The Disbanding of the ‘Waardgelders’ by Prince Maurits

Pauwels van Hillegaert (signed by artist), 1627

Attired in black, Prince Maurits watches as (mercenary) soldiers – so-called ‘waardgelders’ hired by the towns – here cast off their armour into a sizeable heap. Army commander Maurits put an end to the practice of hiring mercenaries in 1618. By disbanding them, he further consolidated his control over the municipal governments, quashing their ability to defend themselves

  • Artwork typepainting
  • Object numberSK-A-155
  • Dimensionsouter size: depth 8.5 cm (support incl. frame), support: height 98.5 cm x width 171.2 cm
  • Physical characteristicsoil on canvas

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"Maurits (prins van Oranje)" by Pauwels van Hillegaert

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Pauwels van Hillegaert, c. 1621 - c. 1625

Prince Maurits, Accompanied by Prince Frederik Hendrik, Frederick V of Bohemia and his Wife Elizabeth Stuart, and Others, on the Buitenhof, The Hague

Prince Maurice at the Battle of Nieuwpoort, 2 July 1600

Pauwels van Hillegaert (signed by artist), c. 1632 - c. 1640

Prince Maurice at the Battle of Nieuwpoort, 2 July 1600

Prince Maurits Astride the White Warhorse Presented to him after his Victory at Nieuwpoort

Pauwels van Hillegaert, c. 1633 - c. 1635

Prince Maurits Astride the White Warhorse Presented to him after his Victory at Nieuwpoort

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Prince Maurits, Accompanied by Prince Frederik Hendrik, Frederick V of Bohemia and his Wife Elizabeth Stuart, and Others, on the Buitenhof, The Hague

Pauwels van Hillegaert, c. 1621 - c. 1625

Prince Maurits, Accompanied by Prince Frederik Hendrik, Frederick V of Bohemia and his Wife Elizabeth Stuart, and Others, on the Buitenhof, The Hague

Frederick Henry and Ernst Casimir of Nassau-Dietz at the Siege of ’s Hertogenbosch

Pauwels van Hillegaert, c. 1629 - c. 1635

Frederick Henry and Ernst Casimir of Nassau-Dietz at the Siege of ’s Hertogenbosch

Prince Maurice at the Battle of Nieuwpoort, 2 July 1600

Pauwels van Hillegaert (signed by artist), c. 1632 - c. 1640

Prince Maurice at the Battle of Nieuwpoort, 2 July 1600

Prince Frederik Hendrik at the Siege of 's-Hertogenbosch, 1629

Pauwels van Hillegaert, c. 1631

Prince Frederik Hendrik at the Siege of 's-Hertogenbosch, 1629

Prince Maurits Astride the White Warhorse Presented to him after his Victory at Nieuwpoort

Pauwels van Hillegaert, c. 1633 - c. 1635

Prince Maurits Astride the White Warhorse Presented to him after his Victory at Nieuwpoort

Prince Frederik Hendrik on Horseback

Pauwels van Hillegaert, c. 1629 - c. 1635

Prince Frederik Hendrik on Horseback

Pauwels van Hillegaert

The Disbanding of the ‘Waardgelders’ (Mercenaries in the Pay of the Town Government) by Prince Maurits on the Neude, Utrecht, 31 July 1618

1627

Inscriptions

  • signature and date, bottom centre:Pauwels van hilligaert 1627
  • signature, on the house on the left:PAwels van hillig
  • date, on the fourth house on the right:Anno 1627

Technical notes

The plain-weave canvas support has been lined and the tacking edges were cut off. Cusping is visible on all sides. The ground layer has a whitish colour. The painting was executed smoothly, with visible brushstrokes in the sky, the ground and some of the buildings. Small hatchings define the modelling of the horses.

Scientific examination and reports

  • technical report: M. van de Laar, RMA, 10 augustus 2004

Conservation

  • W.A. Hopman, 1875: varnish regenerated
  • W.A. Hopman, 1883: canvas lined
  • J.A. Hesterman, 1905: canvas relined
  • conservator unknown, 1966: restored

Provenance

…; purchased by the museum from the dealer C.S. Roos, 3 April 1801;1Moes/Van Biema 1909, pp. 44-45; Grijzenhout 1984, p. 57, no. 31.

Object number: SK-A-155

The artist

Biography

Pauwels van Hillegaert (Amsterdam c. 1596 - Amsterdam 1640)

Pauwels van Hillegaert was born into a southern Netherlandish immigrant family in Amsterdam. This was around 1596, for in a document of 1620 he is said to be 24 years old. The name of his teacher is not known. He married Anneken Hoomis of Antwerp in 1620 in Amsterdam. In 1639 he was a member of the Amsterdam civic guard, and appears as such in a militia piece by Nicolaes Eliasz Pickenoy.2Amsterdams Historisch Museum; illustrated in coll. cat. 1976, p. 217, no. C 403. He was buried in Amsterdam on 10 February 1640.

