Rembrandt, 'Portrait of Margaretha de Geer, Wife of Jacob Trip', about 1661
About the work
Overview
This is one of a pair of portraits of a husband and wife, one of the richest couples in the Netherlands. Margaretha de Geer had been married to Jacob Trip for nearly 60 years, and the two portraits, both in the National Gallery, were made to hang together, almost certainly in one of the grand reception rooms of a palatial new residence – the Trippenhuis – which was being built in Amsterdam for their two sons.
Rembrandt has created a fascinating contrast between the couple. Not only are their poses asymmetrical – Margaretha meets our gaze head on, Jacob sits askew, his mind apparently elsewhere – but he used different painting techniques. Jacob is rendered using swift, economical brushwork, while Margaretha’s skin and ruff are worked with great intensity and attention to detail.
Jacob died in 1661, around the time the painting was made. Perhaps Rembrandt was deliberately contrasting the fading presence of a dying man with the vibrant energy of his wife, who still had another ten years to live.
Key facts
Details
- Full title
- Portrait of Margaretha de Geer, Wife of Jacob Trip
- Artist
- Rembrandt
- Artist dates
- 1606 - 1669
- Part of the series
- Portraits of Jacob Trip and his Wife Margaretha de Geer
- Date made
- about 1661
- Medium and support
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 130.5 × 97.5 cm
- Acquisition credit
- Bought, 1899
- Inventory number
- NG1675
- Location
- Room 22
- Collection
- Main Collection
- Frame
- 21st-century Replica Frame
Provenance
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
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2013Frans Hals : eye to eye with Rembrandt, Rubens and TitianFrans Hals Museum23 March 2013 - 28 July 2013
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2014Rembrandt: The Late WorksThe National Gallery (London)15 October 2014 - 18 January 2015Rijksmuseum Amsterdam12 February 2015 - 17 May 2015
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2017Rubens and RembrandtThe National Gallery (London)22 March 2017 - 6 August 2017
Bibliography
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1830
J. Smith, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish, and French Painters: In Which is Included a Short Biographical Notice of the Artists, with a Copious Description of Their Principal Pictures […], vol. 2, London 1830
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1897W. von Bode and C. Hofstede de Groot, The Complete Work of Rembrandt, 8 vols, Paris 1897
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1897E.W. Moes, Iconographia Batava, 2 vols, Amsterdam 1897
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1907C. Hofstede de Groot, Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century, 10 vols, London 1907
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1928C. Hofstede de Groot, 'De portretten van het echtpaar Jacob Trip en Margaretha de Geer door de Cuyp's, N. Maes and Rembrandt', Oud Holland, XLV, 1928, pp. 255-64
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1960Maclaren, Neil, National Gallery Catalogues: The Dutch School, 2 vols, London 1960
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1965P. Klein, De Trippen in de 17de eeuw: Een studie over het ondernemersgedrag op de Hollandse stapelmarkt, Assen 1965
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1976C. Brown, Art in Seventeenth Century Holland (exh. cat. The National Gallery, 30 September - 12 December 1976), London 1976
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1978C. Campbell, 'Portretten en kaerteblaren', Kroniek van het Rembrandthuis, II, 1978, pp. 3-35
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1979S.A.C. Dudok van Heel, 'Het maecenaat Trip. Opdrachten aan Ferdinand Bol en Rembrandt van Rijn', De Kroniek van het Rembrandthuis, XXXI, 1979, pp. 14-26
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1985G. Schwartz, Rembrandt: His Life, His Paintings, Harmondsworth 1985
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1988D. Bomford et al., Rembrandt (exh. cat. The National Gallery, 12 October 1988 - 17 January 1989), London 1988
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1989J. Mills and R. White, 'Paint Media Analyses', National Gallery Technical Bulletin, XIII, 1989, pp. 69-71
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1991Maclaren, Neil, revised by Christopher Brown, National Gallery Catalogues: The Dutch School, 1600-1900, 2nd edn (revised and expanded), 2 vols, London 1991
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1993C. Tümpel, Rembrandt: All Paintings in Colour, Antwerp 1993
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2001
C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
Frame
This English replica frame was made in 2014. The box frame is covered with ebonised pearwood moulding. The top section begins with a narrow edge roll and a flat, followed by a large hollow and another edge roll and flat. This leads to a raised ogee with an edge roll and a flat sight moulding.
This frame was made at the same time as the replica frame crafted for Rembrandt’s Portrait of Jacob Trip. Both reproductions were inspired by a seventeenth-century Dutch frame on the portrait of Agatha van Loon by Nicolaes Maes (Museum Van Loon, Amsterdam).
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.
Images
About the series: Portraits of Jacob Trip and his Wife Margaretha de Geer
Overview
In seventeenth-century Holland, it was common for married couples to be depicted separately in paintings designed to be hung as a pair, with the woman’s portrait invariably hung to the right. This placed the wife to her husband’s left – or, as it was regarded at the time, his inferior side: marriage was a partnership steered by the man.
These portraits are particularly large examples, reflecting the status of the couple, Jacob Trip and Margaretha de Geer – who belonged to one of the richest families in Holland. They were probably commissioned by two of the Trips‘ sons, to be hung in a palatial residence which they were building in Amsterdam.
The poses are unusual. Normally we’d expect each sitter to be half turned towards the other. But Margaretha faces the viewer directly. She may be sitting on her husband’s inferior side, but Rembrandt seems to imply that she is the more active and engaged of the two.
Works in the series
More works by Rembrandt
