Portrait of Sara de Bie (c. 1594-1666)

Support The oval panel consists of three vertically grained oak planks. The top edge has been slightly trimmed. The panel was thinned to approx. 0.8 cm and cradled. Dendrochronology has shown that the youngest heartwood ring was formed in 1628. The panel could have been ready for use by 1639, but a date in or after 1645 is more likely.
Preparatory layers The single, smooth, off-white ground extends partially over the edges of the support, especially at bottom left.
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 figure was reserved, leaving the ground exposed locally along the contours (although less so than in the pendant, SK-A-3516). The paints were applied mainly wet in wet, with some blending, in a straightforward manner. Short stiff brushes provide texture and modelling, mostly in the opaque white paints and flesh tones. The dark colours are smooth and transparent, allowing the ground to show through. A few details were added in the last stage and some adjustments were made to the contours of her left hand, which partly extends over the background.
Willem de Ridder, 2023

Fair. The paint is locally raised and fragile. There are discoloured retouchings throughout. The varnish has yellowed, turned dull and saturates poorly.

For both the present painting (SK-A-3517) and its pendant (SK-A-3516)
? Commissioned by or for the sitters; ? probate inventory, their son, Joannes Lutma (1624-1689), Amsterdam, 30 November 1689, in the vestibule (‘twee conterfyetsels van des overledens vader en moeder’);¹¹SA, NA 4567, notary J. Backer, p. 237; published in A. Bredius, ‘De nalatenschap van Joannes Lutma (den Jongen)’, Oud-Holland 30 (1912), pp. 219-22, esp. p. 221.…; ? collection Abraham Calraet, Dordrecht, 1729;²²K. Bauch, Jacob Adriaensz Backer, ein Rembrandtschüler aus Friesland, Berlin 1926, p. 90. or, probate inventory, Elisabeth Franken, widow of Mattheus van den Brouck(e), Dordrecht, 3 November 1729 (‘2 ovale pourtretten van Bakker’);³³Bredius notes, RKD.…; sale, Pieter de la Court van der Voort (1722-1775, Amsterdam), Amsterdam (P. Slagregen and P. Yver), 26 August 1772, no. 173 (‘Twee stuks, verbeeldende de vermaarde Zilverdryver, van Vianen, en deszelfs Huisvrouw, in Ovaalen, op Paneel geschilderd, door A.B. ieder is hoog 36, breed 29 duim [92.5 x 74.5 cm].’), fl. 34,⁴⁴Copy FLNY. to the dealer Jan Yver, for Johan van der Marck Aegidiusz (c. 1694-1770), Leiden;⁵⁵Copy BNP. According to Van der Marck’s notes in his copy of the sale catalogue the portraits were executed by ‘Adriaan Backer’. See also K. Bauch, Jacob Adriaensz Backer, ein Rembrandtschüler aus Friesland, Berlin 1926, p. 90, no. 151. his sale, Amsterdam (H. de Winter and J. Yver), 25 August 1773, nos. 470, 471, as Adriaen Backer (‘Vianen (A. van) Konstig Zilver Dryver. 470 Dezen kunstenaar is verbeeld met een Hamer in zyn linkerhand, en by zich een zilver gedreeven Schaal, in ovaal formaat, door Adriaan Bakker. […] op Paneel, ovaal format, h. 35½ b 28 duim [91.2 x 72 cm]. 471 De huisvrouw van den voorgenoemden. […] een wedergade van het voorgaande)’, fl. 30, to J. Yver;⁶⁶Copy RMA.…; collection Stanisław II August Poniatowski (1732-1798), King of Poland, Royal Castle, Warsaw, 1795, as Flemish School (‘Portrait oval a mi corps d’un orfevre vetu de noir, tenant un marteau dans la main gauche 37 x 27 [91.8 x 67 cm], 60 [ducats]’ and ‘Portrait d’une vielle femme à mis corps vetu de noir un mouchoir blanc sur la gorge et les mains croisées sur la poitrine’, 37 x 27 [91.8 x 67 cm], 50 [ducats]’);⁷⁷Catalogue des tableaux du Roi (1795), nos. 213-14; transcribed in T. Mańkowski et al., Galeria Stanisława Augusta, I, Lwów 1932, p. 234. his son, Prince Joseph Poniatowski (1763-1813), Warsaw;⁸⁸T. Mańkowski et al., Galeria Stanisława Augusta, I, Lwów 1932, p. 498. transferred from the Royal Castle, Warsaw, to the Court Library, Vienna, 6 April 1810;⁹⁹T. Mańkowski et al., Galeria Stanisława Augusta, I, Lwów 1932, p. 235. from Prince Joseph Poniatowski, 86 ducats, to Count Józef Maksymilian Ossoliński (1748-1829), Vienna, 18 June 1810;¹⁰¹⁰T. Mańkowski et al., Galeria Stanisława Augusta, I, Lwów 1932, p. 235.…; collection Count André Mniszech (1823-1905), Paris, 1895;¹¹¹¹C. Hofstede de Groot, ‘Johannes Lutma van Groningen’, Groningsche volksalmanak 59 (1895), pp. 100-09, esp. p. 101. The paintings are not mentioned in the catalogue for the sale, Countess André Mniszech, Paris (H. Baudoin, Hôtel Drouot), 10 May 1910.…; sale, August de Ridder (1837-1911, Villa Schönberg, Kronberg im Taunus), Paris (Galerie Georges Petit), 2 June 1924, no. 1, fr. 82,000, no. 2, fr. 35,000;¹²¹²Copy RMA.…; collection Antonius Wilhelmus Mari Mensing (1866-1936), Amsterdam;¹³¹³Verslagen omtrent ’s Rijks verzamelingen van geschiedenis en kunst 1929 (annual report of the Rijksmuseum), p. 13. from whom on loan to the museum, April 1925-April 1929 (inv. nos. SK-C-1159, SK-C-1160); ? from whom to a private collection, USA;¹⁴¹⁴RMA Archive, folder P. Cassirer, letter from the museum to the Ministry of Education, Arts and Sciences, 24 November 1947.…; collection Hans Ludwig Larsen (1892-1937, Wassenaar), 1936;¹⁵¹⁵Oude kunst uit Haagsch bezit, exh. cat. The Hague (Gemeentemuseum) 1936-37, no. 28. his sale, New York (Parke-Bennet Galleries), 6 November 1947, no. 34, $2,500, no. 35, $1,000, to the museum

