Support The oval silver plate is approx. 0.1 cm thick. The reverse is covered with a dark, paint-like material.
Preparatory layers Stereomicroscopy seemed to reveal a layer of gold leaf on top of the silver plate, and a few minute gold-coloured particles were found in cross-sections. On top a thin, smooth, whitish ground was applied which extends up to the edges of the support. It consists of what appear to be coarse lead white particles.
Underdrawing No underdrawing could be detected with the naked eye or infrared photography.
Paint layers The paint extends up to the edges of the support. The composition was built up from the back to the front. Reserves were used for the figure and, in the black costume, for the gloved hand and lower part of the collar. The paint was applied thinly, in a straightforward manner, wet in wet throughout and in just one layer. The face was finely worked up whereas other areas, especially the glove, are more schematically executed. Several long, dark strands of hair were created with loose stokes of the brush. The paint surface is smooth throughout due to the use of thin and quite liquid paint. Some touches were added to the eyes in the final stage.
Willem de Ridder, 2022

Fair. The support has minor deformations overall. The paint is cupped, especially in the face and the collar, and very fragile. There are small losses throughout, especially along the edges, as well as numerous dark spots in the face. The hair to the right of the face has two scratches. The varnish has significantly yellowed.

…; collection Jacob Rudolph Hendrik Neervoort van de Poll (1862-1924), Huis Beukenstein, Rijsenburg, near Utrecht, by 1903;¹¹C. Hofstede de Groot, Meisterwerke der Porträtmalerei auf der Ausstellung im Haag 1903, exh. cat. The Hague (Haagse Kunstkring) 1903, p. 7, no. 16a; C. van Ommeren, Catalogus der Tentoonstelling van Portretminiaturen, exh. cat. Rotterdam (Rotterdamsche Kunstkring) 1910, p. 105, no. 537. by whom bequeathed to the museum, March 1916

Object number: SK-A-2786

Credit line: Gift of J.R.H. Neervoort van de Poll, Rijsenburg

This small portrait was applied in oils on a silver plate, and as far as we know it was the only time that Dirk Druyf used such a support. His only other likeness on metal is of a young girl that he painted on the back of an engraved copperplate.⁵⁵Sale, collection Warneck, Paris (Georges Petit), 27 May 1926, no. 32; photo RKD.

The bust-length figure fills much of the surface, and since he is turned to the left the picture probably had a companion piece, possibly of his wife. The unidentified sitter has put his gloved hand on his chest. Although the imperfections in perspective and anatomy that are typical of Druyf are not so glaring due to the modest size of the painting, the head does nevertheless look as if it is placed immediately on top of the torso, and the man’s bent right arm is too small. The aforementioned portrait of the girl on copper displays exactly the same shortcomings.

The picture was bequeathed to the Rijksmuseum during his lifetime by Jacob Rudolph Hendrik Neervoort van de Poll. He was an illegitimate son and heir of Jonkheer Jacobus Salomon Hendrik van de Poll, who left his entire collection of paintings to the museum in 1880. It is not known whether this portrait is of an ancestor or was acquired by the donor.

Richard Harmanni, 2022

See Key to abbreviations, Rijksmuseum painting catalogues and Acknowledgements

C. Hofstede de Groot, Meisterwerke der Porträtmalerei auf der Ausstellung im Haag 1903, exh. cat. The Hague (Haagse Kunstkring) 1903, p. 7, no. 16a

1918, p. 369, no. 810a; 1934, p. 85, no. 810a; 1976, p. 200, no. A 2786

Richard Harmanni, 2022, 'Dirk Druyf, Portrait of a Man, 1659', in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/20028433