MIEREVELT
Prince Maurits of Nassau
Mierevelt, a Popular Portrait-painter.—Michael Mierevelt (1567-1641), the son of a goldsmith and pupil of Anthony van Montfoort at Utrecht, attained notoriety by his portraits of some of the princes of the House of Nassau. From that time he was never without orders; and he is supposed to have painted a greater number of portraits than any other artist of his country. Mierevelt spent most of his life in Delft. The Rijks contains a great number of his works, among which are: portraits of Jacob Cats; Johan v. Oldenbarnevelt; F. Hendrik; Philips Willem, Prince of Orange; Prince Maurits; Johannes Uitenbogaert; Frederick V., Elector of the Palatinate; Lubbert Gerritz; Paulus van Beresteyn; Volckera Nicolai; Henrick Hooft, and of Aegje Hasselaer, wife of Henrick Hooft.
Portraits by Honthorst.—The student of history and lover of portraits will be attracted by the following Honthorsts: Frederick Wilhelm, Elector of Brandenburg, and his wife, Louise Henriette of Orange; William II., Prince of Orange; William II. with his wife, Princess Maria Stuart of England; Frederik Hendrik; Amalia v. Solms; and the Princes of Orange, William I., Maurits, Frederik Hendrik, William II., and William III.
Portraits by Van der Helst.—By Van der Helst there are portraits of Maria Stuart, Princess Royal of England, widow of William II., Prince of Orange; Portrait of a Warrior; and Portraits of Andries Bicker, Burgomaster of Amsterdam (1586-1652); and Gerard A. Bicker (1623-66).
Rubens's Portrait of Helena Fourment.—Rubens's portrait of Helena Fourment shows his second wife, in a different mood and costume from the one in the Mauritshuis. Here she is represented full face, with hair curled in tufts, a satin bodice, high fan-shaped ruff spreading behind the head, throat half bare, with necklace and many jewels. He has also a portrait of Anna Maria, wife of Louis XIII. of France.
Portraits by Van Dijck.—Van Dijck is represented by a Portrait of William II., Prince of Orange, and his Betrothed, Mary Stuart, painted in 1641; a Portrait of a Man; and one of Johannes Baptist Franck, a young man of twenty-eight, with light hair, pointed beard, and moustache, and wearing a black cloak draped in graceful folds. This was once in Lucien Bonaparte's collection.
Portraits by T. de Keijser.—A few examples of Theodor de Keijser, though of small dimensions, rank among the best specimens of this painter.
Change of Fashion in Portrait-painting exemplified by Maes.—Maes, more familiar by his genre, has no less than eight portraits here, besides a large corporation picture representing the Chiefs of the Corporation of Surgeons of Amsterdam, 1680-81. The great difference in style and quality between the early and late portraits of this master has led many to believe that they are the work of more than one master. The change is attributed to his visit to Antwerp; but it has been pointed out that the fashion was changing everywhere, including Amsterdam, where even Rembrandt during the closing years of his life was despised and neglected by the fashionable public. Maes, on the other hand, made concessions to the vulgar taste; and, for a quarter of a century, produced an enormous quantity of secondary or mediocre portraits, in which all trace of his master's qualities was lost.
Artists' Portraits of Themselves.—Though not so great in the line of painters' portraits of themselves as the Uffizi, the Rijks possesses a good number of men who thought they saw themselves as others saw them, or at any rate, as they wished posterity to know them. Among these are Jan Steen, Gerrit Dou, Ferdinand Bol, Honthorst, Ter Borch, and L. Bakhuysen.
A fine portrait by Bol of the famous sculptor Artus Quellin; a Male Portrait by Dou; one of Amalia v. Solms by Flinck; and the Portrait of an Architect with his Wife and Child, by Bernhart Fabritius, deserve notice.