Portrait of Caecilia van Beresteyn (1589-1661), Michiel Jansz van Mierevelt, 1640 – (Michiel Jansz Van Mierevelt) ◄ Previous Next ►

Artist: Michiel Jansz Van Mierevelt

Date: 1640

Size: 71 x 60 cm

Technique: Oil On Panel

Caecilia van Beresteyn was born in Delft on 8 February 1589, the daughter of Paulus Cornelisz van Beresteyn and Volckera Claesdr Knobbert. In 1614, she married the widower Cornelis Cornelisz Briell, who served numerous civic functions in Delft, including that of burgomaster. Briell died in 1625, and Caecilia married Pieter de Witte (1588-1653), a member of a well-established Zierikzee regent family, two years later. The couple lived in Zierikzee, where Pieter de Witte was burgomaster, among other things.3 Mention of the identity of the sitter in the present portrait as Caecilia van Beresteyn can be traced back only to the early 19th century, when a ground plan was made of the library in Kasteel Popkensburg where the portrait hung.4 The number 26 painted on the reverse of the painting corresponds to this ground plan, and the inscription with the sitter’s biographical information that accompanies it probably dates to this period.5 The owners of Kasteel Popkensburg, the De Witte van Citters family, were descendants of Caecilia van Beresteyn, and the sitter’s age of 51 recorded on the painting does correspond to Caecilia’s in 1640. Although 25 years older, the sitter does resemble the one in the 1615 Portrait of Caecilia van Beresteyn by Van Mierevelt, that has as its pendant a portrait of her first husband, Cornelis Cornelisz Briell.6 Unfortunately, the 19 April 1660 inventory of Caecilia van Beresteyn’s estate does not list any paintings.7 Van Mierevelt also portrayed Caecilia van Beresteyn’s parents (SK-A-908 and SK-A-909) and, in 1635, her sister, Margaretha (1583-1639).8 The family resemblance between the present portrait and that of Margaretha van Beresteyn is astonishing. The composition of these two portraits is identical, the sitters being shown seated at half-length and turned in three-quarter profile to the viewer’s right. This orientation is usual for portrait pairs and raises the question whether the present painting had a pendant in the form of a portrait of Caecilia van Beresteyn’s second husband, Pieter de Witte. While no such painting is known today, it can be assumed in any case that the Portrait of Margaretha van Beresteyn did not have a pendant, as she was a widow at the time of its execution. The heavily overpainted face and cap in this portrait make it difficult to judge whether it is an original by Van Mierevelt or a studio copy. An indication that it is, indeed, an original is the fact that no other versions or copies of the present portrait are known. The rendering of the sitter’s dress, moreover, is of high quality. 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. 188.