Portret van een jongen

Harmen Willems Wieringa (eigenhandig gesigneerd), 1636

Portret van een welgestelde jongen. Staande, ten voeten uit, met de hoed in de rechterhand. Links een tafel waarop enkele boeken staan.

  • Soort kunstwerkschilderij
  • ObjectnummerSK-A-2221
  • Afmetingenbuitenmaat: diepte 5,5 cm (drager incl. SK-L-4061), drager: hoogte 42 cm x breedte 32,6 cm
  • Fysieke kenmerkenolieverf op paneel

Harmen Willems Wieringa

Portrait of a Boy

1636

Inscriptions

  • signature, lower left, on cross-beam of the table support:h Willems
  • date, lower left, on table leg:Aº 1636
  • inscription, lower left, on table leg:ÆTATIS / 13

Technical notes

The oak support consists of a single plank with a vertical grain, bevelled on three sides. There is no bevel at the top, since the plank was already thinner there. The support was planed slightly on the left. Dendrochronology has shown that the youngest heartwood ring was formed in 1571. The panel could have been ready for use by 1582, but a date in or after 1588 is more likely. The whitish-coloured ground layer is thin and smooth. The paint was deftly applied, with impasto for the highlights and visible brushstrokes in the clothes, tablecloth, floor tiles and background.

Scientific examination and reports

  • technical report: M. van de Laar, RMA, 22 september 2003
  • dendrochronology: P. Klein, RMA, 29 april 2005

Condition

Fair. The painting is abraded and there are some discoloured areas of retouching. The varnish is also discoloured and has its own craquelure pattern.

Conservation

  • conservator unknown, 1904: restored
  • conservator unknown, 1967: retouched and revarnished

Provenance

…; sale, S.H. Fraser (Chester-le-Street), London (Christie, Manson & Woods), 7 May 1904, no. 71, as A. Palamedes, £ 31, to the dealer Frederik Muller, Amsterdam;1Copy RKD. from whom, fl. 600, as Winolt Wyllems, to the museum, with support from the Vereniging Rembrandt, 1904

Object number: SK-A-2221

Credit line: Purchased with the support of the Vereniging Rembrandt

The artist

Biography

Harmen Willems Wieringa (? - Leeuwarden in or before 1650)

The date of Harmen Willems Wieringa’s birth is not known, nor is the name of his teacher. The archives reveal that he was working as a painter in 1618.2Historisch Centrum Leeuwarden, Groot Consentboek, ee 8, 20 March 1618, fol. 213. With thanks to P. Bakker. Although he usually signed his paintings ‘H. Willems’ and is also documented in the archives under that name, the Register der Graaven in de Galileërkerk (Register of graves in the Galileërkerk) in Leeuwarden reveals that his full name was Harmen Willems Wieringa. On 1 July 1620 he married Margaretha van Tongeren,3GA Leeuwarden, Betrothal and Marriage Registers, Leeuwarden, 1594-1812, 83. by whom he had four children. Like himself, his wife was Catholic, and came from a family of notaries.4With thanks to P. Bakker.

Wassenbergh assembled eight signed portraits by Wieringa, all full-lengths, to which he added a few attributed ones. The dates range from 1632 to 1644. Although Wieringa also worked on a large scale, his smaller portraits are most characteristic of his output. His portraiture displays some affinity with that of Wybrand de Geest, with whom he acted as a witness to the will of Johanna Bouricius in 1639. There is also a certain similarity to Amsterdam portraits, most notably those painted by Thomas de Keyser. It emerges from the archives that he also did less artistic work, like carrying out the maintenance on official buildings and painting a ‘covered carriage’. He died before 29 June 1650, as a document of that date mentions his heirs. His son Nicolaes succeeded him as a painter. His other son, Philippus, was a notary, but also painted coats of arms.5RAF, Family archive Eijsinga Vegeling Van Claarbergen, no. 420: bill for H.B. van Sminia from the estate of Jetso van Sminia, 1689. With thanks to P. Bakker.

Yvette Bruijnen, 2007

References
Wassenbergh 1948, pp. 15-16; Wassenbergh 1967, pp. 43-45

Entry

When this portrait entered the museum’s collection in 1904 the signature was read as ‘W. Willems’, which was interpreted as Winolt Willems.6Verslagen XXIX, 1906, p. 24. Kronig correctly established that the first letter was an ‘h’.7Kronig 1909a, p. 132. In Von Wurzbach II, 1910, p. 886, the painting was still being assigned to Winolt Willems. In Thieme/Becker XXXVI, 1947, the possibility of an attribution to either Winolt (p. 16) or H. Willems (p. 15) was still being kept open. Wassenbergh identified the artist as Harmen Willems and located several more portraits with the same signature,8Wassenbergh 1948, p. 15. and later came up with the surname Wieringa on the basis of archival evidence.9Wassenbergh 1967, p. 44.

The Rijksmuseum portrait of an unidentified, 13-year-old boy is a typical Wieringa. With its brisk, assured brushwork, restrained composition and down-to-earth depiction of the sitter, it approaches the portraits by De Geest. Within his own oeuvre it is closely related in composition and style to the signed portrait of a 22-year-old man from the same year.10Leeuwarden, Fries Museum; photo RKD. There, too, the sitter is depicted in a simple room with a tiled floor, besides a table with a tablecloth and book.

Yvette Bruijnen, 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. 339.

Literature

Kronig 1909a, p. 132 (as H. Willems); Wassenbergh 1948, p. 15 (as Harmen Willems); Wassenbergh 1967, p. 43, no. 5

Collection catalogues

1934, p. 326, no. 2731a (as Winolt Wyllems or Willems); 1976, p. 604, no. A 2221; 2007, no. 339

Citation

Y. Bruijnen, 2007, 'Harmen Willems Wieringa, Portrait of a Boy, 1636', in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/20026956

(accessed 9 December 2025 12:32:26).

Footnotes

  • 1Copy RKD.
  • 2Historisch Centrum Leeuwarden, Groot Consentboek, ee 8, 20 March 1618, fol. 213. With thanks to P. Bakker.
  • 3GA Leeuwarden, Betrothal and Marriage Registers, Leeuwarden, 1594-1812, 83.
  • 4With thanks to P. Bakker.
  • 5RAF, Family archive Eijsinga Vegeling Van Claarbergen, no. 420: bill for H.B. van Sminia from the estate of Jetso van Sminia, 1689. With thanks to P. Bakker.
  • 6Verslagen XXIX, 1906, p. 24.
  • 7Kronig 1909a, p. 132. In Von Wurzbach II, 1910, p. 886, the painting was still being assigned to Winolt Willems. In Thieme/Becker XXXVI, 1947, the possibility of an attribution to either Winolt (p. 16) or H. Willems (p. 15) was still being kept open.
  • 8Wassenbergh 1948, p. 15.
  • 9Wassenbergh 1967, p. 44.
  • 10Leeuwarden, Fries Museum; photo RKD.