The oak support consisting of three vertically grained planks is bevelled on all sides. It was primed with a thin, white ground layer. The figure was reserved in the background, but the outer parts of the sitter’s collar were painted on top of the background. The sitter’s face appears to have been underpainted in a light grey colour. It was modelled wet in wet with opaque flesh tones, and thinner and more transparent shaded areas. The paint was generally applied thinly and smoothly. In contrast, many details in the sitter’s clothing, such as the ruff, the cuffs, the jewels and the pattern in the sitter’s skirt, were painted with impasto. The execution of the left hand is considerably weaker than that of the face. There is a pentimento around the coat of arms at upper right, indicating that is was possibly reduced in size.

Fair. Several areas in the background are overpainted and retouched. There are numerous drying cracks in the overpaint, and the retouching is slightly matte. Abrasion and raised paint appears in the right half of the painting. The varnish has discoloured considerably, and is matte at the retouchings.

…; ? by descent to Jonkheer Jacob de Witte van Citters (1817-76), The Hague; by whom bequeathed to the Nederlandsch Museum voor Geschiedenis en Kunst, The Hague, 1876, but given in usufruct to his sister Carolina Hester de Witte van Citters (1820-1901), The Hague; her husband Arnoldus Andries des Tombe (1818-1902), The Hague; transferred to the museum in 1903; transferred to the Deutsche Informations Bibliothek, December 1943; returned to the museum, September 1944; on loan through the DRVK since 1962

Object number: SK-A-2076

Credit line: Jonkheer J. de Witte van Citters Bequest, The Hague

Mertijntje was seven years younger than her brother Johan van Ceters,¹¹For whose portrait by an unknown artist see SK-A-2075. and was born to Aernout van Ceters²²For whose portrait see SK-A-893. and his third wife, Anna van der Hooghe. Mertijntje’s portrait is part of the De Witte van Citters Bequest, which was left to the museum by one of her father’s descendants. Little is known about Mertijntje van Ceters. According to the inscription on the reverse, she died on 26 October 1629, but that is probably incorrect. In an 18th-century transcription of the concise chronicle written by her father Aernout van Ceters, it is stated that she died on 26 October 1624, ‘at 9 o’clock in the morning’.³³RAU, PA 26, Des Tombe archive, no. 689: ‘’s ochtens ten 9 uren’.

The 14-year-old Mertijntje is shown three-quarter length, standing. She holds a glove in her gloved right hand, and a fan in her other hand. Her sumptuous, fashionable attire is depicted with great attention to detail. She is wearing an overgown with trailing sleeves over a stomacher decorated with a floral motif. Her ruff and needlepoint lace cap attest to the family’s wealth, as do her gold belt and her many gold jewels.⁴⁴For the ornament in her hair see Gans 1961, p. 108.

This is most probably the work of a Zeeland artist, but as yet it is impossible to suggest a name. Middelburg has a copy of this portrait painted by Willem Stad (1873-1959).⁵⁵Middelburg, Koninklijk Zeeuwsch Genootschap der Wetenschappen, inv. no. G. 1543.

Gerdien Wuestman, 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. 424.

1903, p. 20, no. 209; 1976, p. 658, no. A 2076; 2007, no. 424

G. Wuestman, 2007, 'anonymous, Portrait of Mertijntje van Ceters (1609-24), 1623', in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/20027475