Portrait of a Woman

attributed to Hendrik Gerritsz Pot, 1638

Portret van een vrouw. Staande, bijna ten voeten uit, iets naar links, het gelaat en face. Handschoenen in de linkerhand, de rechterhand voor de buik.

  • Artwork typepainting
  • Object numberSK-A-3301
  • Dimensionssupport: height 45 cm x width 34 cm, outer size: depth 7 cm (support incl. frame)
  • Physical characteristicsoil on panel

Hendrik Gerritsz Pot (attributed to)

Portrait of a Woman

1638

Inscriptions

  • inscription and date, top right:Ætatis 3[.] / Anno 1638

Technical notes

The support is a vertically grained oak panel. It has been cut down slightly on the right, and the corners on the left and at top right have been sawn off and the panel bevelled there. A filling visible at bottom left may have been inserted by the panel maker or the painter. A thin, transparent ground is followed by thin, smooth paint layers. A red lake was used as undermodelling to suggest depth and shadow in a few places, such as between the fingers. The red paint in the right hand appears to have been applied at an early stage. The ground was deliberately left visible along the edges of the ruff in order to suggest the transparency of the material. Pentimenti in the arms reveal that they were originally slenderer.

Scientific examination and reports

  • technical report: M. van de Laar, RMA, 19 april 2005

Condition

Fair. There are abraded passages partially covered by discoloured retouching. The varnish is discoloured.

Provenance

...; donated to the museum by Mr and Mrs D.A.J. Kessler-Hülsmann, Kapelle op den Bosch, near Mechelen, 1940

Object number: SK-A-3301

Credit line: Gift of Mr and Mrs Kessler-Hülsmann, Kapelle op den Bosch

The artist

Biography

Hendrick Gerritsz Pot (Amsterdam c. 1580 - Amsterdam 1657)

Hendrick Gerritsz Pot of Haarlem was probably born in 1580, although there are no documents from which this can be deduced. He was registered as an unmarried young man from Amsterdam when he posted the banns of his marriage with Janneken Theunisdr de Ram in 1610. He is recorded as one of Karel van Mander’s pupils by the latter’s anonymous biographer. He was first recorded as a painter in 1606, when he became a member of the Haarlem civic guard. He and his wife were in England in 1632, where he painted several portraits of King Charles I and his wife Henrietta Maria, among other works. On Pot’s return to Haarlem, Frans Hals painted him twice in civic guard portraits, the first time in the Officers and Sergeants of the St Hadrian Civic Guard of 1633, and again in the Officers and Sergeants of the St George Civic Guard of 1639.1Haarlem, Frans Hals Museum; illustrated in Slive II, 1970, pls. 127, 201. As a sergeant, Pot took part in the conquest of Heusden in 1625 and served as a lieutenant in the Haarlem civic guard for several years. He also occupied various posts in the Guild of St Luke for over two decades: as warden in 1626, 1631, 1634 and 1648, and as dean in 1635. He moved to Amsterdam at the end of his life, where he acquired citizenship on 7 June 1650. He was buried there in the Oudezijdskapel on 15 October 1657. Houbraken states that Willem Kalf (1619-93) was his pupil in Amsterdam.

In addition to portraits, Pot made a number of history paintings and genre scenes, most of them merry companies in the manner of his fellow townsman Dirck Hals. There are very few early dated works. The Glorification of Prince William of Orange of 1620 was a major early commission from the city of Haarlem, for which he was paid 450 guilders.2Haarlem, Frans Hals Museum; illustrated in Biesboer 1983, p. 37. It was destined for the dining hall of the Prinsenhof. A second version, since lost, originally hung in the Magistrates’ Chamber in Delft Town Hall.

Everhard Korthals Altes, 2007

References
Ampzing 1628, p. 371; Schrevelius 1648, p. 383; Van Bleyswijck 1667, p. 127; Houbraken II, 1719, pp. 123, 218; Bredius/Haverkorn van Rijsewijk 1887, pp. 161-76; Bernstein in Thieme/Becker XXVII, 1933, pp. 301-02; Van Thiel-Stroman in Haarlem-Worcester 1993, pp. 334-35; Van Thiel-Stroman 2006, pp. 273-76

Entry

This small, delicately painted portrait of a woman is dated 1638, when Pot was living and working in Haarlem. His sitters were from the well-to-do burgher class of Haarlem and Amsterdam. The woman, who was in her thirties according to the inscription at top right, has not so far been identified. The glove and ring indicate that she is married. Given her pose, turned a little to the left, it is likely that there was a companion piece with the portrait of her husband, but that has not yet been identified.

The sober look of this portrait is typical of the period. Paintings from the 1630s by Johannes Cornelisz Verspronck and Frans Hals often depict Haarlem burghers in a similar way, but their portraits are always larger. The portraits by Gerard ter Borch, who was also working in Haarlem at this time, also display similarities to Pot’s.3Gudlaugsson I, 1959, pp. 42-43.

There are several other female portraits that have stylistic affinities with this one, although there are minor differences. The Portrait of Anna Hooftman4Panel, 18.5 x 15.3 cm; Rijswijk, ICN, on loan to the Mauritshuis together with the Portrait of Jean Fontaine; illustrated in coll. cat. The Hague 2004a, pp. 301-02, nos. 1075, 1076. is smaller, in a size quite common for Pot, and is very delicately executed, but the figure is less monumental and more doll-like compared to the woman in this painting. The Portrait of a Lady,5125 x 100.5 cm, Rijswijk, ICN; illustrated in coll. cat. RBK 1992, p. 243, no. 2103. which some attribute to Pot, is actually larger, but is modelled a little more harshly.

Everhard Korthals Altes, 2007

See Bibliography and Rijksmuseum painting catalogues
See Key to abbreviations and Acknowledgements

This entry was published in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, I: Artists Born between 1570 and 1600, coll. cat. Amsterdam 2007, no. 247.

Collection catalogues

1976, p. 453, no. A 3301; 2007, no. 247

Citation

E. Korthals Altes, 2007, 'attributed to Hendrik Gerritsz. Pot, Portrait of a Woman, 1638', in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/20028522

(accessed 7 December 2025 07:27:18).

Footnotes

  • 1Haarlem, Frans Hals Museum; illustrated in Slive II, 1970, pls. 127, 201.
  • 2Haarlem, Frans Hals Museum; illustrated in Biesboer 1983, p. 37.
  • 3Gudlaugsson I, 1959, pp. 42-43.
  • 4Panel, 18.5 x 15.3 cm; Rijswijk, ICN, on loan to the Mauritshuis together with the Portrait of Jean Fontaine; illustrated in coll. cat. The Hague 2004a, pp. 301-02, nos. 1075, 1076.
  • 5125 x 100.5 cm, Rijswijk, ICN; illustrated in coll. cat. RBK 1992, p. 243, no. 2103.