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拍品专文
This portrait, which has descended from the sitter in the Roëll and de Geer families and is appearing on the market for the first time, belongs to the early period of Bartholomeus van der Helst’s career, one in which very few paintings remain in private hands. Around the time van der Helst painted this portrait, he was establishing himself as the most important and fashionable portraitist in Amsterdam, favoured by sitters from many of the city’s wealthiest and most politically connected families. Indeed, only one year earlier did the artist receive a series of important commissions from several members of the Bicker family, while in 1645 he was called to paint the portraits of the extraordinarily wealthy merchant Joan Coymans and his wife Sophia Trip.
Born in Haarlem, van der Helst most likely trained in the Amsterdam studio of Nicolaes Eliasz. Pickenoy (1588-1653⁄6), the city’s leading portraitist before Rembrandt’s arrival in 1631. Van der Helst’s earliest works, like the 1637 group portrait of The Regents of the Walenweeshuis (Amsterdam, Stichting Hospice Wallon) and the monumental depiction of the Amsterdam Kloveniersdoelen (Musketeers’ Hall): The Civic Guard Company of Capt. Roelof Bicker and Lt. Jan Michielsz. Blaeuw (Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum) painted circa 1643, already display the painter’s prodigious talents. The sophistication and grace of his portraits catered perfectly to the tastes of patrons living in Amsterdam at a moment when Rembrandt, the preeminent portraitist for the city’s elite during the 1630s, was turning progressively toward more incisive and introspective subjects, using an increasingly free technique somewhat at odds with the smooth modelling and clarity demanded by Amsterdam’s wealthy consumers.
Comparatively little is known about the painting’s sitter, David Rijckaert. He was born in Amsterdam in 1614 to Andries Rijckaert (1569-1639) and his second wife Susanna Merchijs (1581-1633), who feature in a pair of anonymous portraits dated 1628 (figs. 1 and 2; being offered at Christie’s, London, 2 July 2025). Andries’s elder brother, Johannes (1609-1679), would subsequently sit for a portrait by Cornelis Jonson van Ceulen in 1649 (see the following lot). His sister, Maria, married Daniel Bernard (1594-1681), whose first marriage produced a son of the same name who coincidentally sat for a late portrait by van der Helst in 1669 (Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen). At the time of his death, Rijckaert, who remained a lifelong bachelor, was living on the Leidsegracht.
Van der Helst portrayed his sitter with characteristic elegance and refinement, amply displayed by his sophisticated and technically superb depiction of fabrics, particularly the subtle modulation of seemingly innumerable shades of black. The sitter is staged against a neutral background and occupies the entirety of the pictorial space, lending the painting an almost monumental quality. His beautifully foreshortened projecting left hand testifies to the artist’s consummate abilities. Van der Helst would deploy this device in similar fashion in at least one other portrait, the Portrait of a man, identified as Wijnand van Diest of 1644, a painting that likewise descended in the family of the sitter until its sale in these Rooms on 7 December 2018.
Born in Haarlem, van der Helst most likely trained in the Amsterdam studio of Nicolaes Eliasz. Pickenoy (1588-1653⁄6), the city’s leading portraitist before Rembrandt’s arrival in 1631. Van der Helst’s earliest works, like the 1637 group portrait of The Regents of the Walenweeshuis (Amsterdam, Stichting Hospice Wallon) and the monumental depiction of the Amsterdam Kloveniersdoelen (Musketeers’ Hall): The Civic Guard Company of Capt. Roelof Bicker and Lt. Jan Michielsz. Blaeuw (Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum) painted circa 1643, already display the painter’s prodigious talents. The sophistication and grace of his portraits catered perfectly to the tastes of patrons living in Amsterdam at a moment when Rembrandt, the preeminent portraitist for the city’s elite during the 1630s, was turning progressively toward more incisive and introspective subjects, using an increasingly free technique somewhat at odds with the smooth modelling and clarity demanded by Amsterdam’s wealthy consumers.
Comparatively little is known about the painting’s sitter, David Rijckaert. He was born in Amsterdam in 1614 to Andries Rijckaert (1569-1639) and his second wife Susanna Merchijs (1581-1633), who feature in a pair of anonymous portraits dated 1628 (figs. 1 and 2; being offered at Christie’s, London, 2 July 2025). Andries’s elder brother, Johannes (1609-1679), would subsequently sit for a portrait by Cornelis Jonson van Ceulen in 1649 (see the following lot). His sister, Maria, married Daniel Bernard (1594-1681), whose first marriage produced a son of the same name who coincidentally sat for a late portrait by van der Helst in 1669 (Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen). At the time of his death, Rijckaert, who remained a lifelong bachelor, was living on the Leidsegracht.
Van der Helst portrayed his sitter with characteristic elegance and refinement, amply displayed by his sophisticated and technically superb depiction of fabrics, particularly the subtle modulation of seemingly innumerable shades of black. The sitter is staged against a neutral background and occupies the entirety of the pictorial space, lending the painting an almost monumental quality. His beautifully foreshortened projecting left hand testifies to the artist’s consummate abilities. Van der Helst would deploy this device in similar fashion in at least one other portrait, the Portrait of a man, identified as Wijnand van Diest of 1644, a painting that likewise descended in the family of the sitter until its sale in these Rooms on 7 December 2018.