Portrait of Johan van Beaumont (1609-95), Jan Mijtens, 1661 – (Johannes Mytens) ◄ Previous Next ►

Artist: Johannes Mytens

Date: 1661

Size: 110 x 90 cm

Technique: Oil On Canvas

When this portrait and its pendant of a woman (SK-A-747; also fig. a) first came up for auction in 1872 the identity of the couple was unknown. After the pictures entered the Rijksmuseum in 1882 Obreen was able to identify the male sitter as Johan van Beaumont from the coat of arms present on the frame at the time,6 which was evidently replaced at a later date. He was the son of Simon Herbertsz van Beaumont and Arnoudina van Rosenburg, his father being a famous lawyer and poet who was appointed Pensionary of Middelburg in 1606, and that is probably also the city where Johan was born in 1609.7 He was a first cousin of Arnoudina van Beaumont, the second wife of Govert van Slingelandt, who had his former family painted by Jan Mijtens in 1657.8 Johan van Beaumont chose a military career, and one of his postings was as colonel of a guards regiment in the service of the province of Holland.9 In 1637 he married the seven years younger Maria de Witte in The Hague, who was the daughter of François de Witte, Deputy Clerk of the Law Court of Holland.10 She bore him 12 children, 5 boys and 7 girls, 4 of whom would die at an early age. In 1660 Van Beaumont bought a house, one of the biggest, on the south side of Westeinde in The Hague, the street where Mijtens lived. He was a very wealthy man whose taxable income was assessed at 125,000 guilders in 1674.11 He died in Breda on 9 August 1695 and was buried there. His wife had already preceded him in The Hague in 1670. Van Beaumont dons his armour and on the table beside him is his plumed helmet. The sword at his left side and the commander’s baton in his right hand proclaim his military status. Behind him is a large body of water with a church and its massive tower in the distance. This is probably a view across the Brielse Maas towards the fortified town of Brielle with its distinctive Sint-Catharijnekerk, of which Van Beaumont was the commandant.12 Although balustrades had been a popular motif in Dutch portraits since the 1630s, and were still often found in the 1660s,13 this is the only time that Mijtens employed the device. His decision to use it would have been due to the need to depict a broad stretch of water. The balustrade does not continue over into the pendant of Maria de Witte, who is shown with a French landscape garden in the left background. The two paintings were sold in 1872 at the auction of Ilpenstein Castle near Ilpendam, just north of Amsterdam. The property had passed down by descent in the De Graeff family since the 1630s, but no connection with the Van Beaumonts has been discovered. The portraits probably came to the estate through a purchase in the nineteenth century. Richard Harmanni, 2023 See Key to abbreviations, Rijksmuseum painting catalogues and Acknowledgements