Portrait of Cornelis Tromp (1629-1691), three-quarter-length, in a breastplate, his right hand resting on his coat-of-arms

The son of legendary Dutch Admiral Maarten Harpertsz. Tromp, Cornelis followed in his father's footsteps, becoming an Admiral and a naval hero of the Anglo-Dutch wars. Tromp was a fearless man, seeking out personal battles -of which his feud with the English Admiral Edward Spragge is infamous- rather than followwing the line-of-battle of his superior Michiel Adriaensz. de Ruyter. Tromp's high self-esteem led to numerous portrait commissions to the leading portraitists of his time, including Ferdinand Bol, Sir Peter Lely and Jan Mijtens, which were displayed in his warship-shaped manor house Trompenburgh in 's Graveland.
The present painting is a pendant to the portrait of his wife Margaretha van Raephorst (1625-1690), now in a private collection. Jan de Baen portrayed the couple Tromp-van Raephorst a second time several years later, these portraits are now in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (inv. nos. SK-A-285 and SK-A-284).