Artist: Wybrand Simonsz. De Geest
Date: 1635
Size: 30 x 24 cm
Technique: Oil On Panel
The Leeuwarden Series: Members of the House of Nassau Hendrik, Count of Nassau, was born on 15 October 1550 in Dillenburg to Willem the Rich and Juliana, Countess of Stolberg-Wernigerode. He was the youngest brother of William the Silent. After studying at Louvain and Strasbourg he enlisted in the army of the French Huguenots at the age of 18 and took part in the Battle of Moncontour. He then accompanied William on his second, abortive campaign of 1572, after which he and his brother Lodewijk began making preparations for raising the Siege of Leiden. He died on 14 April 1574 at the Battle of Mookerheide.41 The portrait is executed in the same style as that of Adolf of Nassau in the Leeuwarden Series (SK-A-522). Both are slick, precise and rather harsh, and red pigment was used conspicuously in the faces, chiefly in the cheeks and noses. This differs from the style of the two autograph and signed portraits by De Geest in the Leeuwarden Series, so the two of Hendrik and Adolf must be regarded as studio works. Both are derived from De Geest’s group portrait of the four brothers of William the Silent of c. 1630 (SK-A-566). That they are copies is suggested not only by the harsh execution but also by the fact that Hendrik’s pose in profile and the twisted posture and sideways gaze of Adolf in the group portrait are repeated here, so that the poses of the sitters differ from the others in the Leeuwarden Series. Since both portraits were added to the series after 1633,42 the likely date of execution is c. 1633-35. Yvette Bruijnen, 2007 See Bibliography and Rijksmuseum painting catalogues See Key to abbreviations and Acknowledgements This entry was published in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, I: Artists Born between 1570 and 1600, coll. cat. Amsterdam 2007, no. 356.
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