Portrait of Jan Maximiliaan van Tuyll van Serooskeren, half- length, in a blue coat with gold-embroidered facings; and Portrait of his wife Johanna Elisabeth, née de Geer, half-length, in a blue cape trimmed with ermine

Jean-Etienne Liotard executed this pair of pastels while he was living in The Hague in 1755-56. He moved there, having been in London, to join his nephews who were residing in Delft. Liotard stayed in Holland at least till 13 August 1756, when he married Marie Fargues, the daughter of a French protestant merchant living in Amsterdam. On that occasion he removed the long beard he had been growing since his trip in Turkey. During his stay in Holland, he drew a large number of pastel portraits of Dutch sitters, R. Loche and M. Röthlisberger, op. cit., nos. 191-204.
The present pastels were executed in Amsterdam and depict Jan van Tuyll van Serooskeren (1-1762), Adjutant and Commander of Horse to the Prince of Orange, and his wife Johanna Elisabeth van Geer whom he married in 1753. Liotard was probably recommended to the van Tuylls van Serooskeren by Willem Bentinck (1704-1770), of whom Liotard drew a portrait in England the year before (sold in these Rooms, 13 December 2000, lot 70). Bentinck was of Dutch descent and owned large estates in Holland. In 1760 and 1763 his two sons married the two van Tuyll daughters.
A copy in pastel of the first portrait is in the collection of the van Tuyll van Serooskeren family at Zuylen, while another copy in oil is in the possession of the family at Heeze Castle. Further later copies are known.