THOMAS DE KEYSER, 1596/7‐1667
212 Portrait of Constantijn Huygens and his (?)Clerk

Neil MacLaren, revised and expanded by Christopher Brown, 1991

Extracted from:
Neil MacLaren; revised and expanded by Christopher Brown, The Dutch School 1600–1900 (London: National Gallery Publications Limited, 1991).

Plate 184

In the background hangs a tapestry with many figures, apparently representing St Francis before the Sultan; in the centre of its upper border is a coat‐of‐arms: ‘aux 1 & 4 d’argent au pal d’azur; aux 2 & 3 de gueules à deux lions léopardés d’argent’ (see below). Above the fireplace is a painting of a vessel in a rough sea, in the style of Jan Porcellis, and below it a small bust portrait of a man.

On the table, which is covered by a Turkey carpet, are a pair of terrestrial and celestial globes, a chitarrone, books, an ink‐pot, a paper with architectural plans, a pair of compasses and a chronometer.

Signed on the front of the chimney‐piece: Tdk an 1627 (Tdk in monogram); very faint.

Oil on oak, 92.4 × 69.3 cm (36⅜ × 27¼).

Cleaned in 1964. There is some wearing in the darks.

Discussion

Constantijn Huygens the Elder, lord of Zuylichem, was born on 4 September 1596 in The Hague. He was secretary to the Dutch embassy in Venice, 1620, and London, [page 1.216]1621–4, and was knighted by King James I in 1622. He was appointed secretary to the Stadholder, Prince Frederik Hendrik of Orange, in 1625, and after the latter’s death in 1647 to his son and successor, Prince Willem II. When Willem II died in 1650 he continued as adviser to the Prince Frederik Hendrik’s widow, Amalia van Solms, and was often entrusted with the affairs of the House of Orange. Finally, he was first councillor and reekenmeester to the Stadholder‐King William III, until his death in The Hague in 1687.¹ He had very considerable and varied talents and was particularly interested in the fine arts. He worked with the architect, Pieter Post, on the plans for his own house in The Hague.

The identity of the sitter was established by F. Schmidt‐Degener² and is put beyond doubt by comparison with the many authenticated portraits of Constantijn the Elder, for example Willem Delff’s engraving of 1625 after Michiel Miereveld,³ Paul Pontius’s engraving in the Iconographie after a portrait by van Dyck probably painted in 1632,⁴ and Adriaen Hanneman’s composite portrait, finished in 1639, in the Mauritshuis in The Hague.⁵ Further, the arms of the tapestry are obviously intended for those of Constantijn Huygens, who quartered the Huygens arms with those of Bacx:⁶ ‘aux 1 & 4 d’argent à deux pals d’azur (= Huygens); aux 2 & 3 d’argent au chef de gueules chargé d’un lion, léopardé du champ’ (= Bacx).⁷ They are rendered inaccurately in the picture; the nature of the principal differences — one pale instead of two in the Huygens quarters and two lions instead of one in those of Bacx — suggests that the painter confused his instructions. In any case it will be noted that, unlike the rest of the accessories, the coat‐of‐arms is rather carelessly painted.

The chitarrone and the globes are clearly references to Huygens’s interest in music and astronomy. The plans on the sheet of paper are architectural drawings and, together with the compasses, are intended to illustrate Huygens’s studies in this art (see above). Huygens is shown spurred in reference to the knighthood conferred on him by James I five years earlier. The identity of the young man with Huygens is not known. A 1785 inventory describes him as Huygens’s clerk or page (see PROVENANCE).

De Keyser is not known to have been in The Hague, where Huygens lived, and it seems highly probable that Huygens sat for this portrait in Amsterdam; it appears from his diary that he was staying there for most of the time between 22 February and 27 April 1627.⁸ Indeed the present picture may very well be ‘my portrait painted shortly before my wedding’ (which took place on 6 April 1627) about which he wrote some Latin verses on 31 July 1627, but without naming the painter.⁹ This suggestion has been disputed¹⁰ on the grounds that in these verses Huygens cites as evidence of his great joy the unwrinkled brow in the portrait whereas this is not visible in de Keyser’s picture since he is wearing a hat, but Huygens may well have used the expression figuratively. (The portrait mentioned in Huygens’s lines of 1627 cannot be, in any case, that painted by Lievens, probably in 1626 or 1627, in the Rijksmuseum, for that shows Huygens with a serious, almost melancholy countenance.¹¹)

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 1785.¹²[page 1.217]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 Coders (275 guilders); John Webb sale, London, 30–31 May 1821 (lot 145), bought by Simmons¹³ (100 gns). Richard Simmons Bequest, 1847.

EXHIBITIONS: London 1976, No. 65; The Hague 1979, No. 18.

REFERENCES:

General: Oldenbourg, op. cit. , No. 79 and pl. 8; F. Schmidt‐Degener in Onze Kunst, vol. 27, 1915, pp. 113ff; H. E. van Gelder, Ikonographie van Constantin Huygens en de zijnen, The Hague, 1957, No. 6; Adams, op. cit; no. 13 (with full bibliography).

In text: