Support The plain-weave canvas has been wax-resin lined. All tacking edges have been preserved. Shallow cusping is present at the top and on the left. Judging by the crack pattern the bars of the original strainer were approx. 4.5 cm wide.
Preparatory layers The double ground extends over the tacking edges at the top and bottom by approx. 0.5 cm and on the left and right edges by approx. 1.5 cm, leaving a strip of bare canvas exposed on all sides. The first, reddish layer consists of reddish-brown, dark red, some black and a small addition of white pigment. The second, greyish-beige layer is composed of white pigment mixed with smaller black and orange pigment particles.
Underdrawing Infrared photography revealed an underdrawing consisting of a few thin lines in a liquid medium, visible in the eyes of the woman and the columns of the balustrade.
Paint layers The paint extends over the tacking edges at the top and bottom by approx. 0.5 cm and on the left and right edges by approx. 1.5 cm, leaving a strip of bare canvas exposed on all sides. A dark brown, first lay-in is still visible in the dark areas of the curtain and in some parts of the sky. The painting was built up from the back to the front. The figure and the balustrade were reserved in the background. The paint was applied wet in wet, smoothly blending the separate passages. The reserve for the head is larger than the final version and shows as a dark halo. The lace of the cuffs and collar was executed directly on the ground with only the edges overlapping the black of the dress. Small, orange touches were placed in between the pearls to create more contrast. A red glaze was used to create depth and contrast in the mouth, the nostrils and in between the fingers. The coat of arms, which was reserved, initially had a square top.
Michel van de Laar, 2024

P. d’Imporzano, Implications of Lead Isotope Variation in Lead White from 17th Century Dutch Paintings, diss., Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam 2021, p. 106; P. d’Imporzano et al., ‘Time-Dependent Variation of Lead Isotopes of Lead White in 17th Century Dutch Paintings’, Science Advances 7 (2021), pp. 1-14, esp. pp. 5-7 (see doi 10.1126/sciadv.abi5905)

Fair. The varnish has yellowed. Drips of a corrosive substance have damaged the varnish and probably the paint as well. Darkened retouchings are visible along the edges.

? Commissioned by or inherited by Machtelt Bas’s daughter, Theodora de Visscher (1641-1722), Amsterdam; ? her son, Theodore (Dirck) Rijswijck (1668-1729), Amsterdam; ? his daughter, Theodora Rijswijck (1695-1752), Amsterdam; ? her son, Daniel Balguerie (1732-1788), Amsterdam; his wife, Johanna Balguerie, née Van Rijswijk (1750-1823), Amsterdam; by whom bequeathed to the museum, with 22 other portraits, 1823¹¹NHA, ARS, IS, inv. 11, no. 51 (1 March 1823); NHA, ARS, Kop., inv. 36, pp. 140-41 (30 March 1823); NHA, ARS, IS, inv. 11, nos. 56 (17 April 1823), 57 (18 April 1823); NHA, ARS, Kop., inv. 36, p. 143 (8 May 1823).
Or:
? Commissioned by or inherited by Machtelt Bas’s daughter, Theodora de Visscher (1641-1722), Amsterdam; ? her son, Jan (Jean) Rijswijck (1678-1756), Amsterdam; ? his daughter, Johanna Rijswijck (1723-?), Amsterdam; her daughter, Johanna Balguerie, née Van Rijswijk (1750-1823), Amsterdam; by whom bequeathed to the museum, with 22 other portraits, 1823²²NHA, ARS, IS, inv. 11, no. 51 (1 March 1823); NHA, ARS, Kop., inv. 36, pp. 140-41 (30 March 1823); NHA, ARS, IS, inv. 11, nos. 56 (17 April 1823), 57 (18 April 1823); NHA, ARS, Kop., inv. 36, p. 143 (8 May 1823).

Object number: SK-A-1623

Credit line: J. Balguerie-van Rijswijk Bequest, Amsterdam

The woman in this painting is standing in front of a balustrade with a view looking out over a hilly landscape. She is sumptuously dressed in an over-gown decorated with gold thread, and is wearing elaborate collars and cuffs, pearl jewellery, and holds a fan in her right hand.

