The support is composed of two vertically grained oak planks. Only the bottom edge is bevelled. The ground is of a light colour, and the collar and probably the face were not reserved but painted over the dark background. There is little brushmarking, and only some impasto used for the highlights on the collar.

Fair. There is a slight level difference between the two planks of the support, and there are some minor losses along the seam. The painting is somewhat abraded, especially at the figure’s hand, where the grain of the wood shows through. The varnish is quite discoloured.

…; donated to the museum by Jonkheer J.H.F.K. van Swinderen, 1884¹¹RANH, ARS, IS, inv. 164, no. 264 (19 June 1884, no. 1621); RANH, ARS, IS, inv. 164, no. 268 (2 July 1884, no. 128); RANH, ARS, IS, inv. 164, no. 269 (11 July 1884, no. 138); RANH, ARM, Kop, inv. 39, p. 353, no. 37 (12 July 1884); RANH, ARM, Kop, inv. 39, p. 354, no. 40 (16 July 1884).

Object number: SK-A-823

Credit line: Gift of Jonkheer J.H.F.K. van Swinderen, Groningen

The inscription on the reverse of this half-length Portrait of a Man records the sitter’s name as ‘Hr: Kettingh’. Van Kretschmar identified him as the Delft notary Pieter Sebastiaensz Kettingh, the husband of Belia Claesdr.²²Van Kretschmar 1984, p. 113. Belia Claesdr was portrayed by Bartholomeus Sarburgh in a painting that came to the Rijksmuseum from the same collection (SK-A-818). However, Pieter Sebastiaensz Kettingh could not have sat for the present, 1623, portrait as he was buried on 30 August 1609 in the Nieuwe Kerk in Delft.³³GAD, DTB, inv. no. 36. His occupation as a notary is recorded in the registration of his burial, leaving no doubt that it was not another Pieter Sebastiaensz Kettingh who was interred on that date. Unfortunately, it has not been possible to discover the true identity of the sitter in this portrait, nor the artist responsible for its execution.

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. 425.

Van Kretschmar 1984, p. 113 (as Portrait of Pieter Sebastiaensz Kettingh)

1903, p. 20, no. 219 (as Portrait of Mr Kettingh); 1976, p. 658, no. A 823 (as Portrait of a Man from the Kettingh Family); 2007, no. 425

J. Bikker, 2007, 'anonymous, Portrait of a Man, 1623', in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/20025901