Aan de slag met de collectie:
Portret van een officier
Jan Antonisz. van Ravesteyn, ca. 1610 - ca. 1620
Portret van een officier. Buste in wapenrusting naar rechts.
- Soort kunstwerkschilderij
- ObjectnummerSK-A-4191
- Afmetingendrager: hoogte 64 cm x breedte 48,4 cm, buitenmaat: diepte 6 cm (drager incl. SK-L-1941)
- Fysieke kenmerkenolieverf op paneel
Identificatie
Titel(s)
- Portret van een officier
- Portret van een man (voormalige titel)
- Portret van een man, vermoedelijk Justinus van Nassau (1559-1631), natuurlijke zoon van prins Willem I en Eva Elinx (voormalige titel)
Objecttype
Objectnummer
SK-A-4191
Beschrijving
Portret van een officier. Buste in wapenrusting naar rechts.
Onderdeel van catalogus
Vervaardiging
Vervaardiging
schilder: Jan Antonisz. van Ravesteyn
Datering
ca. 1610 - ca. 1620
Zoek verder op
Materiaal en techniek
Fysieke kenmerken
olieverf op paneel
Afmetingen
- drager: hoogte 64 cm x breedte 48,4 cm
- buitenmaat: diepte 6 cm (drager incl. SK-L-1941)
Dit werk gaat over
Persoon
Onderwerp
Verwerving en rechten
Credit line
Schenking van jhr. J.L. Trip en A.W. gravin van Limburg Stirum, Princenhage
Verwerving
schenking 1805-06-15
Copyright
Herkomst
…; donated to the museum by Mr and Mrs J.L. Trip, née Countess Van Limburg Stirum, Princenhage, as _Portrait of Count Egmond_, with _Portrait of an Officer_ by Wybrand de Geest (SK-A-4190), 15 June 1805{Moes/Van Biema 1909, p. 84.}
Documentatie
Documentatiemap Schilderijen: aantekeningen R. van Luttervelt (voor 1963).
Duurzaam webadres
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Jan Antonisz van Ravesteyn
Portrait of an Officer
c. 1610 - c. 1620
Technical notes
The support is made up of three vertically grained oak planks and is bevelled on all sides except the left. Dendrochronology has shown that the youngest heartwood ring was formed in 1586. The panel could have been ready for use by 1597, but a date in or after 1603 is more likely. The ground is light coloured. There is little brushmarking except in the sitter’s hair and beard. The head is a little smaller at the top than the reserve.
Scientific examination and reports
- technical report: W. de Ridder, RMA, 27 juli 2004
Condition
Fair. There are two cracks along the joins on the right and left at the upper part of the support. Two small holes are present in the upper left and right corners. There is a scratch extending from the figure’s right eye to his ear and a large area of retouching to the right of his face that is flaking. A number of smaller areas of retouching are present throughout. The varnish has discoloured considerably.
Provenance
…; donated to the museum by Mr and Mrs J.L. Trip, née Countess Van Limburg Stirum, Princenhage, as Portrait of Count Egmond, with Portrait of an Officer by Wybrand de Geest (SK-A-4190), 15 June 18051Moes/Van Biema 1909, p. 84.
Object number: SK-A-4191
Credit line: Gift of Jonkheer J.L. Trip and A.W. Countess van Limburg Stirum, Princenhage
The artist
Biography
Jan Anthonisz van Ravesteyn (? Culemborg c. 1572 - The Hague 1657)
Although there are no archival records to support such a supposition, it is believed that Jan Anthonisz van Ravesteyn was the son of a glass-painter, Anthonis van Ravesteyn, who is documented in Culemborg in 1593 and in The Hague in 1602. Van Ravesteyn’s date of birth is also uncertain, but it was probably around 1572. His name appears in two notarized documents from October 1597 in Delft, which has led to the belief that he was apprenticed to Van Mierevelt. However, Van Ravesteyn’s earliest known work, Portrait of Hugo de Groot at the Age of 16 of 1599,2Paris, Fondation Custodia; illustrated in The Hague 1998, p. 230, fig. 1. differs from Van Mierevelt’s early oeuvre, which, it has to be admitted does not include paintings from before 1600. In 1598 Van Ravesteyn joined the painters’ guild in The Hague, where he remained the rest of his life, marrying Anna Arentsdr van Barendrecht from Dordrecht in 1604. The wedding took place at the town hall, not in the Reformed Church, and from other, later documents it is known that the artist was a Catholic. A Van Ravesteyn was dean of the painters’ guild in The Hague in 1617, but whether this was Jan van Ravesteyn or his brother Anthonie, who was also a painter, is not known. In 1631, 1634 and 1637 he was nominated as warden of the guild, but not elected. He may perhaps have served in some capacity before 1631, but as the records of the guild’s administrators are spotty before that year, this cannot be ascertained.