The work was among a collection of portraits that Johanna Balguerie-van Rijswijk bequeathed to the Rijksmuseum in 1823.⁸⁸See Provenance. Despite the coat of arms in the top left corner no attempt had been made to identify the sitter. The coat is that of the Amsterdam Bas family, and had been used in this form since 1616.⁹⁹The year in which Dirck Jacobsz Bas (1569-1637), who served for many years as one of Amsterdam burgomasters, was knighted; kind communication from M.D. Haga, 2003. See J.E. Elias, De vroedschap van Amsterdam 1578-1795, I, Haarlem 1903, pp. 245-46; ibid., II, 1905, p. 1073. For Bas see also the entry on SK-A-365. It appears to be authentic, so it can be assumed that the woman belonged to that family. Dirck Jacobsz Bas’s second daughter Machtelt (?-1681) is the most likely candidate, for it was through her descendants that the canvas came to the museum.¹⁰¹⁰See Provenance. For the Bas family tree see S.A.C. Dudok van Heel, Van Amsterdamse burgers tot Europese aristocraten: Hun geschiedenis en hun portretten: De Heijnen-maagschap 1400-1800, II, The Hague 2008, p. 737,. In addition, with her dark hair and eyes, delicate features and pointed chin she resembles Machtelt Bas and not her blonde sisters in the painting of the family made by Dirck van Santvoort in the mid-1630s.¹¹¹¹SK-A-365. There she is standing second from left.. She does not bear such a close resemblance to another likeness of Machtelt Bas in the Rijksmuseum, the one of around 1651 attributed to Jacob Backer,¹²¹²SK-A-397. but that may be because she was more than ten years older by then.¹³¹³It is not exceptional that different portraits of one person come from the same collection, certainly not in the case of the Balguerie-van Rijswijk Bequest, because both the testatrix and her husband Daniel Balguerie were descended from Machtelt Bas.

The unsigned portrait was registered in the museum inventory in 1894 as a work by the Delft artist Anthonie Palamedesz,¹⁴¹⁴The attribution probably dates from that year. An annotation of December 1894 in the museum’s inventory books states that the canvas ‘was stored in the attics of the Trippenhuis and escaped notice when the inventory was being made’. but there is no stylistic connection to his paintings. From the somewhat stiff and hard execution of the face and the regular brushstrokes in the hair it appears to be a copy. Ekkart has suggested that the prototype may have been a bust or a half-length that was converted into a three-quarter-length, since the hands and the strings of pearls around the wrists, as well as the background with the balustrade, are significantly weaker than the sitter’s face and collar.¹⁵¹⁵E-mail, R.E.O. Ekkart, 12 June 2003, and an oral communication. The copy is probably of a later date than the original of 1641,¹⁶¹⁶See Inscriptions. as such a setting with a curtain and a balustrade with a view was unusual in the early 1640s.¹⁷¹⁷See Van Gent in N. Middelkoop (ed.), Kopstukken: Amsterdammers geportretteerd 1600-1800, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Amsterdams Historisch Museum) 2002-03, p. 117. It may have been painted after the death of the sitter to provide her children with a likeness of their mother..

The prototype was most probably made by an Amsterdam artist, possibly Dirck van Santvoort,¹⁸¹⁸E-mail, R.E.O. Ekkart, 12 June 2003, and an oral communication. who had previously received commissions from the Bas family. The formal, classical style and highly finished execution are indeed close to his work from about 1640.¹⁹¹⁹See the so-called Portrait of Alida de Vrij, 1638, private collection. And Portrait of Elisabeth de Wildt, 1640, present whereabouts unknown; illustrated in the catalogue for the sale, Laren (Christie’s), 30 October 1978, no. 442, pl. II.

Gerdien Wuestman, 2024

See Key to abbreviations, Rijksmuseum painting catalogues and Acknowledgements

1903, p. 204, no. 1837 (as attributed to Anthonie Palamedesz); 1976, p. 435, no. A 1623 (as manner of Anthonie Palamedesz)

Gerdien Wuestman, 2024, 'follower of Dirck van Santvoort, Portrait of a Woman, probably Machtelt Bas (?-1681), after 1650', in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/20025974