Portrait of a Woman, Pieter Dubordieu, 1637 – (Pieter Du Bordieu) ◄ Previous Next ►

Artist: Pieter Du Bordieu

Date: 1637

Size: 71 x 61 cm

Technique: Oil On Panel

For a while this unknown woman was thought to be Janneke or Jeanne de Planque, the wife of the fabulously wealthy camlet manufacturer Pieter de la Court of Leiden,8 on the grounds of the supposed resemblance to a 1635 likeness of her now in the Philadelphia Museum of Art.9 Van Kretschmar rejected that identification in 1965 because he had discovered that it came into the possession of the last owner, Jonkheer Frans Johan Eliza van Lennep, by another route of descent than had previously been thought.10 It had not come down to him by way of his grandfather, Jonkheer Salomon Backer and his De la Court connection, but from his great-great-great-grandfather, Hugo de Wildt. It is mentioned in a list of paintings that the latter’s daughter, Maria Susanna Theodora de Wildt, gave to the City of Leiden for safekeeping on 13 April 1838.11 The consignment also contained several pictures and objects connected with the Siege of Leiden that are now in Museum De Lakenhal.12 However, the portraits in this collection were returned the following year to her nephew and then passed by descent, often through the female line, to the aforementioned Frans van Lennep.13 Given this provenance Van Kretschmar presumed that Pieter Dubordieu’s sitter had to be sought among Leiden families like Ghijs, Le Pla, Van Alphen and Trigland. For a long time, too, it was believed that a man’s portrait by Dubordieu dated 1629, which was auctioned in 1980 as a possible likeness of Pieter de la Court, was the pendant to this one.14 Although its dimensions (75 x 62 cm) do not differ all that much from the present work, it does not seem likely that they form a pair, because the male sitter was painted eight years earlier and also looks much older than the woman. Quite apart from that, he is far higher up the picture surface. Dendrochronology revealed that the Rijksmuseum panel was most probably ready for use in or after 1635, which fits in neatly with the inscribed date of 1637. It is one of Dubordieu’s most successful portraits in its depiction of the face and hands and in the subtle imitation of materials, especially the lace and the belt. Richard Harmanni, 2022 See Key to abbreviations, Rijksmuseum painting catalogues and Acknowledgements