JAN MIJTENS (The Hague c.1614 – 1670 The Hague)
Jan Mijtens (The Hague c.1614 – 1670 The Hague)
Portrait of a Lady in Blue
Oil on canvas, 112.5 x 90.5 cm (44.3 x 35.6 inch)1
Signed and dated upper right: ‘A:o 1662 / JANMijtens F:’ (JANM in ligature)
Provenance
~ Anonymous auction, Christie’s, London, 15 December 1922, lot 68
~ The G.A. Ward collection
~ Anonymous auction, Brussels, 8 May 1929, lot 91
~ Collection of E. Brandus, Paris
~ Anonymous auction, Christie’s, London, 23 March 1973, lot 29
~ Private collection, Belgium, until 2025
Literature
Alexandra Nina Bauer, Jan Mijtens (1613/14-1670). Leben und Werk, Petersberg 2006, p. 186, no. A 41, illus. p. 374
***
Jan Mijtens was one of the leading portrait painters in The Hague in the seventeenth century, closely associated with the Princes of Orange and their court.2 He was born into a large family of painters, which included his uncle Daniël Mijtens the Elder, whose daughter Anna he married in 1642. Jan was probably taught by his uncles Isaac and Daniël Mijtens before being accepted as an independent master by the guild of Saint Luke in The Hague in 1639. He was also a founding member of the artists’ society Confrerie Pictura in 1656. Alongside genre and history paintings, Mijtens is most well known for his individual and group portraits. His patrons included the family of the Stadtholder, the Prince of Orange, and aristocracy in The Hague, as well as foreign rulers such as Elector Friedrich Wilhelm von Brandenburg, for whom Mijtens painted a large family portrait for Oranienburg palace.3
The present work shows an unknown young lady, presumably from the courtly circle at The Hague. She is shown dressed in a vividly coloured, shimmering blue silk gown and opulent pearl jewellery, gazing out confidently towards the viewer. She rests her left arm upon a rocky outcrop whilst her right hand clasps a pink flower in a graceful gesture. This gift for capturing elegance, combined with his technical prowess as a painter, made Jan Mijtens one of the most popular portrait artists of his era. The posture of our unidentified lady is highly comparable to that seen in a portrait of Louisa Henrietta of Oranje-Nassau (1627–1667) of the same period, which is only known from a studio version, which is also in Schloss Oranienburg.4
Our painting can for instance be compared to Mijtens’s portrait of Maria, Princess of Orange, Paltzgräfin of Simmern (1642–1688), which is part of the Dutch Royal Collection (fig.).5 Other portraits by Mijtens are preserved in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, the Palace Het Loo, Apeldoorn, the Fries Museum, Leeuwarden, the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, the Mauritshuis, The Hague, and many other notable collections.
1. The stretcher dry-stamped ‘F. Leedham / Liner’ (verso); his career has been described in an online database of the National Portrait Gallery, London: https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/research/programmes/directory-of-british-picture-restorers/restorers-l. Francis Leedham (1794-1870) was the leading picture liner of his day. His business may have been founded in 1827 and worked from several addresses in Soho and London. Leedham worked for the National Gallery during the 1850s. In December 1856, he was paid £45 for lining three pictures, including Andrea Mantegna’s Virgin and Child with Saints and Federico Barocci’s Madonna del Gatto, and for other work (National Gallery archive, NG13/1/3, Cash Book 1855-66). In February 1857, the Gallery’s Trustees resolved that Leedham should have Turner’s paintings to line, one at a time, work which would be better done on his own premises, and by September he had lined fifteen of them at a cost of £124.14s.
2. For the artist, see Alexandra Nina Bauer, Jan Mijtens (1613/14-1670). Leben und Werk, Petersberg 2006
3. Oil on canvas, 336.8 x 275.3 cm, Schlossmuseum Oranienburg, inv. no. GK-1019; A.N. Bauer, ‘Fato dignus meliori. Anmerkungen zum Leben des Markgrafen Ludwig von Brandenburg (1666-1687), jüngster Sohn der Louise Henriette van Oranje-Nassau (1627-1667)’, Liber americorum Marieke Spliethoff (Jaarboek Oranje-Nassau) 2015, pp. 36-59, esp. p. 36, fig. 1 (colour).
4. Oil on canvas, Stiftung Preussische Schlösser und Gärten Berlin-Brandenburg.
5. Oil on canvas, 113 x 98.3 cm, Geschiedkundige Vereniging Oranje-Nassau, inv. no. A1409.
