Support The panel consists of six horizontally grained oak planks (approx. 15.5, 22.6, 23.1, 26.2, 21.4 and 23.2 cm), approx. 1.5-1.8 cm thick, and one plank (approx. 11 cm) that was added to the bottom at a later date. The reverse is bevelled on the left and right, and has regularly spaced saw marks, plane or chisel marks and traces of three probably original, inserted vertical bars.
Preparatory layers The double ground extends over the edges of the support at the top and on the left and right. The bottom one could not be assessed due to the added (ungrounded) plank. The first layer consists of fine white pigment particles. The second, light grey layer is composed of white pigment particles with a small addition of black and earth pigments. The brushstrokes of the ground are visible throughout the paint surface.
Underdrawing No underdrawing could be detected with the naked eye or infrared photography.
Paint layers The paint extends up to the edges of the support. The figures were indicated with a greyish-brown undermodelling. The composition was built up from the back to the front and from dark to light. The background was applied with reserves for the figures. Their dress was modelled in a simple fashion: on top of a dark grey base, slightly lighter and darker paint was added to introduce light and shadowed areas. The collars were reserved and only slight adjustments to their contours were made on top of the dark clothes. The paint was applied smoothly, with brushwork visible only in the faces and collars.
Anna Krekeler, 2024

Poor. In the past, all joins were reglued, and reinforced with wooden inserts at the edges and with dovetails (of which only a few remain). At some point, rectangular sections were removed (now restored) from the top corners (approx. 47.5 x 15 and 46.5 x 16 cm), presumably to make the panel fit a specific location. The paint layer is heavily abraded throughout and the grey ground has become visible in many places. The entire background was overpainted in dark brown, except for the area with the signature. Filling, extensive retouching and overpaint are clearly visible along all joins. The varnish is thick and has severely yellowed.

? Commissioned by the sitters; first recorded in the chamber of the examining magistrate of the renovated House of Correction, Middelburg, 1873-74;¹¹Note RMA. made the property of the Dutch State at an unknown date, and transferred to the museum, with SK-A-3457 and SK-A-3458,²²For these works see the last note of the entry. July 1943; on loan to the DRVK since 1960;³³Note RCE, Rijswijk. on loan to the directors of the Walcheren polder board, Middelburg, for the Polderhuis, 1963-96⁴⁴Note RCE, Rijswijk.

Object number: SK-A-3459

Five men, two of them wearing swords, are seated at a table. The one at the centre has opened a book to two blank pages and holds a quill pen in his hand, to the right of which is a stack of coins.⁶⁶A similar book in an earlier group portrait by Van Loeninga, of the Middelburg Regular Bargemasters’ Guild, has an inscription. Present whereabouts unknown; illustrated in the catalogue for the sale, C.L.M. van Es, Dordrecht (Mak), 22-23 September 1942, no. 136; see also F. Schlie, ‘Ein Regentenstück von Allart van Loeninga’, Oud Holland 10 (1892), pp. 129-32, esp. p. 130. The book in the Rijksmuseum painting never had an inscription. They are the regents of the House of Correction in Middelburg: Cornelis Erckenbout, Sijmen van Trijst, Jacques van Neuleghem or Nulleghem, Matteus Molanus and Guillaume de Wolff.⁷⁷Their names were recorded in the ‘Register van den zakelijken inhoud der resolutiën van Wet en Raad enz. rakende het Bestuur en Directie van het tuchthuis’; D.G. van Teylingen, ‘Eenige bladen uit de geschiedenis van het oude tuchthuis te Middelburg’, Archief: Mededelingen van het Koninklijk Zeeuwsch Genootschap der Wetenschappen 1883, pp. 89-124, esp. p. 103, note 2. The register was destroyed in a fire at the Middelburg City Archives in 1940; written communication, P.W. Sijnke, 10 August 2010. For biographical information about the sitters: H.M. Kesteloo, ‘De stadsrekeningen van Middelburg, V: 1600-1625’, Archief: Mededelingen van het Koninklijk Zeeuwsch Genootschap der Wetenschappen 1898, pp. 41-120; H.M. Kesteloo, ‘De stadsrekeningen van Middelburg, VI: 1626-1650’, ibid., 1900, pp. 1-96; www.zeeuwsarchief.nl. It is not clear which name belongs to whom, although it can be assumed that De Wolff, who is listed as a watch commander in the city’s financial accounts, is one of the men with a sword. The second or third regent from the left is probably Van Neuleghem or Nulleghem, who was the receiver of the House of Correction.⁸⁸H.M. Kesteloo, ‘De stadsrekeningen van Middelburg, VI: 1626-1650’, Archief: Mededelingen van het Koninklijk Zeeuwsch Genootschap der Wetenschappen 1900, pp. 1-96, esp. p. 93. The sequence of names in the text, which is taken from D.G. van Teylingen, ‘Eenige bladen uit de geschiedenis van het oude tuchthuis te Middelburg’, ibid., 1883, pp. 89-124, esp. p. 103, note 2, may be the correct order from left to right.