ObjectNumber: SK-A-3517

For a long time it was thought that this portrait was of Mayken Roelants (c. 1593-1634),¹⁹¹⁹See, for example, K. Bauch, Jacob Adriaensz Backer, ein Rembrandtschüler aus Friesland, Berlin 1926, pp. 40- 41, 90, nos. 151, 156. the first wife of the leading Amsterdam silversmith Johannes Lutma. He has been identified as the sitter in the pendant (SK-A-3516; also fig. a) on the evidence of the attributes and the resemblance to a print of 1656 by Rembrandt.²⁰²⁰C. Hofstede de Groot, ‘Johannes Lutma van Groningen’, Groningsche volksalmanak 59 (1895), pp. 100-09, esp. pp. 101, 108. For the print see S.S. Dickey (ed.), The Illustrated Bartsch, L, New York 1993, p. 229, no. 276-II. However, as the two pictures were made around 1646, so after Mayken Roelants’s death, this must be the only painted likeness of Lutma’s second spouse, Sara de Bie (c. 1594-1666). She was a daughter of the goldsmith Alexander de Bie, who like Lutma lived with his family in Nes, a village by the Amstel river slightly south of Amsterdam. The couple got married in the spring of 1638.²¹²¹A.-M. von Graevenitz, Das niederländische Ohrmuschel-Ornament: Phänomen und Entwicklung dargestellt an den Werken und Entwürfen der Goldschmiedefamilien van Vianen und Lutma, diss., Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich 1973, p. 191.

The oval shape of both works is original, as can be seen from the cartouches, which extend right up to the edges of the panels, and from the ground, which can be seen at various points along the sides. It was a format that was briefly popular in Amsterdam in the first half of the 1630s, with Rembrandt, for instance.²²²²J. Bruyn and E. van de Wetering, ‘Stylistic Features of the 1630s: The Portraits’, in J. Bruyn et al., A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings, II, The Hague/Boston/London 1986, pp. 3-13, esp. pp. 5-6. Jacob Backer used it in that period for his Portrait of a Boy in Grey,²³²³The Hague, Mauritshuis; illustrated in Q. Buvelot (ed.), Portraits in the Mauritshuis 1430-1790, coll. cat. The Hague 2004, p. 26. but most of the likenesses he produced are rectangular, which suggests that it was Lutma who wanted this specific design. The auricular ornaments, with the organic, undulating shapes on the cartouches, were characteristic of the latter’s oeuvre.

