Michiel Jansz van Mierevelt

Portrait of François van Aerssen (1572-1641), Lord of Sommelsdijk, De Plaat and Spijk

1636

Inscriptions

  • signature, date and inscription, upper left:Ætatis 64. / Aº 1636 / M. Miereveld
  • inscription, upper right:Franc. van Aerssen, Heer van Sommelsdijk / en van de Ordre / der Ridderschap van Holland. Overleden 1641(Franc. Van Aerssen, Lord of Sommelsdijk and of the Order of the Knighthood of Holland. Died 1641)
  • coat of arms, top right: quartered, 1 and 4, a saltire chequered black and silver over a horizontal blackbar on a gold field; 2 and 3, three black martlets on a gold field. The coat is set in a chain with a medal hanging from it.

Technical notes

The support consists of three vertically grained oak planks and is bevelled on all sides. The ground layer, visible at the small areas of loss, is white. The figure was reserved, and the contours and shaded areas were sketched in with brown paint. Brushmarking is visible in the face, hands and cuffs. A pentimento reveals that the left hand was initially placed more to the left.

Scientific examination and reports

  • technical report: G. Tauber, RMA, 4 november 2005

Condition

Fair. The bottom left corner of the panel has broken off. There are three small cracks and a few small losses at bottom centre. The painting is heavily retouched.

Conservation

  • S. Martin-Ribeiro, februari 2003 - maart 2003: complete restoration

Provenance

...; sale, M.P.-M.D. et al., Paris (Galerie Charpentier), 7 December 1951, no. 33, fr. 242,400, to the museum; on loan to the Dutch embassy, Paris, since 1958

ObjectNumber: SK-A-3833

The artist

Biography

Michiel Jansz van Mierevelt (Delft 1567 - Delft 1641)

According to Van Mander, Michiel Jansz van Mierevelt or Miereveld (he used both forms) was born in Delft on 1 May 1567. He was the son of the successful goldsmith Jan Michielsz van Mierevelt, and received his early training in Delft from two otherwise unknown artists, Willem Willemsz and a pupil of Antonie Blocklandt whom Van Mander simply calls Augustijn. Van Mierevelt became a pupil of Blocklandt’s in Utrecht, presumably in 1581 at the age of 14, for a period of two years and three months. From Blocklandt he learned to handle paint and became accomplished in the art of history painting. After his master’s death, Van Mierevelt returned to his native town, where he joined the painters’ guild in 1587 and served as warden in 1589-90 and 1611-12. He married twice, in 1589 and 1633.

Much to the regret of his father, Van Mierevelt abandoned history painting in favour of the more lucrative genre of portraiture, first adhering to the style of his fellow townsman Jacob Willemsz Delff. However, few of his early portraits have survived, even fewer of his history paintings, and none at all of the kitchen pieces reported by Van Mander. In general, Van Mierevelt’s portraits show great attention to detail and little compositional adventure. His later paintings, however, are more animated, loosely painted productions.

Van Mierevelt’s enormous output (Houbraken says 5,000 portraits, Von Sandrart 10,000) began in earnest with the 1607 commission from the Delft authorities to portray the stadholder, Prince Maurits.1Panel, 110 x 98 cm; Delft, Stedelijk Museum Het Prinsenhof; illustrated in New York-London 2001, p. 312. In the same year, he became the official painter to the Stadholder’s Court in The Hague, a position he enjoyed for about a quarter of a century until Honthorst usurped it. In addition to his base clientele in The Hague and Delft, his workshop was regularly frequented by aristocrats and patricians from other Dutch and foreign cities. The large demand was met in part by Van Mierevelt’s assistants, who included his sons Pieter (1596-1623) and Jan (1604-33). The inventory of his shop reveals that he kept a supply of replicas of his most famous sitters on hand. His inventions were also disseminated through the reproductive engravings made by his son-in-law, Willem Jacobsz Delff (1580-1638). Van Mierevelt’s most important pupils were Paulus Moreelse (c. 1571-1638), Willem van der Vliet (c. 1584-1642), Daniel Mijtens (c. 1590-1647) and Anthonie Palamedesz (1601-73). Van Mierevelt died a wealthy man in 1641. His lucrative workshop was taken over by his grandson, Jacob Willemsz Delff (1619-61).

