Portrait of Pieter Willemsz Verhoeff (c. 1573-1609)

The support is a lined canvas, probably cut down slightly at the bottom, since the painted medallion is incomplete. The colour of the ground layer could not be determined. The portrait is coarsely executed.

Poor. An impression of the stretcher is visible in the craquelure. There are numerous small losses and the painting surface is abraded. The varnish is severely discoloured and desiccated.

...; from A.A. Vorsterman van Oyen, The Hague, fl. 11.80, as an 18th-century copy, to the museum, 1888¹¹RANH, ARS, IS, inv. 168, no. 329 (19 June 1888); RANH, ARS, Kop, inv. 289, pp. 188-89, no. 425 (14 July 1888); RANH, ARS, IS, inv. 168, no. 339 (21 July 1888, no. 1512); RANH, ARS, Kop, inv. 289, p. 190, no. 430 (25 July 1888).

ObjectNumber: SK-A-1469

This painting was acquired as a portrait of Admiral Pieter Willemsz Verhoeff. His coat of arms is at top left: a raised arm holding a dagger above a horseshoe, with the initials of his Christian names flanking the crest. His function as admiral is alluded to in the seascape with ships on the right.

The portrait was regarded as an 18th-century copy when it was purchased by the museum.²²RANH, ARS, Kop, inv. 289, pp. 188-89, no. 425 (14 July 1888); coll. cat. 1903, p. 19, no. 195; coll. cat. 1934, p. 17, no. 195. The harsh execution and middling quality indeed suggests that it is a 17th- or 18th-century copy. At present, though, it is the only known version of the portrait. The prominent gold chain indicates that the original was executed in or shortly after 1607, for in that year the Amsterdam Board of Admiralty awarded Admiral Verhoeff the chain for his services at the Battle of Gibraltar.³³Van Opstall 1972, pp. 33-34.

The biographical data conjure up a livelier picture of Verhoeff than his portrait suggests. In 1594, at the age of 21, he married Aechti Pieters in the Nieuwe Kerk in Amsterdam, with whom he had four daughters.⁴⁴Van Opstall 1972, pp. 25, 27-28. Mollema II, 1940, appendix ‘De Eere Rol’, p. 47, wrongly gives his date of birth as c. 1560, which was followed in coll. cat. 1976. The archives show that he sailed to Bergen that year, and that he was a lieutenant in 1601.⁵⁵Van Opstall 1972, pp. 26-29. The statement in Mollema II, 1940, appendix ‘De Eere Rol’, p. 47, and in coll. cat. 1976, p. 655, no. A 1469, that he was a captain in 1600 is thus incorrect. After distinguishing himself as captain of the Aeolus in the Battle of Gibraltar in 1607, for which he was promoted to Vice-Admiral, the Dutch East India Company sent him to the Dutch East Indies on 22 December that year as admiral commanding a fleet of 13 ships.⁶⁶De Jonge I, 1858, p. 209, III, 1865, pp. 71-73; Van Opstall 1972, pp. 33-37. After rather unsuccessful actions against the Portuguese strongholds on Mozambique and Goa he arrived at Calicut in 1608, where he signed a treaty with the Zamorin ruler.⁷⁷De Jonge III, 1860, pp. 74-75. In 1609 he arrived at the Banda Islands of the Indonesian archipelago with orders from the Dutch East India Company ‘to annex the islands for the Company (...), by treaty or force, before the 1st of September 1609 (...)’.⁸⁸Van der Chijs 1886, p. 37. On this mission see also Van Opstall 1972. The expedition failed miserably when he was ambushed by the Bandanese and killed along with 33 of his men. His headless corpse, riddled with stab wounds, was buried in the fortress of Banda Neira with full military honours.⁹⁹Van der Chijs 1886, pp. 42-44.

Yvette Bruijnen, 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. 409.

Van Opstall 1972, pp. 33-34

1903, p. 19, no. 195; 1934, p. 17, no. 195; 1976, p. 655, no A 1469 (as Northern Netherlands School, c. 1600); 2007, no. 409

Y. Bruijnen, 2007, 'anonymous, Portrait of Pieter Willemsz Verhoeff (c. 1573-1609), after c. 1607', in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.4838