Van Hillegaert is usually referred to as a ‘battle painter’ in the archives. Today he is better known for siege scenes with princes Maurits and Frederik Hendrik and for equestrian portraits of them than for cavalry battles. He often made several versions of his paintings, and probably worked mainly for the open market and less often on commission for the House of Orange or official bodies. His earliest known work dates from 1619. He may have supplied the figures in a landscape by Alexander Keirincx. His work is closely related to that of Henri Ambrosius Pacx.

His two sons, Francois I (1621-60) and Paulus II (1631-58), became painters too, and were probably his pupils and followers. After their father’s death Francois inherited ‘all his father’s painting implements, likewise the drawings by the same together with all the unfinished paintings’.3‘alle ’t schildergereetschap van sijn vader, item alle desselffs teeckeningen mitsgaders alle de onopgemaeckte schilderijen’.

Yvette Bruijnen, 2007

References
Bredius III, 1917, pp. 828-29; Hofstede de Groot in Thieme/Becker XVII, 1924, pp. 93-94; Briels 1997, p. 337; Van Maarseveen 1998a, pp. 83, 86, 103

Entry

Pauwels van Hillegart depicted two of Prince Maurits’s feats of arms: his victory at the Battle of Nieuwpoort in 1600 (SK-A-664) and this disbanding of the waardgelders in Utrecht in 1618.4See the entry on Droochsloot’s treatment of this subject, SK-A-606, for a brief description of this event, as well as Van Maarseveen 1998a, pp. 75-76, and Groenveld/Leeuwenberg 1985, II, pp. 33-34. For the suits of armour in the painting see Van der Sloot 1959, p. 119. Van Hillegaert made the painting nine years after the event, but he painted at least three other versions, the earliest in 1622.5Delft, Museum Prinsenhof Delft, canvas, 96 x 147 cm, monogrammed, and dated 1622; illustrated in Haak 1984, p. 178, fig. 366. There is a signed but undated version in Utrecht,6Centraal Museum, canvas, 106.1 x 153.9 cm, signed; illustrated in coll. cat. Utrecht 1999, II, p. 946, no. 275. and another dated 1623.7Formerly in a private collection, Hoorn, the Netherlands, canvas, 98 x 156 cm, dated 1623; photo RKD. All are roughly the same size as the one in the Rijksmuseum and show an identical view of the city. The arrangement of the foreground figures, however, was changed each time, although the focal point is always Prince Maurits, on foot and clad in black, surrounded by his retinue in the centre foreground. Two unsigned and undated smaller variants that are close to Van Hillegaert’s versions show the same view of the city but have more figures, which are also more static.8Germany, private collection, panel, 71 x 114 cm; photo RKD; sale, A. de Kat (Soestdijk), Dordrecht (A. Mak), 24 October 1916, no. 164.

The subject was probably first painted by the Utrecht artist Joost Cornelisz Droochsloot, who made his first version in 1618 (SK-A-606), the year in which the event took place, and may have been an eye-witness.

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. 123.

Literature

Van der Sloot 1959, p. 119; Van Maarseveen 1998a, pp. 75-76

Collection catalogues

1809, p. 33, no. 129; 1843, p. 29, no. 125 (‘in good condition’); 1853, p. 13, no. 117 (fl. 400); 1858, p. 62, no. 125; 1880, pp. 140-41, no. 137; 1887, p. 63, no. 498; 1903, p. 127, no. 1177; 1934, p. 129, no. 1177; 1960, p. 134, no. 1177; 1976, p. 275, no. A 155; 2007, no. 123

Citation

Y. Bruijnen, 2007, 'Pauwels van Hillegaert, The Disbanding of the ‘Waardgelders’ (Mercenaries in the Pay of the Town Government) by Prince Maurits on the Neude, Utrecht, 31 July 1618, 1627', in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/20027051

(accessed 30 November 2025 16:44:59).

Footnotes

  • 1Moes/Van Biema 1909, pp. 44-45; Grijzenhout 1984, p. 57, no. 31.
  • 2Amsterdams Historisch Museum; illustrated in coll. cat. 1976, p. 217, no. C 403.
  • 3‘alle ’t schildergereetschap van sijn vader, item alle desselffs teeckeningen mitsgaders alle de onopgemaeckte schilderijen’.
  • 4See the entry on Droochsloot’s treatment of this subject, SK-A-606, for a brief description of this event, as well as Van Maarseveen 1998a, pp. 75-76, and Groenveld/Leeuwenberg 1985, II, pp. 33-34. For the suits of armour in the painting see Van der Sloot 1959, p. 119.
  • 5Delft, Museum Prinsenhof Delft, canvas, 96 x 147 cm, monogrammed, and dated 1622; illustrated in Haak 1984, p. 178, fig. 366.
  • 6Centraal Museum, canvas, 106.1 x 153.9 cm, signed; illustrated in coll. cat. Utrecht 1999, II, p. 946, no. 275.
  • 7Formerly in a private collection, Hoorn, the Netherlands, canvas, 98 x 156 cm, dated 1623; photo RKD.
  • 8Germany, private collection, panel, 71 x 114 cm; photo RKD; sale, A. de Kat (Soestdijk), Dordrecht (A. Mak), 24 October 1916, no. 164.