The support consists of three vertically grained oak planks and is bevelled on the top. The panel was shaved down for cradling, which may have been necessitated by a loose glued join. Dendrochronology has shown that the youngest heartwood ring was formed in 1608. The panel could have been ready for use by 1619, but a date in or after 1625 is more likely. The ground layer is thin and transparent. The paint layers were applied smoothly, with some impasto in the gown and jewels, in the lace of the cuffs and the cap. The relief in the paint of the clothing matches the pattern of birds, vines and other ornaments.

Fair. A 21 cm hairline crack corresponding to a batten of the cradle on the back of the panel was very probably caused by the cradle. There is local abrasion of the paint surface. The grain of the wood is visible in the background and elsewhere. There are a number of discoloured retouchings.

…; sale, Edward Georg Coles (Pebble Combe, Headley, Epsom, and subsequently Tumber House, Headley), London (Christie’s), 19 November 1962, no. 27;…; anonymous sale, London (Christie’s), 14 April 1978, no. 100, £ 7,500;…; anonymous sale, London (Christie’s), 14 December 1990, no. 117;…; private collection, Turin;¹¹Note RMA.…; sale, London (Christie’s), 7 July 2000, no. 15, to the museum

Object number: SK-A-4957

Credit line: Purchased with the support of the BankGiro Lottery

Nicolaes Pickenoy probably painted the portrait of Pieter van Son (c. 1590-1654, see SK-A-4956) and its pendant of his wife Johanna le Maire (c. 1601-60, shown here) shortly after their marriage on 14 June 1622 in the Nieuwe Kerk in Amsterdam.⁴⁴Du Mortier 1984, pp. 189-201. The biographical information on Van Son and Le Maire put together by S.A.C. Dudok van Heel is recorded in a letter from W.J. van Hoboken, 18 July 1972, preserved in the Rijksmuseum. They may even have been made as keepsakes, for the sitters appear to be wearing their wedding attire. On their wedding day, women wore gloves specially made for the occasion. The bride only took off her glove at the moment the marriage was solemnized, when the couple shook each other’s right hand. Exceptionally, Pickenoy’s paintings and the bride’s gloves were preserved together for a long time, and were recently reunited (see BK-1978-48-A).⁵⁵On the gloves see Du Mortier 1984, pp. 189-201, with a detailed examination of the marital symbolism of their decoration. They are the same gloves as those depicted by Pickenoy.

Pieter van Son hailed from Breda, and in 1622 he was living behind the Zuiderkerk in Amsterdam. Johanna le Maire was the daughter of Isaäc le Maire, a merchant from Antwerp who had settled in Amsterdam and played an important part in the trade with the East Indies.⁶⁶See Schoorl 1969. Seven children were born to the couple between 1623 and 1640. Van Son became a member of the brokers’ guild on 8 December 1629.

These two portraits can be dated c. 1622-29, relatively early in Pickenoy’s career.⁷⁷R.E.O. Ekkart doubts the attribution to Pickenoy; oral communication, 25 June 2005. Stylistically they are not that far removed from the portraits by his probable teacher, Cornelis van der Voort.⁸⁸Cf. Briels 1997, p. 37. It is very unlikely that the beautiful family coats of arms are by Pickenoy; they were probably added a little later in the 17th century. There is no reason to doubt the validity of the arms, however, which are indeed those of the sitters.⁹⁹Letter from F.G.L.O. van Kretschmar, RMA, 15 July 1981.

Copies after these portraits appeared at auction in 1994.¹⁰¹⁰Sale, London (Bonhams), 1 December 1994, no. 239.

Everhard Korthals Altes, 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. 238.

Du Mortier 1984, pp. 189-201

2007, no. 238