simmons
Frame: 17th-century Dutch Frame

Provenance

It is most probably the full-length portrait of Constantijn Huygens with his clerk or page which was in the inventory of possessions of Huygens’s last direct descendant, Susanna Louisa Huygens, widow of Baron Willem van Wassenaer van Ruyven, who died in The Hague in December 1785. It was in the collection of Anna Maria Ebeling (wife of Jonkheer Paul Iwan Hogguer) who died in 1812 and in the sale of her collection in Amsterdam, 18 sqq. August 1817 (lot 37), bought by Coclers (275 guilders); John Webb sale, London, 30–31 May 1821 (lot 145), bought by Simmons (100 gns). Richard Simmons Bequest, 1847.

Additional information

Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Neil MacLaren, revised and expanded by Christopher Brown, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Dutch School: 1600–1900’, London 1991; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.

Exhibition history

2013

Vermeer and Music: The Art of Love and Leisure

The National Gallery (London)

26 June 2013 - 8 September 2013
2015

Class Distinctions: Dutch Painting in the Age of Rembrandt and Vermeer

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

11 October 2015 - 18 January 2016

The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art

20 February 2016 - 29 May 2016
2019

Rembrandt and Amsterdam portraiture, 1590-1670

Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza

18 February 2020 - 30 August 2020

Bibliography

1809

Anonymous Sale, Amsterdam, 17 April 1809
1868

E. Thoré-Bürger, 'Galerie Suremondt, VII: Theodore de Keyser', Gazette des beaux-arts, XXIV, 1868
1888

E.T. Cook, A Popular Handbook to the National Gallery Including, by Special Permission, Notes Collected from the Works of Mr. Ruskin, London 1888
1914

F. Schmidt-Degener, 'Portretten door Rembrandt. II. Het portret van Constantjin Huygens in de Verzammeling B. Altman te New York', Oud Holland, XXXII, 1914, pp. 221-2
1915

F. Schmidt-Degener, 'Een onbekend portret van Constantijn Huygens in de National Gallery', Onze Kunst, 1915, pp. 1-17
1937

C. Brière-Misme, 'Le "Portrait de Constantijn Huygens" par Livens', Bulletin des Musées de France, 1937, pp. 28-30
1957

H.E. van Gelder, Ikonographie van Constantijn Huygens, The Hague 1957
1960

Maclaren, Neil, National Gallery Catalogues: The Dutch School, 2 vols, London 1960
1974

C. Kramm, De levens en werken der Hollandsche en Vlaamsche kunstschilders, 1857-1864, facsimile edn, Amsterdam 1974
1981

E.A. Standen, 'Tapestry in Use: Indoors', Apollo, 1981, pp. 6-15
1982

D.R. Smith, The Dutch Double and Pair Portrait: Studies in the Imagery of Marriage in the Seventeenth Century, Ann Arbor 1982
1982

D.R. Smith, 'Rembrandt's Early Double Portraits and the Dutch Conversation Piece', Art Bulletin, LXIV/2, 1982, pp. 259-88
1983

C. Brown, 'Rubens' Watering Place: An Examination of His Landscape Technique', Ringling Museum of Art Journal, 1983, pp. 130-49
1983

J. Mills, Carpets in Paintings (exh. cat. The National Gallery, 1 June - 24 July 1983), London 1983
1984

S. Alpers, 'Constantjin Huygens and the New World', in The Art of Describing: Dutch Art in the 17th Century, Chicago 1984, pp. 3-25
1989

A. Leerintenveld, 'Tquam soo wel te pass', Leids Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek, VIII, 1989, pp. 159-83
1991

Maclaren, Neil, revised by Christopher Brown, National Gallery Catalogues: The Dutch School, 1600-1900, 2nd edn (revised and expanded), 2 vols, London 1991
1991

J. Held, 'Constantijn Huygens and Susanna van Baerle: A hiterto Unknown Portrait', Art Bulletin, LXXIII/4, 1991, pp. 635-68
1992

J. Held, 'Corrections', Art Bulletin, LXXIV/1, 1992, pp. 173
1992

B. Herrmann, 'Der Kolner Maler Johann Hulsman: Gemälde aus den Jahren 1635 bis 1644', Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch, LIII, 1992, pp. 95-116
1993

