The support is made up of three vertically grained oak planks and is bevelled on all sides. The bevel on the left side as seen from the back is thinner than the others. The support was prepared with a beige ground layer. The ground and paint layers were probably applied when the painting was already framed as they are not present on the edges. The paint layers were applied very thinly, with a considerable amount of visible brushmarking in the face.

Fair. There are numerous discoloured retouchings in the face. A coloured varnish was applied throughout, probably in order to give the picture an aged look. This varnish has been removed from the face and collar, but residues of it are still present.

Ebony scotia frames¹¹De Bruyn Kops 1984, pp. 38, 66, fig. T 3; De Bruyn Kops in Amsterdam 1984b, p. 154, note 9; De Bruyn Kops 1995, pp. 57, 93, fig. T 3; De Bruyn Kops in Van Thiel/De Bruyn Kops 1995, p. 201, note 9.

…; collection Jacoba Petronella Hooft Graafland (1834-1911), 1903;²²Tideman 1903, p. 126. by descent to her grandson, M.J.P. Hooft Graafland; from whom purchased by the dealer, H. Bekker, Utrecht;³³Note RMA. from whom, fl. 6,500, to the museum, September 1953

Object number: SK-A-3876

After obtaining a law degree, Johannes Wtenbogaert (or Uyttenbogaert) became secretary to Count Jan of Nassau in Arnhem in 1578. Beginning in 1580, he studied theology in Geneva, among other places, and became a minister in his native Utrecht. In 1591, he was called to The Hague, where he became tutor to Frederik Hendrik and Maurits’s army chaplain. Eventually, he was appointed the official minister to Maurits’s court. On 2 April 1606, he married Maria Petitpas, the widow of François Aux-Brebis. In the conflict between the Arminians and the Gomarists over such issues as predestination and church-state relations, Wtenbogaert chose the side of the first group and became its leader in 1609 upon the death of Arminius. It was under Wtenbogaert’s leadership that the so-called Remonstrance was formulated in 1610, which asserted the authority of the state over the church and restated Arminius’s position on predestination. After the Counter-Remonstrant (Gomarist) faction and Prince Maurits, who openly sided with them since 1617, gained political control over the United Provinces in 1618, Wtenbogaert was forced to flee, first to Antwerp and later to Rouen. He returned to the northern Netherlands only after Maurits’s death in 1625, settling in Rotterdam in 1626. In 1629, he returned to The Hague, where he spent the rest of his life.⁵⁵For his biography see NNBW II, 1912, cols. 1469-72.

Wtenbogaert informs us in his diary that he sat for ‘the famous painter Master Michiel Mierevelt upon his earnest request’ during a visit to an ailing burgomaster of Delft that took place between 2 and 7 July 1631.⁶⁶See Tideman 1903, pp. 125-26: ‘(…) de vermaarde schilder Mr. Michiel Miervelt mij op zijne ernstighe begheerte, conterfeytede’. Van Mierevelt’s portrait, showing the 74-year-old minister at half-length, belongs to the Remonstrant congregation in Rotterdam.⁷⁷Panel, 68 x 59 cm; photo IB, no. 55926. Although it is dated 1632 and bears the inscription ‘Ætatis 75’, the bust-length portrait SK-A-3875 is probably a studio version of the 1631 portrait, for apart from the format, it is an exact replica. The execution, however, especially in such details as the sitter’s beard, is noticeably less fine.

The portrait of Wtenbogaert’s wife, Maria Petitpas (shown here), is probably a workshop replica of a lost original. The panel is somewhat smaller than Wtenbogaert’s portrait, and there is a five-year discrepancy in the dating. Nonetheless, the shared provenance of the two paintings, and their common bust-length formats, leave little doubt that this Portrait of Maria Petitpas was, indeed, conceived as the pendant.

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. 199.

Tideman 1903, p. 126 (as Van Mierevelt); Kloek 1992, p. 349 (as Van Mierevelt)

1960, p. 205, no. 1586 (as Van Mierevelt); 1976, pp. 383-84, nos. A 3875, A 3876 (as Van Mierevelt); 2007, no. 199

J. Bikker, 2007, 'workshop of Michiel Jansz. van Mierevelt, Portrait of Maria Petitpas (?-1640), 1637', in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/20028339