Prince Frederik Hendrik on Horseback outside the Fortifications of ’s-Hertogenbosch, 1629

The support consists of a single oak plank with a vertical grain bevelled on all sides. The reverse is covered with a whitish-greenish paint, possibly dating from the 17th century. Dendrochronology has shown that the youngest heartwood ring was formed in 1594. The panel could have been ready for use by 1605, but a date in or after 1615 is more likely. The ground layer has a whitish colour. The paint was smoothly applied, with visible brushstrokes in the landscape and horse, and some impasto for the highlights. A pentimento is present in the foot of the boot.

Fair. The painting is abraded, particularly in the sky, and there are discoloured areas of retouching and filling in the sky, while the varnish is matte. Wooden strips approximately 0.5 cm wide were added on all sides in the 20th century.

...; sale, Lady Menzies, Mrs V.L. Hamilton, The Hon. P.L. Kindersley and Mrs H. Pitts [section Various Properties], London (Sotheby’s), 10 July 1963, no. 39, as Palamedes Palamedesz, called Stevaerts, A Military Commander on Horseback, with a Town in the Background, with pendant, as Palamedes Palamedesz, called Stevaerts, A Military Commander on Horseback, with an Army in the Background, £ 1,400 for both paintings, to the dealer L. Koetser, London;¹¹Copy RKD....; from the dealer D.H. Cevat, London, fl. 12,000, to the museum, 1965

ObjectNumber: SK-A-4112

This portrait of Frederik Hendrik on horseback with the Siege of ’s-Hertogenbosch in the background was auctioned in 1963 with a companion piece of Frederik Hendrik at the Siege of Maastricht, which is now in the Amsterdams Historisch Museum (fig. a).⁴⁴Coll. cat. Amsterdam 1975/79, p. 141, no. 183. With the exception of the landscapes, the two works are the mirror image of each other. There can be no doubt about the attribution, despite the fact that the signature has become illegible. Both works can be dated in or a few years after 1632, the year of the Siege of Maastricht.

Van Hillegaert produced quite a few equestrian portraits of this kind. The Stedelijk Museum Het Prinsenhof in Delft for example, has a similar one, but with the Siege of Maastricht as the backdrop.⁵⁵Illustrated in Delft 1998, p. 290, no. 68. Both the horse and Frederik Hendrik are in precisely the same pose as in the Amsterdam painting. Only the face and collar are different. They, though, are identical to the face and collar in another portrait of Frederik Hendrik on horseback by Van Hillegaert in the Rijksmuseum (SK-A-394). The horse in the present painting is repeated literally in a portrait of King Gustav II Adolf of Sweden.⁶⁶Illustrated in the catalogue for the sale, London (Sotheby’s), 8 May 1974, no. 138, pl. XXI. The inference is that Van Hillegaert probably composed his many equestrian portraits from separate model drawings of horses, riders, and bust-length portraits. This economical way of working, his large output and the small sizes, suggest that portraits of this kind were intended for the open market.⁷⁷Van Maarseveen in Delft 1998, p. 290.

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. 128.

Van Maarseveen 1998a, pp. 84-85

1976, p. 275, no. A 4112; 2007, no. 128

Y. Bruijnen, 2007, 'Pauwels van Hillegaert, Prince Frederik Hendrik on Horseback outside the Fortifications of ’s-Hertogenbosch, 1629, c. 1632 - c. 1635', in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.8687