Support The coarse, plain-weave canvas has been wax-resin lined. All tacking edges have been preserved. Deep cusping at intervals with a range of 16-19 cm is present along the left edge, and original tacking holes can be found at intervals of approx. 5 cm on all sides. Judging by the crack pattern parallel to the edges, the bars of the original strainer were 3.5-4 cm wide.
Preparatory layers The single, light tan-coloured ground extends up to the edges of the canvas. It consists of mainly white pigment with large charcoal black particles, a few small orange pigment particles and some angular transparent particles. The ground is very similar to the one found on Spilberg’s Portrait of Jan van de Poll (SK-A-1258).
Underdrawing No underdrawing could be detected with the naked eye or infrared photography.
Paint layers The paint extends up to the tacking edges. A warm brown underpainting is locally visible, for example in the shadowed parts of the face, such as the eye sockets and nose. The poor condition of the painting made it impossible to determine the build-up of the composition.
Gwen Tauber [publication date 2026]

Poor. There is a pronounced, wide, predominantly vertical craquelure throughout. The paint layer is very flat and abraded as a result of lining and cleaning. Overpaint is present overall. The picture is heavily obscured by an aged varnish.

…; collection Jan van de Poll (1721-1801), Amsterdam;¹¹NHA, ARS, IS, inv. 168, no. 302 (14 April 1888). his grandson, Jan van de Poll (1777-1858), Amsterdam, 1802 (stored with other family portraits in his aunt’s house, 479 Herengracht, Amsterdam); his son, Jan Stanislaus Robert van de Poll (1805-1888), Arnhem (stored with 25 other family portraits in his sister-in-law’s house, 450 Herengracht, Amsterdam); by whom donated to the museum, with 34 other family portraits, November 1885;²²NHA, ARS, IS, inv. 164, no. 299 (30 December 1884); NHA, ARS, Kop., inv. 289, pp. 62-68, no. 154 (19 November 1885). on loan to the Amsterdam Museum since 1978

Object number: SK-A-1262

Credit line: Gift of Jonkheer J.S.R. van de Poll, Arnhem

This rather weak portrait of Harmen van de Poll, the eldest son of Jan van de Poll and Duyfje van Gerwen, is a reduced and partial copy after his likeness in Johannes Spilberg’s Civic Guard Banquet with Colonel Jan van de Poll and Captain Gijsbert van de Poll of 1650.⁵⁵Amsterdam Museum; illustrated in N. Middelkoop, G. Reichwein and J. van Gent, De oude meesters van de stad Amsterdam: Schilderijen tot 1800, coll. cat. Amsterdam (Amsterdams Historisch Museum) 2008, p. 246. For the sitter’s biography see J.E. Elias, De vroedschap van Amsterdam 1578-1795, I, Haarlem 1903, p. 445, no. 152. The boy, who was 9 years old at the time, stands on the far right in the original and is partly hidden by his father, which forced the copyist to add the chair, hat and vista. Like the Rijksmuseum’s painting of Jan van de Poll,⁶⁶SK-A-1258. which was also made after Spilberg’s Civic Guard Banquet, this one was part of the gift of 35 family portraits from Jan Stanislaus Robert van de Poll, a nineteenth-century descendant of the sitter.⁷⁷See Provenance.

The picture probably dates from the eighteenth century.⁸⁸N. Middelkoop, G. Reichwein and J. van Gent, De oude meesters van de stad Amsterdam: Schilderijen tot 1800, coll. cat. Amsterdam (Amsterdams Historisch Museum) 2008, p. 246. In view of the similarities in execution and shared provenance it seems likely that this copy is by the same artist who made the portrait of Jan van de Poll. One difference is that Harmen’s face was painted with not nearly such a loose and loaded brush, but that impression is reinforced by the deplorable condition of the picture and the severe wear in this area. One even wonders whether it is finished, which is also suggested by another, far more detailed copy after the same portrait.⁹⁹Private collection; photo RKD.

Gerbrand Korevaar [publication date 2026]

See Key to abbreviations, Rijksmuseum painting catalogues and Acknowledgements

Blankert in A. Blankert and R. Ruurs, Amsterdams Historisch Museum: Schilderijen daterend van voor 1800, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1975/79, p. 294, no. 412

1887, p. 160, no. 1355; 1903, p. 249, no. 2221; 1934, p. 266, no. 2221; 1976, pp. 518-19, no. A 1262

Gerbrand Korevaar, 2026, 'copy after Johannes (II) Spilberg, Portrait of Harmen van de Poll (1641-1673), 1700 - 1800', in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200110645