The present lot is the earliest signed and dated work by the artist. His identity was discovered by Marlier who established that the signature of four A's was in part a play on letters (A, followed by three a's = drie = Adrie(n), see G. Marlier, Un Portraitiste Frison du XVI Siècle etc., Oud Holland, 51, 1934.
To Wassenbergh, see above, we owe an outline of Cronenburgh's biography and chronology of his oeuvre, based on the present lot and the other four signed portraits.
He suggests that Cronenburgh must have followed his uncle Jacob from his native village, Schagen, north of Amsterdam, to Friesland; and that through his uncle, who married into the Frisian nobility, he came into contact with the Cammingha family. Cronenburg probably also painted the portraits of Watze and Rienk van Cammingha (now both in the Fries Museum, Leeuwarden), which Wassenbergh attributed to Cronenburg on the basis of the present lot (op.cit., nos.12 and 14)
Gerrolt, the son of Minne van Cammingha and Luts Gerrolts van Herema was the last member of the family to inherit the Camminghaburg, near Leeuwarden, for which the portraits were probably intended. It no longer exists today, but is seen in the background of Rienk's portrait
See colour illustration

Copyright Fries Museum, Leeuwarden