Portrait of Dirck Hasselaer (1581-1645), Cornelis van der Voort, 1614 – (Cornelis Van Der Voort) Previous Next


Artist:

Date: 1614

Size: 115 x 83 cm

Technique: Oil On Panel

These two portraits of 1614 entered the museum as part of the important Van de Poll Bequest. Labels on the backs of the panels identify the sitters as Dirck Hasselaer (shown here) and and his wife Brechtje van Schoterbosch (SK-A-1243).3 Hasselaer was an Amsterdam merchant and a director of the Dutch East India Company from 1617 to 1641. He married Brechtje van Schoterbosch on 27 May 1612.4 These portraits were painted two years later. The couple are shown standing three-quarter length against a bare wall. Hasselaer is holding a hat and gloves, while his wife holds the end of the gold chain around her waist in her right hand.5 The artist took great care over her decorated red stomacher and purple skirt with its touches of pinkish red. The skirt has unfortunately become discoloured, but something of the original bright colour is still preserved under the frame. The paintings were attributed to Cornelis van der Voort during their descent through the family. He was very famous for his portraits in his day, and these two fit within his known oeuvre as regards style, composition and the sitters’ poses. One notable feature, though, is that Hasselaer’s portrait was painted far more briskly than that of his wife. There is no such stylistic difference in the very closely related pendants of Dirck Corver (SK-A-4764) and Maria van Schoterbosch (SK-A-4765) of 1622. This issue might be resolved by further research on Van der Voort’s early work.6 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. 319.

Artist

Download

Click here to download