There are a few striking differences between the two portraits of the couple. Lutma’s panel is composed of six vertical planks extending at right angles from a horizontal one, while De Bie’s consists of five vertical planks.²⁴²⁴See Technical notes. His picture is freely executed, and although Backer used reserves for the various passages (with the exception of the hammer) he did not make any effort to fill in their edges carefully, with the result that the ground layer can be seen along the contours in several places. Backer’s distinctive loose touch and the direct and uncomplicated manner of painting can also be seen in De Bie’s likeness, but Backer took far more trouble there to have the passages join up. The monogram here is also larger than on the companion piece. De Bie’s portrait looks considerably stiffer as a result of this more controlled execution and the fact that she sits up straight, whereas Lutma is leaning forward slightly. Her picture was prepared with a detailed drawing in black and white chalk on blue paper.²⁵²⁵Vienna, Albertina; illustrated in P. van den Brink and J. van der Veen, Jacob Backer (1608/9-1651), exh. cat. Amsterdam (Museum Het Rembrandthuis)/Aachen (Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum) 2008-09, p. 14. There is also a drawn copy after it in the Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum in Braunschweig; illustrated in W. Sumowski, Drawings of the Rembrandt School, I, New York 1979, p. 600, fig. 3. Backer followed the sheet faithfully, but corrected the proportional differences and added the ring on De Bie’s right forefinger.

The paintings are dated around 1640 in the literature.²⁶²⁶K. Bauch, Jacob Adriaensz Backer, ein Rembrandtschüler aus Friesland, Berlin 1926, p. 40 (‘gegen 1640’); W. Sumowski, Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler, I, Landau/Pfalz 1983, p. 202 (c. 1643). The saltcellar on the right in Lutma’s portrait establishes a terminus post quem,²⁷²⁷J.W. Frederiks, De meesters der plaquette-penningen, The Hague 1943, p. 23. for it is similar in style to a series of at least four of such objects that Lutma made in 1639 and 1643.²⁸²⁸In the collections of the Rijksmuseum (1639) and the Amsterdam Museum (1643); illustrated respectively in J.R. de Lorm, Amsterdams goud en zilver, coll. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 1999, p. 39, and H. Vreeken and A. den Dekker, Goud en zilver met Amsterdamse keuren: De verzameling van het Amsterdams Historisch Museum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 2003, p. 59. The dendrochronology, though, shows that the panel of Lutma’s picture was probably only available in or after 1643 and De Bie’s at the earliest in 1645, so it is more likely that both date from around 1646, the year in which Lutma first held an office in the guild.²⁹²⁹See J.R. de Lorm, Amsterdams goud en zilver, coll. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 1999, p. 517. It is known that an occasion of that kind could be the reason for commissioning a portrait, since Werner van der Valckert made one of the Leiden goldsmith Bartholomeus Jansz van Assendelft in 1617 when he first filled an official function in the guild of gold and silversmiths.³⁰³⁰SK-A-3920. R.E.O. Ekkart, ‘Een man met ring en toetssteen door Werner van den Valckert’, Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 47 (1999), pp. 20-25, esp. pp. 22-23.

Gerbrand Korevaar, 2023

See Key to abbreviations, Rijksmuseum painting catalogues and Acknowledgements

For both the present painting (SK-A-3517) and its pendant (SK-A-3516)
C. Hofstede de Groot, ‘Johannes Lutma van Groningen’, Groningsche volksalmanak 59 (1895), pp. 100-09, esp. pp. 101, 108-09 (as portraits of Jan Lutma and Mayken Roelants or Sara de Bie); K. Bauch, Jacob Adriaensz Backer, ein Rembrandtschüler aus Friesland, Berlin 1926, pp. 40-41, 90, nos. 151, 156 (as portraits of Jan Lutma and Mayken Roelants); J.W. Frederiks, De meesters der plaquette-penningen, The Hague 1943, pp. 23, 27; A.-M. von Graevenitz, Das niederländische Ohrmuschel-Ornament: Phänomen und Entwicklung dargestellt an den Werken und Entwürfen der Goldschmiedefamilien van Vianen und Lutma, diss., Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich 1973, p. 203; W. Sumowski, Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler, I, Landau/Pfalz 1983, p. 202, no. 67; Korevaar in P. van den Brink and J. van der Veen, Jacob Backer (1608/9-1651), exh. cat. Amsterdam (Museum Het Rembrandthuis)/Aachen (Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum) 2008-09, pp. 148-51, no. 28

1960, p. 26, no. 398 A3; 1976, p. 93, no. A 3517

Gerbrand Korevaar, 2023, 'Jacob Adriaensz. Backer, Portrait of Sara de Bie (c. 1594-1666), c. 1646', in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.5864