The support consists of three vertically grained oak planks and is bevelled on all sides. Dendrochronology has shown that the youngest heartwood ring was formed in 1597. The panel could have been ready for use by 1608, but a date in or after 1614 is more likely. The light-coloured, semi-transparent ground layer allows the colour of the wood support to show through. The paint layers were applied smoothly with very little impasto. Some brushmarking is noticeable in the figure’s face and clothing.

Fair. The joins of the panel are open but stable. There are cracks at the lower left and upper right. There are areas of cupping in the paint layers, which are not stable, and small losses throughout, especially at the joins. The varnish is moderately discoloured.

? Commissioned by or for the sitters; by descent from their daughter, Caecilia van Beresteyn (1589-1661), through the families Briell, De Jonge van Ellemeet, Van Citters to Jonkheer Jacob de Witte van Citters (1817-76), The Hague; or ? from the sitters daughter, Caecilia van Beresteyn (1589-1661) through the families De Witte, Ockerse, Van Gelre, De Witte van Elkerzee to Jonkheer Jacob de Witte van Citters (1817-76), The Hague; first recorded in the collection of the De Witte van Citters family, in the library of Kasteel Popkensburg, in the early 19th century;¹¹RAU, PA 26, Des Tombe archive, no. 843, ‘Getekende plattegrond van ruimte waarin familieportretten hangen’, nos. 24, 25. bequeathed to the Nederlandsch Museum voor Geschiedenis en Kunst, The Hague (inv. nos. 3237, 3238), by Jonkheer Jacob de Witte van Citters, 1876; transferred to the museum, 1885

Object number: SK-A-909

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

Born in Haarlem, Paulus Cornelisz van Beresteyn became an extremely wealthy merchant in Delft, and Lord of Overschie. In 1574 he married Volckera Claesdr Knobbert, the daughter of a Delft brewer, Claes Adriaensz Knobbert, and Maria Duyst. In 1596, Van Beresteyn became a member of the Council of Forty, the most important political organization in Delft, and subsequently held a number of civic posts: alderman (1597), burgomaster (1601), regent of the Orphan Chamber (1609) and municipal treasurer (1615). Van Beresteyn also served as delegate to the States of Holland (1602) and the States-General.³³For his biography and that of his wife see Van Beresteyn/Del Campo Hartman I, 1954, pp. 105-18.

The Rijksmuseum pendants (see SK-A-908 and the portrait shown here) are just two of a number of bust-length workshop replicas of Van Mierevelt’s portraits of Paulus Cornelisz van Beresteyn and Volckera Claesdr Knobbert in Kasteel De Keukenhof, Lisse. Dated 1612, the prototype for Van Beresteyn’s portrait shows him standing at three-quarter length and is inscribed ‘64’, his age in that year (fig. a).⁴⁴Van Beresteyn/Del Campo Hartman II, 1941, p. 17, no. 23. The pendant of Volckera Claesdr Knobbert to this 1612 portrait of Van Beresteyn (fig. b) is itself, perhaps, a replica, as it is dated 1618, while the bust-length replicas, including the one in the Rijksmuseum, bear earlier dates. Another possibility is that the date was added later.⁵⁵As suggested in Van Beresteyn/Del Campo Hartman II, 1941, p. 25. The 1618 painting shows Volckera Knobbert seated and at three-quarter length, and if not itself Van Mierevelt’s original portrait, is probably an exact replica of it. The dendrochronology of the Rijksmuseum’s Portrait of Paulus Cornelisz van Beresteyn indicates that it was executed in or after 1617.

The Rijksmuseum pair was probably owned by the sitters’ daughter, Caecilia van Beresteyn, and passed by inheritance to Jonkheer Jacob de Witte van Citters (1817-76). The numbers 24 and 25 painted on the backs of the panels correspond to the ground plan of the library of Kasteel Popkensburg drawn up in the early 19th century, which was owned by the De Witte van Citters family.

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. 195.

Van Beresteyn/Del Campo Hartman II, 1941, p. 18, no. 27 (as Van Mierevelt or workshop), p. 26, no. 47 (as Van Mierevelt or workshop)

1887, p. 111, nos. 931, 932 (as Van Mierevelt); 1903, p. 175, nos. 1588, 1589 (as Van Mierevelt); 1934, p. 187, nos. 1588, 1589 (as Van Mierevelt); 1960, p. 206, nos. 1588, 1589 (as Van Mierevelt); 1976, p. 383, nos. A 908, A 909 (as Van Mierevelt); 2007, no. 195

J. Bikker, 2007, 'workshop of Michiel Jansz. van Mierevelt, Portrait of Volckera Claesdr Knobbert (1554-1634), 1617', in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/20028335