Portrait of Frederik Houtman (1571-1627)

The finely woven, plain-weave canvas support has been lined. There is no visible cusping and the tacking edges have been trimmed. The ground layer is light in colour. The paint layers are difficult to assess because of the extensive overpainting and discoloured varnish.

Poor. The painting was completely flattened when lined. There is severe abrasion and overpainting throughout, but especially in the figure’s face, hair, beard and hands. Abrasion points have been painted in on top of the overpaint. The varnish is discoloured.

...; donated to the museum by J.W. IJzerman, The Hague, September 1915

ObjectNumber: SK-A-2727

Credit line: Gift of J.W. IJzerman, The Hague

Comparison with the secure portrait of Frederik Houtman in a cartouche within a c. 1617 Bird’s-eye View of Ambon (SK-A-4482) supports the traditional identification of the sitter in the present three-quarter length portrait. Together with his older brother, Cornelis (c. 1540-99), Frederik Houtman led the first Dutch trading expedition to the East Indies in 1595-96, establishing relations with the rulers of Java, Sumatra and Bali. On a second voyage in 1598-99, the brothers established trade with Madagascar. Cornelis was killed in a battle against the army of the Sultan of Aceh in 1599, and Frederik was imprisoned. During his imprisonment, he studied the Malay language, which resulted in the first Malay dictionary, written after his return to Amsterdam in 1602 and published in 1603. Frederik Houtman later served as governor of Ambon (1605-11) and the Moluccas (1621-23) and discovered Houtman’s Abrolhos, shoals on the west coast of Australia, in 1619.

It has not been possible to attribute this painting, an undertaking that is complicated by its condition. Based on the similarities in the sitter’s appearance to his portrait in the c. 1617 Bird’s-eye View of Ambon and the costume, a date in the second decade of the 17th century would be appropriate.

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. 412.

1918, p. 540, no. 205a; 1934, p. 17, no. 205a; 1960, p. 13, no. 205 A 1; 1976, p. 657, no. A 2727; 2007, no. 412

J. Bikker, 2007, 'anonymous, Portrait of Frederik Houtman (1571-1627), c. 1610 - c. 1620', in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.4793