Portrait of Constantijn Huygens

• Constantijn Huygens (1596-1687), Lord of Zuylichem. Secretary of the Stadtholder, Prince Frederik Hendrik, and Poet
• Portrait of Constantijn Huygens

SK-C-1467

Constantijn Huygens was secretary to Stadtholder Frederick Henry and a notable connoisseur. In his autobiography, he described how this painting was executed. Lievens painted the portrait in two stages, first the clothing and the hands, and then the face. This explains why the scale is a bit off: the head is too small in relation to the body.

E. de Jongh, Constantijn Huygens met bezorgd gelaat, in: Kunstschrift 3 (2009), p. 7, afb. 7

painter: Jan Lievens

c. 1628 - c. 1629

olieverf op paneel

height 99 cm x width 84 cm

On loan from the Musée de la Chartreuse

Public domain

...; purchased from Galerie Favart, Paris by Dr Enée Aimé Escallier (1794-1857), Douai, c. 1836;{Foucart in Paris 1970, p. 130.} by whom bequeathed to the Musée de la Chartreuse, Douai, as Bartholomeus van der Helst, 1857;{Coll. cat. Douai 1869, pp. 83-84, no. 182.} on loan from the Musée de la Chartreuse, Douai, to the museum since 1962

Please note that this provenance was formulated with a special focus on provenance research for the years 1933-45 and could therefore be incomplete. There may be more (mostly earlier) provenance information known in the museum. In case this item has an uncertain or incomplete provenance for the years 1933-45, the Rijksmuseum welcomes information and assistance in the investigation and clarification of the provenance of all works during that era.

• E. de Jongh, Constantijn Huygens met bezorgd gelaat, in: Kunstschrift 3 (2009), p. 7, afb. 7
• A. Jensen Adams, Public Faces and Private Identities in Seventeenth-Century Holland, Portraiture and the Production of Community, New York 2009, p. 64, afb. 12

To refer to this object, please use the following persistent URL:

https://id.rijksmuseum.nl/200109434