Van Ravesteyn was the foremost portraitist in The Hague in the first half of the 17th century. His clientele consisted primarily of highly placed government officials and the patrician circles of The Hague and Dordrecht, the latter probably because of his wife’s ties to that town. In addition to portraits of individual burghers, Van Ravesteyn painted five civic guard pieces, some of which were quite innovative. Although there are hundreds of extant portraits by Van Ravesteyn and his workshop dating to after 1611, the number before that date is extremely small, in spite of the fact that his work was already being praised by Van Mander in 1604. His breakthrough – at least as far as commissions are concerned – seems to have come with the ambitious series of officers’ portraits begun probably for Prince Maurits in 1611.3This series, which was added to up until 1624, is now in the Mauritshuis. Illustrated in coll. cat. The Hague 2004a, p. 195, no. 45, pp. 303-07, nos. 139-44, 414-20. As his last signed and dated works are from 1641, Van Ravesteyn seems to have laid down his paintbrushes in that year. He was, however, one of the first artists invited to join the newly established Confrerie Pictura in 1656. The guild books list the names of his numerous pupils, the only outstanding one being Adriaen Hanneman (c. 1604-71), who would later become his son-in-law.
Jonathan Bikker, 2007
References
Van Mander 1604, fol. 300r; Van Gool I, 1750, pp. 15-22; Terwesten 1770, p. 9; Obreen III, 1880-81, pp. 261, 283, 285, IV, 1881-82, pp. I, 4-7, 10, 30, 59, V, 1882-83, pp. 68, 70, 72; Bredius/Moes 1892; Ekkart in The Hague 1998, pp. 230-37
Entry
When this portrait was donated together with one of an officer by Wybrand de Geest (SK-A-4190) to the Nationale Konst-Gallery in 1805, the sitter was identified as Lamoraal, Count of Egmond (1522-68).4The sitter in De Geest’s portrait was identified as Philippe de Montmorency, Count of Horn (1524-68). This identification was later dropped in favour of one as Justinus of Nassau (1559-1631). Comparison with substantiated portraits of Justinus of Nassau, such as the one in the Leeuwarden Series (SK-A-536) demonstrates that the latter identification is equally fanciful.
The attribution to Van Ravesteyn can be maintained, and this bust-length portrait can be dated to the second decade of the 17th century. The sitter’s costume and the firm modelling of his features compare best with Van Ravesteyn’s officers’ portraits from 1611 and 1612 in the collection of the Mauritshuis, such as the Portrait of Nicolaas Smelsingh.5Signed and dated 1611; Delft, Legermuseum, on loan from the Mauritshuis; illustrated in coll. cat. The Hague 2004a, p. 305, no. 419.
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. 253.
Collection catalogues
1809, p. 90, no. 384 (as Anonymous, Portrait of Count Egmond); 1843, p. 75, no. 388 (as Anonymous, with SK-A-4190; ‘one of the panels is broken and glued’); 1853, p. 35, no. 376 (as Anonymous, Portrait of Count Lamoraal; fl. 200); 1858, p. 187, no. 417 (as Anonymous); 1880, p. 255, no. 288 (as Portrait of Justinus of Nassau); 1887, p. 139, no. 1168 (as Portrait of Justinus of Nassau); 1903, p. 220, no. 1978 (as Portrait of Justinus of Nassau); 1934, p. 235, no. 1978 (as Portrait of Justinus of Nassau ?); 1976, p. 464, no. A 4191 (as Portrait of a Man, Thought to be Justinus of Nassau); 2007, no. 253
Citation
J. Bikker, 2007, 'Jan Antonisz. van Ravesteyn, Portrait of an Officer, c. 1610 - c. 1620', in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/20026151
(accessed 30 November 2025 04:48:25).Footnotes
- 1Moes/Van Biema 1909, p. 84.
- 2Paris, Fondation Custodia; illustrated in The Hague 1998, p. 230, fig. 1.
- 3This series, which was added to up until 1624, is now in the Mauritshuis. Illustrated in coll. cat. The Hague 2004a, p. 195, no. 45, pp. 303-07, nos. 139-44, 414-20.
- 4The sitter in De Geest’s portrait was identified as Philippe de Montmorency, Count of Horn (1524-68).
- 5Signed and dated 1611; Delft, Legermuseum, on loan from the Mauritshuis; illustrated in coll. cat. The Hague 2004a, p. 305, no. 419.