Dirck Coornhert was an eminent humanist and theologian. Several versions of this composition after a lost painting by Cornelis Cornelisz. van Haarlem exist including one in the Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem. The original painting was copied in a drawing by Jan Muller, now in the Teyler's Stichting in Haarlem, which he later used as a study for his engraving of Coornhert, inscribed 1590, marking the death of this confidant of William of Orange. Other versions are in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge; the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam; the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden; and the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Munich.

Accompanied by a photocertificate from M. J. Friedländer dated Amsterdam 19.II.46, as by Cornelis Cornelisz. van Haarlem