Portrait of a Nobleman, possibly Adriaan van der Borcht

Portrait of a Nobleman, possibly Adriaan van der Borcht

Portret van een edelman, mogelijk Nicolaes van der Borght

SK-A-101

coat of arms, upper left, on the draped hanging: D’argent au chevron d’azur, chargé de trois mâcles d’or

Anthony van Dyck (1599 - 1641). Portrait of Nicolaes van der Borcht, merchant of Antwerp, c. 1634/1635. The coat of arms on the red curtain tells us that this gentleman was a member of the Antwerp merchant family of Van der Borcht, probably Nicolaes, who died in 1658. Nicolaes is pointing to a sea battle to his left. It is a fight between Spanish and Southern-Netherlandish privateers. The city in the background is Dunkirk, which in the seventeenth century was a notorious pirates' nest. His proud gesture suggests that Van der Borcht was himself involved in the lucrative business of pirateering. Anthony van Dyck had an atelier which relieved him of a great deal of work, a fact to which this portrait testifies. Van Dyck painted Van der Borcht's head and hands himself, but left the rest of the work to his associates. Here the vague outlines of two extra feet are just visible beneath the topmost layer of paint, indicating that in an earlier state the legs of the subject were further apart. Acquired through exchange with the Mauritshuis, The Hague, 1825.

