Portrait of Otto Brahe (1578-1652)

The support is a lined canvas. The left and right sides are probably original, since they have uneven edges, while the top and bottom have been cut. The ground layer is probably whitish. The paint layers were smoothly applied, with visible brushstrokes in the standing ruff, and impasto as highlights.

Poor. There are large areas of overpaint and retouching at six horizontal creases, and the varnish has discoloured severely.

? Commissioned by or for Willem Lodewijk (1560-1620); ? estate inventory, Frisian Stadholder’s Court, Leeuwarden, 16 August 1633, large blue room (‘Veertien stuck schildereien van capiteinen’), and the room next to the large room (‘Seeventien schildereien van capiteinen en ritmeisters.’);¹¹Drossaers/Lunsingh Scheurleer II,1974, p. 53. inventory of paintings, Frisian Stadholder’s Court, Leeuwarden, c. 1800, Garde du Corps Hall (‘17. Capt Brae’); ²²Tresoar, Leeuwarden, Familiearchief Van Eysinga-Vegelin van Claerbergen, inv. no. 536; Mulder-Radetzky 1997, pp. 197, 203....; Mauritshuis, The Hague, 1876; transferred to the museum, 1885; on loan to the Nederlands Legermuseum, Delft, 1953-2000

ObjectNumber: SK-A-876

The inscription ‘CAP,N. OTTEBRAE’ enables the sitter to be identified as the Danish nobleman Otto Brahe.³³His dates of birth and death are taken from the file cards of the IB. The information that follows comes from Ten Raa/De Bas II, 1913, pp. 148, 246, 369, III, 1915, pp. 168, 211, 291, and Zandvliet in Amsterdam 2000a, p. 242, no. 90. At the end of 1606 the States army commissioned Brahe to raise a company of 300 men in his native country, which was done with the approval of the Danish king, Christian IV. In 1607, the company enlisted in Zwolle in the pay of the province of Zeeland. In 1609, Brahe commanded one of the three companies of 200 men in the pay of Friesland, the other two being led by Bartholomeus Andrio Walsdorffer and Count Willem Lodewijk of Nassau. With the ushering in of the Twelve Years’ Truce in that year, his company’s strength was cut by 50 men, which was probably the reason for his own departure. In 1610 he entered the service of Brandenburg, and his brother Erich took over command of the company.

Like four other officers’ portraits, those of Karel van der Hoeven (SK-A-877), Eberhardt Hanekrodt (SK-A-875), Bartholomeus Andrio Walsdorffer (SK-A-1230) and Ripperda (SK-A-576), this one once adorned the Stadholder’s Court in Leeuwarden.⁴⁴Mulder-Radetzky 1997, p. 197. It is listed as number 17, ‘Capt Brae’, in an inventory of paintings hanging in the Garde du Corps Hall.⁵⁵See Provenance. For a discussion of this provenance and the relationship between the five portraits see the entry on the portrait of Karel van der Hoeven (SK-A-877).

An attribution for this portrait is not possible as yet. It can probably be dated c. 1605-10 on the grounds that it was around then that Brahe was in the service of the States army.

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. 405.

Mulder-Radetzky 1997, pp. 197, 203; Zandvliet in Amsterdam 2000a, p. 242, no. 90

1903, p. 19, no. 192; 1976, p. 656, no. A 876; 2007, no. 405

Y. Bruijnen, 2007, 'anonymous, Portrait of Otto Brahe (1578-1652), c. 1605 - c. 1610', in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.7040