Portrait of Frederik Dircksz Alewijn (1603-1665)

Support The support consists of three vertically grained oak planks (approx. 17.6, 26.9 and 15.7 cm), approx. 1 cm thick. The reverse is bevelled on all sides and has regular spaced saw marks. Dendrochronology has shown that the youngest heartwood ring was formed in 1598. The panel could have been ready for use by 1612, but a date in or after 1615 is more likely.
Preparatory layers The single, off-white ground extends up to the edges of the support. It consists of fine white pigment particles.
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. First a translucent brown undermodelling was applied for the figure. The painting was built up from the back to the front and from dark to light, with a reserve for the figure. The hair around the sitter’s right temple and ear was partly left in reserve in the hat. The lace of the collar was executed on top of the clothing, most of the pattern details being subsequently scratched into the wet, white paint. Greyish scumbles were applied in the background to suggest depth. Small, distinct, white highlights were added to the eyes. The paint includes large pigment particles, with some white particles visible even to the naked eye. While the background and clothing have slight impasto, the paint layers of the face are fairly smooth. The undermodelling for the sitter has remained locally visible around the contours. His right upper arm and both sides of the collar were initially slightly broader, while his left cheek was somewhat slimmer.
Anna Krekeler, 2024

Fair. The left join shows clearly in the picture plane. Some small paint losses are visible along the edges. Some old retouchings are heavily discoloured, especially in the left side of the hat. There is an elongated dent to the right of the hat, at the level of its crown. The varnish has slightly yellowed and there are yellow-brownish residues of an older varnish in the deeper parts of the lace.

A rectangular ebony reverse ogee frame¹¹P.J.J. van Thiel and C.J. de Bruyn Kops, Prijst de lijst: De Hollandse schilderijlijst in de zeventiende eeuw, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 1984, p. 126; C.J. de Bruyn Kops, ‘Praktische en technische aspecten van onderzoek naar de ontwikkeling en toepassing van de Nederlandse schilderijlijst in de zeventiende eeuw’, in ibid., pp. 37-66, esp. p. 60; P.J.J. van Thiel and C.J. de Bruyn Kops, Framing in the Golden Age: Picture and Frame in 17th-Century Holland, Zwolle 1995, p. 172; C.J. de Bruyn Kops, ‘Researching the Use and Development of the Dutch Picture Frame: Some Practical and Technical Aspects’, in ibid., pp. 55-93, esp. p. 82.

? Commissioned by or for the sitter; ? his probate inventory, 18 December 1665, in the upper front room of the house at 182 Herengracht, no. 67a, with no. 67b (SK-A-1318), as Anonymous (‘kontrefeijtsels sijnde van Frederik Alewijn ende Juffr. Geelwinck’);²²GPI, N-2349, nos. 67a, 67b. ? his son, Dirck Alewijn (1644-1687), Amsterdam, with the house at 182 Herengracht; ? his son, Dirck Alewijn (1682-1742), Amsterdam and Beemster; ? his son, Frederik Alewijn (1737-1804), Amsterdam and Beemster; ? his son, Frederik Alewijn (1775-1817), Hoorn and Beemster; his son, Dirk Margarethus Alewijn (1816-1885), Hoorn and Medemblik;³³NHA, ARS, IS, inv. 165, nos. 491 (15 December 1885), 493 (15 December 1885), 497 (17 December 1885), 498 (18 December 1885). his sale, Amsterdam (C.F. Roos), 16 December 1885, no. 73, with no. 74 (SK-A-1318), fl. 750, to the museum