The composition of the men around the table is very similar to that in Allaert van Loeninga’s only other known group portrait, of the Middelburg Regular Bargemasters’ Guild, which he painted eight years earlier.⁹⁹Present whereabouts unknown; illustrated in the catalogue for the sale, C.L.M. van Es, Dordrecht (Mak), 22-23 September 1942, no. 136; see also F. Schlie, ‘Ein Regentenstück von Allart van Loeninga’, Oud Holland 10 (1892), pp. 129-32. Although he had made some progress with the arrangement of figures in the interim, the rigid symmetry of the present 1643 picture looks rather archaic.¹⁰¹⁰On the date see below. His style has justifiably been compared to that of Michiel van Mierevelt,¹¹¹¹F. Schlie, ‘Ein Regentenstück von Allart van Loeninga’, Oud Holland 10 (1892), pp. 129-32, esp. p. 131. and he now shows himself to be a very accomplished portraitist.

It is remarkable that this large portrait is on panel. The two top corners are replacements.¹²¹²See Condition. The original ones were removed at some stage, probably so that the painting could be recessed into a room’s panelling, which resulted in the last figure of the inscribed date being sawn off. Various sources unanimously state that it was a ‘3’, whereas the third digit has been read in different ways,¹³¹³The correspondence about the painting in the RMA files consistently gives it as ‘1673’, whereas the RKD site gives the date as ‘1653’. The artist’s name is also spelled in different ways. but is quite obviously a ‘4’. A date of 1643 is eminently plausible.

Construction of the House of Correction began in 1641 and was completed in the year when the painting was made, so it would have been commissioned to mark the opening.¹⁴¹⁴For the building and problematic financing of the ‘rasp and spinning house’ and its subsequent history see Van D.G. van Teylingen, ‘Eenige bladen uit de geschiedenis van het oude tuchthuis te Middelburg’, Archief: Mededelingen van het Koninklijk Zeeuwsch Genootschap der Wetenschappen 1883, pp. 89-124; H.M. Kesteloo, ‘De stadsrekeningen van Middelburg, VI: 1626-1650’, ibid., 1900, pp. 1-96, esp. pp. 93-95; P. Sijnke, ‘Het Huis van Bewaring in Middelburg: Verdwenen Zeeuwse gebouwen’, Nehalennia 97 (1993), pp. 7-10. Van Loeninga’s regent portrait and two other ones were removed from the Middelburg House of Detention and in 1943 transferred to the Rijksmuseum.¹⁵¹⁵The other two works were Pieter Borselaer, Five Regents of the House of Correction in Middelburg (SK-A-3457), and Aert Schouman, Four Regents and the House Father of the House of Correction in Middelburg (SK-A-3458).

Gerdien Wuestman, 2024

See Key to abbreviations, Rijksmuseum painting catalogues and Acknowledgements

1976, p. 352, no. A 3459

Gerdien Wuestman, 2024, 'Allaert van Loeninga, Portrait of the Regents of the House of Correction in Middelburg, 1643', in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200109820