M. Weyl (ed.), Rembrandt's Holland (exh. cat. Israel Museum, 7 May - 25 August 1993), Jerusalem 1993
1994

E. Langmuir, The National Gallery Companion Guide, London 1994
1994

E. de Jongh (ed.), Faces of the Golden Age: Seventeenth-Century Dutch Portraits (exh. cat. Yamaguchi Prefectural Museum of Art, 12 April - 15 May 1994; Kumamoto Prefectural Museum of Art, 14 July - 4 September 1994; Tokyo Station Gallery, 10 September 1994 - 30 October 1994; Kunsthal, 12 November 1994 - 22 January 1995), The Hague 1994
1996

S.E. James, 'Reni's Drawing of Nicholas Lanier: A Recent Discovery at Lacma', Apollo, 1996, pp. 14-8
1996

S. Hahn, S. Metken and P.B. Steiner, Sanct Georg: Der Ritter mit dem Drachen (exh. cat. Historical Museum, 1 March - 2 June 1996), The Hague 1996
1997

C. Vermeeren and P. Van der Ploeg, Princely Patrons: The Collection of Frederick Henry of Orange and Amalia of Solms in The Hague, Zwolle 1997
1997

J.V. Field and F.A.J.L. James, Science in Art: Works in the National Gallery That Illustrate the History of Science and Technology, Stanford in the Vale 1997
1997

D. Howarth, Images of Rule: Art and Politics in the English Renaissance, 1485-1649, Macmillan 1997
1997

J. Woodall (ed.), Facing the Subject, Manchester 1997
1997

R. Priem, 'The "Most Excellent Collection" of Lucretia Johanna van Winter: The Years 1809-22, with a Catalogue of the Works Purchased', Simiolus, XXV/2-3, 1997, pp. 103-96
1997

M.A. Schenkeveld-Van der Dussen, 'Bridging Two Cultures. The Story of the Huygens Family', Low Countries, 1997
1998

J. Wadum, 'Contours of Vermeer', Studies in the History of Art, LV, 1998, pp. 200-23
1999

C. White (ed.), Rembrandt by Himself (exh. cat. The National Gallery, London, 9 June - September 1999; Mauritshuis, 25 September 1999 - 9 January 2000), London 1999
2000

A.K. Wheelock, Rembrandt Creates Rembrandt: Art and Ambition in Leiden, Boston 2000
2001

C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
2001

N.H.J. Hall, A Taste for Italian Art in Holland, London 2001
2001

C.W. Fock (ed.), Het Nederlandse interieur in beeld, 1600-1900 (exh. cat. Gemeentemuseum, 10 November 2001 - 10 February 2002), Zwolle 2001
2001

W. Liedtke, M.C. Plomp and A. Rüger, Vermeer and the Delft School (exh. cat. Metropolitan Museum of Art, 8 March - 27 May 2001; The National Gallery, London, 20 June - 16 September 2001), New York 2001
2004

Sotheby's, Sale Catalogue, London, 22 April 2004
2006

M. De Winkel, Fashion and Fancy: Dress and Meaning in Rembrandt's Paintings, Amsterdam 2006
2007

R. Ekkart and Q. Buvelot, Dutch Portraits: The Age of Rembrandt and Frans Hals (exh. cat. The National Gallery, 27 June - 16 September 2007; Mauritshuis, 13 October 2007 - 13 January 2008), London 2007

Frame

The seventeenth-century Dutch frame was acquired by the Gallery in 2005 for Thomas de Keyser’s Portrait of Constantijn Huygens and his (?) Clerk. Crafted by a cabinetmaker, it features a fruitwood veneer over a pinewood structure. Originally designed for a larger picture, the frame bears a crowned monogram stamped on the reverse, indicating a previous owner. The moulding consists of wide, moulded fillets at the top, centre and sight edge, along with an edge roll. It also includes a wide scotia and frieze. Notably, the sight edge appears to be made of a different veneer; its lighter colour adds a distinctive touch.

About this record

If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.