Jonathan Bikker, 2007

References
Van Mander 1604, fols. 281-82; Von Sandrart 1675 (1925), pp. 124, 171-72; Houbraken I, 1718, pp. 46-49; Obreen I, 1877-78, p. 4; Havard I, 1879, pp. 11-82; Obreen III, 1880-81, p. 263; Havard 1894; Bredius 1908 (documents); Gerson in Thieme/Becker XXIV, 1930, p. 539; Montias 1982, pp. 38, 370; Ekkart in Amsterdam 1993, pp. 310-11; Ekkart in Turner 1996, pp. 485-86

Entry

Born in Brussels in 1572, François van Aerssen emigrated with his family to the northern Netherlands as a child. He studied at the universities of Louvain, Leiden and Paris. In 1598, he accompanied Johan van Oldenbarnevelt as his secretary and Justinus of Nassau on a mission to France, where he became the agent, and later envoy for the United Provinces. During a short leave in The Hague in the following year, he married Petronella Borre (1578-1653). Henri IV raised him to the nobility in 1605 and Louis XIII knighted him in the Order of St Michel in 1609 and made him a baron in 1636. It was also in 1609 that the United Provinces gave Van Aerssen the official title of ambassador to France. After the death of Henri IV in 1610, Van Aerssen’s role in the intrigues against his widow, Catherine de’ Medici and her minister, Villeroy, led to his dismissal as ambassador in 1613.

Unemployed and back in the northern Netherlands, he plotted against Van Oldenbarnevelt, whom he considered a personal enemy and against whom he had sided in his opposition to the Twelve Years’ Truce. In 1618, he purchased the manor of Sommelsdijk, and in the following year he was admitted to the Dutch knighthood and made a member of the States of Holland on the insistence of Prince Maurits. Until his death in 1641, he acted as foreign diplomat for both the States of Holland and the States-General, undertaking important missions to Venice, England and France.2For Van Aerssen’s biography see NNBW III, cols. 10-12.

Van Mierevelt has portrayed Van Aerssen at knee-length and in three-quarter profile, turned to the viewer’s left. The sitter’s coat of arms and the identifying banderole were added to the portrait at a later date. The inscription giving Van Aerssen’s age, the date of 1636 and Van Mierevelt’s signature were discovered after the painting was cleaned in 2003. The pendant to this portrait with Van Aerssen’s wife, which is also dated 1636, was in a private collection in England in 1915 (fig. a). The painting was in the collection of George Leon in England at the time. See Collins Baker 1915, p. 7. It was later twice auctioned in England; sale, The White House, Denham, Buckinghamshire, sold on the premises (Knight et al.), 9 May 1961 sqq., no. 45; sale, The principal contents of Grimshaw Hall Knowle, West Midlands, London (Christie’s), 8 March 2000, no. 300.] As it was not accompanied by the present painting, the pair must have become separated before 1915. Like the Rijksmuseum work, the Portrait of Petronella Borre carries the sitter’s coat of arms and a similar banderole. Louis XIII’s grant of a baronetcy to Van Aerssen in 1636 may have been the occasion that led the Dutch diplomat and his wife to sit for Van Mierevelt.

A bust-length copy of the present painting is in the Mauritshuis.3Panel, 72.8 x 59.8 cm; illustrated in coll. cat. The Hague 2004a, p. 292, no. 750.

Jonathan Bikker, 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. 186.

Collection catalogues

1976, p. 384, no. A 3833; 2007, no. 186

Citation

J. Bikker, 2007, 'Michiel Jansz. van Mierevelt, Portrait of François van Aerssen (1572-1641), Lord of Sommelsdijk, De Plaat and Spijk, 1636', in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.10004

(accessed 18 July 2025 01:52:42).

Figures

  • fig. a Michiel van Mierevelt, Portrait of Petronella Borre (1578-1653), 1636. Oil on canvas, 112 x 86 cm. Present whereabouts unknown. Photo: The Hague, Collection RKD - Netherlands Institute for Art History, image no. IB00053694

Footnotes

  • 1Panel, 110 x 98 cm; Delft, Stedelijk Museum Het Prinsenhof; illustrated in New York-London 2001, p. 312.
  • 2For Van Aerssen’s biography see NNBW III, cols. 10-12.
  • 3Panel, 72.8 x 59.8 cm; illustrated in coll. cat. The Hague 2004a, p. 292, no. 750.