17th C Old Master Painting By Jan Jansz Westerbaen (the Hague Circa 1600/02-1686) Portrait

Jan Jansz Westerbaen (The Hague c. 1600/02 – The Hague 1686)

Portrait of a Gentleman, half-length, wearing black and a white ruff

Oil on canvas, 72.5 x 62.5 cm; framed 93 x 80 cm

Framed in a 17th century carved and gilded frame

Provenance
- Christie’s, London, 9 March 2000 (British and Victorian Pictures), lot 11, sold £3,680 (with colour ill., as ‘circle of Simon Luttichuys. Portrait of a gentleman, traditionally identified as John Bacon, quarter-length, in a black cloak with lawn collar’
- Sotheby’s London, 5 July 2005, lot 442, with colour ill.
- Private collection, The Netherlands

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Jan Westerbaen was the son of the rope-maker Jan Jacobs Westerbaen, younger brother of the author Jacob Westerbaen; their sister Anneke married the painter Salomon de Bray in 1625.1 The artist was mentioned as an apprentice of Evert van der Maes in guild records in 1619, and joined the painters’ guild in his own right in 1624, serving as its warden for several years. He was a co-founder of the painters’ association Confrérie Pictura in 1656. Westerbaen married the widow Maria Bartelmeesdr Suijster in 1630; their son Jan Jansz Westerbaen II also became a painter, and was taught by his father.

Westerbaen spent his whole working life in The Hague and his elegant portraits were much influenced by the works of Gerard van Honthorst (1592–1656). Honthorst’s portraits in the Flemish manner were highly favoured and he was patronised by members of the Stadtholderly family, the ‘Winter’ King and Queen of Bohemia, and members of their entourage. Westerbaen seems to have received commissions from the middle ranks of The Hague’s elite.

Good condition for the age, relined probably late 20th century. The painting is a little too small for the 17th century carved and giltwood frame, resolved with a piece of wood underneath the painting.


1. For the artist, see Edwin Buijsen and Charles Dumas (eds.), Haagse schilders in de Gouden Eeuw: het Hoogsteder lexicon van alle schilders werkzaam in Den Haag 1600-1700, The Hague 1998, pp. 264-267 and A. van der Marel, ‘Westerbaen. Een Zuid-Hollands geslacht van lijndraaiers, dichters, kunstschilders en theologen’, De Nederlandsche Leeuw 79 (1962), cols. 74-93, 106-119 and 148-167.