Portrait of Antoinette Walleran (1598-?)

Jacob Lambrechtsz Loncke, 1618

Portret van Antoinette Walleran, de echtgenote van Phillipe le Mire. Buste, in ovaal, naar rechts. Pendant van SK-A-906.

  • Artwork typepainting
  • Object numberSK-A-907
  • Dimensionssupport: height 66.9 cm x width 51.8 cm, outer size: depth 6.5 cm (support incl. frame)
  • Physical characteristicsoil on panel

Jacob Lambrechtsz Loncke

Portrait of Antoinette Walleran (1598-?)

1618

Inscriptions

  • date, lower right:ANNO 1618
  • inscription, lower left:ÆTATIS 20
  • inscription, on the reverse:Antoinette Walleran. / Echtgen: van Ph: Le Mire / Geb: / Overl: / 23(Antoinette Walleran. Wife of Ph: le Mire B[orn] / D[ied] 23)

Technical notes

The support consists of three oak panels with a vertical grain and is bevelled on all sides. The ground layer, visible in the contour lines of the sitter, is probably buff, and was applied with broad brushstrokes. The figure was painted before the brown background was applied loosely along the contours. The painting was economically and swiftly executed with visible brushstrokes, particularly in the background and in the trompe l’oeil framing.

Scientific examination and reports

  • technical report: M. Chavannes, RMA, 6 juni 2003

Condition

Fair. Paintlayers have become more transparent, while the varnish has yellowed and is desiccated and crazed.

Provenance

? Commissioned by or for the sitters Philippe le Mire (1596-?) and his wife Antoinette Walleran (1598-?), Middelburg; ? by descent through the families Walleran, Sandra, Boudaen, Van Citters, Verheije van Citters, to Jonkheer Jacob de Witte van Citters (1817-76), The Hague; by whom bequeathed to the Nederlandsch Museum voor Geschiedenis en Kunst, The Hague (inv. nos. 3235, 3236), 1876; transferred to the museum, as anonymous, 1885

Object number: SK-A-907

Credit line: Jonkheer J. de Witte van Citters Bequest, The Hague

The artist

Biography

Jacob Lambrechtsz Loncke (Zierikzee c. 1580 - ? Zierikzee in or after 1644)

It is not known precisely when Jacob Lambrechtsz Loncke was born but it must have been around 1580, for in 1603 he was an independent painter in Zierikzee when he became betrothed to Sara Reynbrants Verboom, who was born in Schiedam in 1583. In 1618 he was dean of the Guild of St Luke in Zierikzee. He married his second wife, Maijken Waersegger of Antwerp in 1625.

Only a few portraits by the artist are known, all of them painted for Zeeland patrons. Two pendants of Jacob Simonsz Hollenboom and his wife Suzanna de Cocq date from 1618, as do the two portraits of the Rijksmuseum discussed here, and there is a portrait of their son Jacob Hollenboom from 1623.1Zierikzee, Town Hall; Staring 1947, pp. 104-06, figs. 2-4. His last dated portrait is from 1644.2Portrait of Aletta Ockersse with the companion piece of her husband Pieter Hayman, Zierikzee, Gemeentemuseum; Schuurbeque Boeye 1949, pp. 101-02. At the beginning of the century he was paid 8 guilders for the portrait of David Cornelisz den Dagh of Zierikzee.

His son from his first marriage, Reinbrand Loncke (?-1657/58), worked as a painter in Middelburg.

Yvette Bruijnen, 2007

References
Obreen VI, 1884-87, pp. 176, 182, 189, 191; Hofstede de Groot 1901; Staring 1947; Schuurbeque Boeye 1949, pp. 101-08; De Vos 1982, p. 398

Entry

These 1618 companion pieces showing Philippe le Mire (SK-A-906) and his wife Antoinette Walleran (shown here) are in oval frames with trompe l’oeil painted decoration. The inscription on Le Mire’s portrait states that he is 22 years old, meaning that he was born in 1596. He was the son of Louis le Mire.3Note IB. The inscription on Antoinette Walleran’s portrait, which is also dated 1618, records that she was 20 years old at the time, so she was born in 1598. The couple married in Middelburg on 18 February 1618, so it can be assumed that the portraits were made on the occasion of their wedding.

Hofstede de Groot rightly attributed these companion pieces to Jacob Lambrechtsz on the evidence of a comparison with three portraits, two of which are signed with that name.4Hofstede de Groot 1901, pp. 134-35. After the discovery of the signature ‘jacob l. loncke’ on the third portrait, all the works could be assigned to the artist with that surname.5Coll. cat. 1903, p. 164, no. 1481.

The simple compositions of these two swiftly executed portraits are almost identical to those of the other three works, which are also similar in size. A fourth portrait, of Jan Cornelisz Stavenisse, closely matches them, and can probably be added to Loncke’s oeuvre.6Private collection. Wrongly included in coll. cat. RBK 1992, p. 345, no. 3055. This portrait was tentatively attributed to the Zeeland painter Cornelis Willemsz Eversdijck in Van der Ploeg/Zonnevylle-Heyning 1999, p. 133.

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. 170.

Literature

Hofstede de Groot 1901, pp. 134-35; Staring 1947

Collection catalogues

1886, p. 98, nos. 448L, 448M (as Anonymous); 1887, p. 74, nos. 600, 601 (as Dutch School); 1903, p. 164, nos. 1480, 1481; 1960, p. 180, nos. 1480, 1481; 1976, p. 352, nos. A 906, A 907; 2007, no. 170

Citation

Y. Bruijnen, 2007, 'Jacob Lambrechtsz. Loncke, Portrait of Antoinette Walleran (1598-?), 1618', in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/20028209

(accessed 7 December 2025 18:09:36).

Footnotes

  • 1Zierikzee, Town Hall; Staring 1947, pp. 104-06, figs. 2-4.
  • 2Portrait of Aletta Ockersse with the companion piece of her husband Pieter Hayman, Zierikzee, Gemeentemuseum; Schuurbeque Boeye 1949, pp. 101-02.
  • 3Note IB.
  • 4Hofstede de Groot 1901, pp. 134-35.
  • 5Coll. cat. 1903, p. 164, no. 1481.
  • 6Private collection. Wrongly included in coll. cat. RBK 1992, p. 345, no. 3055. This portrait was tentatively attributed to the Zeeland painter Cornelis Willemsz Eversdijck in Van der Ploeg/Zonnevylle-Heyning 1999, p. 133.