Mattheus Verheyden (Breda 1700 – 1777 The Hague)

Portrait of a Lady in a Stone Cartouche

Oil on canvas, 52.5 x 44.5 cm (20.7 x 17.5 inch)

Signed ‘M. Verheÿden; Fe’ (lower left)

Provenance
Private collection, Belgium

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Mattheus Verheyden was born in Breda in the year 1700 as the son of the painter Frank Pietersz Verheyden (c.1655–1711) and Maria Puts.¹ According to the artist’s biographer Johan van Gool, writing in his Nieuwe Schouburg of 1750, Verheyden was placed under custodianship of the city of Breda upon the death of his father. His custodians sent him to The Hague to study the art of painting with Hendrik Carré II.² According to Van Gool, Verheyden also studied and copied works by Carel de Moor, Augustinus Terwesten and Constantijn Netscher. By the age of fifteen he had become so accomplished as a painter that he started painting portraits, and dated works are known from 1717. Verheyden’s artistic training was completed with a period in the studio of Carel de Moor, whose elegant portraits he studied closely.

Verheyden painted a number of decorative paintings, for ceilings, chimneys and overdoors, according to the fashion of the period, including supraporte paintings for the Stadhuis aan de Groenmarkt in The Hague, for which he supplied allegories of Architecture and the Arts in 1737.³ However, the artist is best known for his elegant portraits, and received commissions from the most notable families, including Van Wassenaer van Duvenvoorde, Van Schuylenburch, Van Slingelandt and Pauw.

This recently discovered portrait depicts an as yet unknown lady, presumably of high birth, judging from her costume and sophisticated appearance. The placement of the portrait in an oval stone cartouche is unusual for oil paintings by Verheyden, or indeed for other painters of the period. The motif does however occur in a series of wash drawings by the artist of members of the Van Slingelandt family, such as the portrait of Elisabeth van Bleiswijck (1663–1728) of c.1733-35, wife of Barthout van Slingelandt (1654–1711) (fig.).⁴

1. For the artist, see: Reinier Baarsen, Dirk Jan Biemand, Robert-Jan te Rijdt, Frits Scholten, Nederlandse kunst in het Rijksmmuseum 1700-1800, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 2006, pp. 235-236.
2. Johan van Gool, Nieuwe Schouburg der Nederlantsche Kunstschilders en Schilderessen, The Hague 1750, vol. II, pp. 278-297.
3. J.C. van Herpel, Het oude Raadhuis van 's-Gravenhage, The Hague 1975-1979, vol. I, p. 406, fig.267.
4. Pen and grey ink, grey wash, heightened with red, 240 x 152 mm; Hoge Raad van Adel, The Hague, Van Slingelandt Archive, inv. no. 143A; J.C. Kort, Het archief van de familie Van Slingelandt, The Hague 2004, p. 11.