painter: Anthony van Dyck

1634 - c. 1635

olieverf op doek

• height 201 cm x width 138 cm
• depth 8 cm

trade 1825

Public domain

…; ? collection Edouard Peeters (1612-78), Antwerp;{The museum portrait is not referred to in the inventory of his house De Sickel; F. Donnet, `Un vol de tableaux de Rubens en l´an II de la République: Les collections artistiques de la famille Peeters´, _Annales de L´Académie royale d´Archéologie de Belgique_ 71 (1923), pp. 29-144, pp. 59-69.} his eldest son, chevalier Michiel Peeters (1651-1729), (no. 40 of his estate inventory: `portret d´heer van der borght van dijck fl. 800´) and by division to Maria Theresia Barones van Nevelstein, née Peeters, 17 August 1729;{The inventory by J.P. van Bredael and J. van Halle has not been traced, but the record of the division of the collection supervised by the notary Pieter Jansz Ocker is preserved in Antwerp, the FelixArchief, no. 2755, fol. 266, kindly communicated by Bert Schepers, January 2019. The collection was divided by lot by his widow, daughter and daughter-in-law, 17 August 1729; the account in F. Donnet, `Un vol de tableaux de Rubens en l´an II de la République: Les collections artistiques de la famille Peeters´, _Annales de L´Académie royale d´Archéologie de Belgique_ 71 (1923), pp. 29-144, pp. 82ff is inaccurate. Some information concerning the division was given in an affidavit of 22 October 1825 by Charles-Jean Stier (1770-1840) about Van Dyck´s portraits of Philippe Le Roy and his wife (Wallace Collection; J. Ingamells, _The Wallace Collection Catalogue of Pictures, IV, Dutch and Flemish_, coll. cat. London 1992, nos. P. 79 and P. 94); it stated that they came from `la collection de feu mon père, gendre de feu M. Peeters d´Aertselaer quite tenoit ces tableaux se son grandpère le chevalier Michel Peeters par acte de partage devant le notaire P. Oekers à Anvers en dat du 17 aout 1729', see also E. Hinterding and F. Horsch, ```A Small but Choice Collection´´: The Art Gallery of King William II of the Netherlands (1792-1849)´, _Simiolus_ 19 (1989), pp. 5-122, esp. p. 78, under nos. 71 and 72. That the museum portrait was in Antwerp in 1703 is suggested by Cornelis Vermeulen´s engraving of it of that date, see below. It is possible that the picture was not inherited by Peeters from his father, but came to him though his wife Marie Josephe van Eelen (?-1700), as she was from Dunkirk. Henri-Joseph Stier wrote in a letter of 25 September 1817 that the collection had belonged to the Peeters family since 1680; M.L. Callcott (ed.), _The Mistress of Riversdale: The Plantation Letters of Rosalie Stier Calvert 1795-1821_, Baltimore 1991, pp. 324-25, note 2. Letzter records that the collection was begun by Edouard Peeters (1612-1678), see J. Letzter, `The Political Exile of the Stiers: A Belgian Family Weighs the cost of American Democracy 1795-1844´, _Atlantic Studies_ 5 (2008), pp. 51-73, esp. p. 66, note 2.} collection Baron d´Everstijn, Antwerp, 1763;{G.P. Mensaert, _Le Peintre Amateur et Curieux, ou Description Général des Tableaux des plus habiles Maîtres, qui font l´ornement des Églises, Couvents, Abbayes, Prieurés & Cabinets particuliers dans l´étendre des Pays-Bas Austrichiens_, 2 vols., Brussels 1763, I, pp. 263-64; this information may have been out of date, as in 1758 the douairière of Baron de Nevelstein married Frans Philibert Baron van Spangen; J.B. Descamps, _Voyages pittoresque de la Flandre et du Brabant, avec des reflexions relativement aux arts & quelques gravures_, Rouen 1769, p. 215, listed Baron van Spanne, place de Meir, Antwerp, as an owner of paintings by Rubens.} collection Jean-Egide [Emmanuel] Peeters (1725-86), Lord of Cleydael and Aertselaer, the son of Michiel Peeters´s second son, Michiel (1651-1729), who acquired the title Lord of Cleydael and Aertselaer from his father-in-law in 1747, by 1771;{J.F.M. Michel, _Histoire de la vie de PP Rubens,_ Brussels 1771, p. 360.} in whose collection seen by Sir Joshua Reynolds in 1781 (`Three whole-lengths by Vandyck […] 2 men one of them with the [?] stairs and shipping´);{Sir Joshua Reynolds, _A Journey to Flanders and Holland_, 1797, ed. H. Mount, Cambridge 1996, p. 79, note i, p. 164, notes 330, 325. The meaning of his question mark above the horizontal line in parentheses is not clear; but it could indicate Reynolds´s questioning of the alignment of the top step and banister.} his widow Mathilde van den Cruyce Peeters, Antwerp (1727-96);{M.L. Callcott (ed.), _The Mistress of Riversdale: The Plantation Letters of Rosalie Stier Calvert 1795-1821_, Baltimore 1991, pp. 324-25, note 2.} her son-in-law Henri Joseph Stier, Baron d´Aertselaer (1743-1821), husband of her daughter, Marie Louise Peeters (1748-1804); shipped with his collection to the United States, 1794, where exhibited at Bladensbury, Maryland, in April 1816 before being returned to Antwerp in June 1816;{The painting was shipped with the rest of the collection, to avoid confiscation, to Philadelphia via Amsterdam, June 1794; in store in Philadelphia, in and near Annapolis; Riversdale, Bladensburg, Maryland, from 1800-16 (on public view there for a week, April 1816); despatched with the rest of the collection to Antwerp. M.L. Callcott (ed.), _The Mistress of Riversdale: The Plantation Letters of Rosalie Stier Calvert 1795-1821_, Baltimore 1991, p. 1, pp. 296-98, note 2; J. Letzter, `The Political Exile of the Stiers: A Belgian Family Weighs the cost of American Democracy 1795-1844´, _Atlantic Studies_ 5 (2008), pp. 51-73, esp. pp. 52-54.} sale, Jean-Egide Peeters d´Aertselaer de Cleydael (1725-86, Antwerp), sold on the premises of the deceased´s son in law, Henri-Jospeh Stier, Antwerp (P. van Regenmortel and Sneyers), 27 August 1817, no. 4 (`Ant. Vandyck Haut 6[7?], 1, large 4, 10 [174.7 [203.4?] x 140.7 cm] T. Portrait de François Vander Borght, aussi en pied et debout. Il est vêtu de noir avec un manteau espagnol. L´auteur l´a placé dans un riche vestibule donnant sur un port de mer rempli de navires, qu´on voit à gauche, et sur lequel, en l´indiquant, il semble appeller l´attention du spectateur. […] Gravé par Vermeulen.´), bought in at fl. 2,020, [in fact bought by H.-J. Stier];{Copy RKD. M.L. Callcott (ed.), _The Mistress of Riversdale: The Plantation Letters of Rosalie Stier Calvert 1795-1821_, Baltimore 1991, p. 333, note 4.} his [Stier] sale, sold on the deceased´s premises, Antwerp (C.J. Bincken), 29 July 1822, no. 5 (`Ant.van Dyck h. 73 p. 4 l. L. 50 p. [pouces et lignes de France, 198 x 135 cm] T. Portrait en pied de François van der Borcht. Il est représenté dans une attitude noble et imposante, vêtu en noir avec un manteau espagnole. Le Peintre l´a placé dans un riche vestibule d´où l´on découvre un port de mer, sur lequel il semble appeller l´attention du spectateur´), fl. 1,000, to Jeronimo de Vries{Copy RKD1.} for Willem I, King of the Netherlands;{Copy RKD2.} Mauritshuis, The Hague, 1822; transferred to the museum, with SK-A-345 and SK-A-316, in an exchange valued at fl. 1,000, 1825{NHA, ARS, IS, inv. 12, no. 96 (20 January 1825); NHA, ARS, Kop, inv. 36, pp. 164-66 (8 February 1825); NHA, ARS, Kop, inv. 36, pp. 171-72 (27 April 1825); NHA, ARS, IS, inv. 12, no. 113 (8 June 1825); NHA, ARS, IS, inv. 12, no. 114 (10 June 1825).}

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https://id.rijksmuseum.nl/20027043