Portrait of Philips Zweerts (1704-1774), small half-length

This hitherto unpublished picture is an addition to the oeuvre of Cornelis Troost. The sitter, who had a small notary's office in Amsterdam, lived in that city in a house called 'het Singel'. For the most part, however, he occupied himself in writing plays and poetry, much of which reveals an interest in the arts, for example his tribute to Quinkhard's work on the Panpoëticum Batavum; in 1755 Zweerts published the poetry left posthumously by Professor Hubertus Gregorius van Vrijhoff (1704-1754). There is another, larger portrait of Zweerts by Troost, signed and dated 1740 (formerly Stoecker collection, Amsterdam, 1949). In that picture he is depicted standing three-quarter-length, his right hand resting on his hip, by a table on which an ink-case is lying (see J.W. Niemeijer, Cornelis Troost 1696-1750, 1973, p. 195, no. 133 S)