Portrait of a Goldsmith, Probably Bartholomeus Jansz van Assendelft

• Portrait of a man with ring and touchstone, probably Bartholomeus Jansz van Assendelft (1585-1658)
• Portrait of a Goldsmith, Probably Bartholomeus Jansz van Assendelft

Portret van een man met een ring en toetssteen

SK-A-3920

• label, on the reverse: ‘[...] de Van Wely peint après sa mort. La bibliographie de Van Mander [...] que Jan van Wely était un [...] a été assassiné le 1 Mai 1616 à la Haye au Binnenhof.’
• signature and date, bottom centre: ‘W.v. Valckert / fe. 1617’

The man leans out of a window. In his right hand he holds up a gold ring set with a stone. His left hand rests on a touchstone, an instrument for assessing the purity of gold and silver objects. The sitter might be the goldsmith Bartholomeus Jansz van Assendelft. In 1617, the year the portrait was painted, he was appointed assay-master of the Leiden goldsmiths’ guild, which would explain the inclusion of the touchstone.

painter: Werner van den Valckert (signed by artist)

1617

olieverf op paneel

height 66 cm x width 49.5 cm

purchase 1957-02

Public domain

? Commissioned by Bartholomeus Jansz van Assendelft (1585-1658), Leiden; ? his son, Jan van Assendelft (1620-68), Leiden; ? his son, Barthout Jansz van Assendelft (1659-1722), Leiden; ? or his son, Adriaan van Assendelft (1626-97), Leiden; ? his son, Jan Adriaansz van Assendelft (1659-1728), Leiden; ? his son, Adriaan van Assendelft (1691-1752), Leiden; ? his son, Barthout Adriaansz van Assendelft (1733-84), Leiden; ? the daughter of his half-sister, Maria Anna Pompe van Slingelandt (1746-1805), the wife of Hugo de Wildt, Leiden; ? by descent to Frans de Wildt (1805-69), Leiden; ? Agnes W. de Wildt (1835-1905), Leiden; her daughter, Jonkvrouw Isabella F. Mollerus (1863-1920), Leiden, wife of Baron Dirk van Asbeck; his sale, Amsterdam (F. Muller), 30 November 1920, no. 1015, to Antoon van Welie (1866-1956), The Hague; from his estate, fl. 7,500, to the museum, 1957{Provenance reconstructed in Ekkart 1999, pp. 20-25.}

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.

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

https://id.rijksmuseum.nl/200108024