Portrait of Bartholomeus Andrio Walsdorffer (?-1622)

The support is a plain-weave canvas that has been lined. Cusping is visible on the left and right sides. The ground layer appears to be whitish. It is difficult to judge the technique due to the poor condition of the painting.

Poor. The canvas is badly damaged, folded and torn, and is now stabilised in an unrestored state with losses, discoloured retouchings and varnish. There is a large horizontal insert in the middle of approximately 9 by 60 cm extending to the right side.

...; ? estate inventory, Frisian Stadholder’s Court, Leeuwarden, 16 August 1633, large blue room (‘Veertien stuck schildereien van capiteinen’), and the room next to the large room (‘Seeventien schildereien van capiteinen en ritmeisters.’);¹¹Drossaers/Lunsingh Scheurleer II, 1974, p. 53. inventory of paintings, Frisian Stadholder’s Court, Leeuwarden, c. 1800, Garde du Corps Hall (‘16. Capt Welsdorp’);²²Tresoar, Leeuwarden, Familiearchief Van Eysinga-Vegelin van Claerbergen, inv. no. 536; Mulder-Radetzky 1997, pp. 197, 203....; Mauritshuis, The Hague, 1876; transferred to the museum, 1885; on loan to the Nederlands Legermuseum, Delft, 1953-2000

ObjectNumber: SK-A-1230

It is thanks to the inscription ‘CAP.N. WALSDORP[...]R’ that the sitter could be identified as Captain Bartholomeus Andrio Walsdorffer, who succeeded Aurelius Burchart in 1604 as the commander of one of the three companies of Swiss soldiers in the Dutch army.³³On Walsdorffer see Ten Raa/De Bas II, 1913, pp. 169-71, 363, 365, 367, 369, III, 1915, pp. 101, 191, 291, 293, IV, 1918, p. 355. The province of Friesland paid the wages of Walsdorffer’s company, which was mainly armed with broadswords. Walsdorffer was known as a ‘most courageous and bold captain’. He was killed during the fighting around Bergen op Zoom in 1622.⁴⁴Ten Raa/De Bas II, 1913, p. 169, say that he died on 30 September, but in III, 1915, p. 191, that is changed to 30 December, which is followed by Zandvliet in Amsterdam 2000, p. 242, no. 88.

This portrait can be dated between 1605 and 1615 on the evidence of biographical data and the standing ruff. Its lamentable condition precludes an attribution.

Like four other officers’ portraits in the Rijksmuseum (SK-A-576, SK-A-875, SK-A-876 and SK-A-877) it once adorned the Stadholder’s Court in Leeuwarden,⁵⁵Mulder-Radetzky 1997, p. 197. and it is listed as number 16, ‘Capt Welsdorp’ in an inventory of the paintings hanging in the Garde du Corps Hall.⁶⁶Leeuwarden, Tresoar, Familiearchief Van Eysinga-Vegelin van Claerbergen, inv. no. 536. See the entry on SK-A-877 for a discussion of this provenance and the relationship between the five portraits.

Yvette Bruijnen, 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. 407.

Mulder-Radetzky 1997, pp. 197, 203; Zandvliet in Amsterdam 2000a, p. 242, no. 88

1903, p. 19, no. 193; 1976, p. 657, no. A 1230; 2007, no. 407

Y. Bruijnen, 2007, 'anonymous, Portrait of Bartholomeus Andrio Walsdorffer (?-1622), c. 1605 - c. 1615', in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.7231