ObjectNumber: SK-A-1317

This portrait of Frederik Alewijn was bought together with that of Agatha Geelvinck (SK-A-1318)) at the 1885 sale of the family collection of the former’s descendant Dirk Margarethus Alewijn.⁹⁹See Provenance. For the auction see D.C. Meijer Jr, ‘De familieportretten der Alewijns’, De Gids 50 (1886), pp. 326-39. Labels on the backs of both paintings date from 1845 and give the names and biographical details of the sitters. There is another portrait of Frederik Alewijn, painted by Wallerant Vaillant, in a private collection; illustrated in the catalogue for the sale, Amsterdam (Muller), 11 (14) June 1912 sqq., no. 652, pl. 65. The sitter was the eldest son of the wealthy cloth merchant Dirck Alewijn and Maria Schuurman.¹⁰¹⁰For her (alleged) portrait by an unknown artist see SK-A-1309. It was due to Frederik’s marriages that the Alewijns gained a place in Amsterdam’s regent class.¹¹¹¹For biographical information see J.E. Elias, De vroedschap van Amsterdam 1578-1795, I, Haarlem 1903, p. 498, no. 180; J.H. Scholte, ‘Dertig jaar Zesen-onderzoek in Nederland’, Jaarboek Amstelodamum 41 (1947), pp. 67-109, esp. pp. 83, 102-06. See A.W. Weissman, ‘Het Huis Vredenburch’, Oud Holland 30 (1912), pp. 18-30, for their country seat in the Beemster. His wedding to Agatha Geelvinck took place on 15 September 1637, but she died on 15 February the following year. On 28 August 1640, Frederik married Eva Bicker, the widow of Dirck de Graeff and the sister-in-law of burgomaster Cornelis de Graeff.¹²¹²J.E. Elias, De vroedschap van Amsterdam 1578-1795, I, Haarlem 1903, p. 353. Eva’s brother Hendrick Bicker married Eva Geelvinck, the sister of Frederik’s former wife Agatha Geelvinck. Frederik died on 8 June 1665, followed by his wife on 13 November of the same year. He left the house at 182 Herengracht, which he had inherited from his father, to his son Dirck. The two paintings by Dirck van Santvoort, who can safely be described as the family portraitist on the basis of the number he made for the Alewijns and their relatives, then passed by descent.¹³¹³Apart from two more portraits in the Rijksmuseum – one of Martinus Alewijn, the eldest son of Frederik’s brother Abraham (SK-A-1310), and the other probably depicting Anna de Bye, a cousin of Martinus (SK-A-1311) – these include the following paintings. Portrait of Abraham Alewijn (?) as a Child, present whereabouts unknown; illustrated in dealer cat. Steigrad 2004, no. 10. Portrait of Hendrick Bicker, present whereabouts unknown; sale, Dirk Margarethus Alewijn (1816-1885, Hoorn and Medemblik), Amsterdam (C.F. Roos), 16 December 1885, no. 77; photo RKD. Portrait of Eva Geelvinck, formerly Museum der bildenden Künste, Leipzig, destroyed in the Second World War; illustrated in C. Klugmann, ‘Kriegsverlust der Gemälde- und Plastiksammlung des Museums der bildenden Künste’, Museum der bildenden Künste Leipzig: Jahresheft 1 (1994), pp. 7-40, esp. p. 29. The catalogue for the 1885 Alewijn sale (see above), no. 75, mentions a second portrait of Frederik Alewijn by Van Santvoort that is probably the ‘1 painting, likeness of Fredrick Alewijn’ listed as being ‘in the large salon’ in the present sitter’s probate inventory of 1665; GPI, N-2349, no. 76.

The portraits of Frederik and Agatha are mentioned together in the sitter’s probate inventory of 1665,¹⁴¹⁴See Provenance. but were probably not conceived as companion pieces. Although there are similarities in the technique, differences in composition and lighting (see fig. a), as well as the fact that Agatha had died two years before the present work was ready, rightly suggest that both were created at different times.¹⁵¹⁵N. Middelkoop (ed.), Kopstukken: Amsterdammers geportretteerd 1600-1800, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Amsterdams Historisch Museum) 2002-03, p. 27, note 44. Moreover, dendrochronology has shown that the wood of the two panels was derived from different trees.¹⁶¹⁶See Technical notes. The one of Agatha’s painting points to an execution in or after 1639, but given her death in 1638 it was very probably made a little earlier.¹⁷¹⁷A date of 1637-38 is also arrived at by De Bruyn Kops in P.J.J. van Thiel and C.J. de Bruyn Kops, Framing in the Golden Age: Picture and Frame in 17th-Century Holland, Zwolle 1995, p. 172. Frederik’s picture is dated 1640 and is thus from a couple of years later. The type of male portrait with the hat on the head, which became fashionable after 1640, is not uncommon in Van Santvoort’s oeuvre.¹⁸¹⁸R.E.O. Ekkart, Johannes Cornelisz. Verspronck: Leven en werken van een Haarlems portretschilder uit de 17de eeuw, Haarlem 1979, p. 47. See, for example, the Portrait of David de Wildt of 1640, present whereabouts unknown; photo RKD. It was around then that the two panels were given similar black ebony reverse ogee frames, which were popular among Amsterdam burghers.¹⁹¹⁹De Bruyn Kops in P.J.J. van Thiel and C.J. de Bruyn Kops, Framing in the Golden Age: Picture and Frame in 17th-Century Holland, Zwolle 1995, p. 172.

The 1885 auction catalogue of Dirk Margarethus Alewijn’s paintings also mentions a portrait of Frederik Alewijn’s second wife, Eva Bicker, which was also made by Van Santvoort and can be dated around 1640 (fig. b).²⁰²⁰Sale, Dirk Margarethus Alewijn (1816-1885, Hoorn and Medemblik), Amsterdam (C.F. Roos), 16 December 1885, no. 76. That picture is mentioned separately in her husband’s 1665 probate inventory,²¹²¹GPI, N-2349, no. 25, ‘1 dito (conterfeijtsel) vande overledens Eva Bicquers. Anoniem’ (1 ditto (likeness) of the deceased Eva Bicker. Anonymous). and although it is a few centimetres smaller it makes a better match with Frederik’s portrait than that of Agatha, and may therefore be the true pendant.²²²²As also suggested by N. Middelkoop (ed.), Kopstukken: Amsterdammers geportretteerd 1600-1800, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Amsterdams Historisch Museum) 2002-03, p. 27, note 44.

Gerbrand Korevaar, 2024

See Key to abbreviations, Rijksmuseum painting catalogues and Acknowledgements

J.H. Scholte, ‘Dertig jaar Zesen-onderzoek in Nederland’, Jaarboek Amstelodamum 41 (1947), pp. 67-109, esp. pp. 83, 102-06

1887, p. 152, no. 1285; 1934, p. 257, no. 2130; 1960, p. 277, no. 2130; 1976, p. 498, no. A 1317

Gerbrand Korevaar, 2024, 'Dirck van Santvoort, Portrait of Frederik Dircksz Alewijn (1603-1665), 1640', in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.5375