Jan Anthonisz. van Ravesteyn

Laurence J. O'Neill (1864–1943), Dublin, by 1924;

By whom sold anonymously, London, Christie's, 26 February 1926, lot 61, for 250 guineas;

Where acquired by Asscher Koetser & Welker, London;

Mrs Helen Rogers Reid (c. 1883–1970), New York;

By whose Estate sold, New York, Parke-Bernet Galleries Inc., 20 May 1971, lot 31, for $2,750;

Where acquired by Helen Arden Pierce, USA;

By whose Estate sold, New York, Sotheby's, 17 January 1992, lot 28, for $170,500;

With Richard Green, London, by 1992;

Anonymous sale, London, Christie's, 9 July 1999, lot 35, for £51,000;

Where acquired by the present owners.

Haarlem, Frans Hals Museum, 7 October – 31 December 2000 and Antwerp, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, 21 January – 22 April 2001, Pride and Joy: Children's Portraits in The Netherlands 1500–1700, no. 26.

'Calendar', in The Burlington Magazine, vol. CXXXV, no. 1083, June 1993, p. 435, no. 79, reproduced;

A.C. Claxton, 'Medals in portraits of children in seventeenth-century Dutch painting', in The Medal, no. 27, Autumn 1995, pp. 17–18, reproduced fig. 10;

J.B. Bedaux and S. Kuus, in Pride and Joy: Children's Portraits in The Netherlands 1500–1700, J.B. Bedaux and R. Ekkart (eds), exh. cat., Haarlem 2000, pp. 147–49, no. 26, reproduced in colour;

S. Kuus, Jan van Ravesteyn: een Haagse portretschilder, exh. cat., Venlo 2016, p. 67, reproduced in colour fig. 53.

Joannes de Ruyter (1627–1678) was the eldest son of David de Ruyter (1580–1663), barrister of the High Court of Holland at the Hague and President of the Council of Brabant, and Lucretia van der Meulen (1591–1672), who came from a well-known merchant family. Joannes enrolled as a law student at Leiden University in 1645 and went on to become the High Sheriff of the region of Oosterwijk.

The cartellino at lower left is inscribed with this portrait's date of execution: 1632. The picture must have impressed Joannes' parents, as they commissioned portraits of themselves and their younger son, Daniel (b. c. 1632), from the artist in 1639. The portrait of Joannes' father is today in the Honolulu Academy of Arts and the portrait of his mother was formerly in the collection of the New York Historical Society.¹ Daniel's likeness sold at Koller, Zürich, for 45,000 CHF in 2023.²

Joannes is depicted in a marble-floored interior which looks out onto a classical courtyard. The young boy's drum and drumsticks sit on a chair on the right, against which leans his hobby-horse. An elegant feathered hat hangs from the back of the chair, which complements Joannes' elaborate costume. He is dressed in a doublet with a basque and a skirt made of red fabric, adorned with a woven floral motif. The vertical slashes along his upper sleeves and across his chest reveal a white silk lining. The doublet is trimmed with gold braid and the seam at his waist is decorated with rosettes. A double gold chain wraps diagonally across Joannes' chest, which may have been used to hold a medal.

Although Ravesteyn has incorporated such details to enliven the portrait, they also serve a symbolic function. The toys are typically male and their ornate quality combines with that of Joannes' clothing to identify him as a child of the Dutch upper classes.³ The green parrot perched on Joannes' finger, which, like him, stares out at the viewer directly, may also be interpreted metaphorically. Parrots were cited in educational literature as exemplary in their love of learning and were likewise used to illustrate pedagogical treatises. One such example is Jacob Cats' Proteus of 1627, which features a printed emblem of a caged parrot alongside the motto ‘dwanc leert sanck’ (‘discipline is the best teacher’).⁴

An early copy after this portrait, with minor variations, was offered for sale in Haarlem in 1966 as the work of Jan Andrea Lievens (1644–1680).⁵ The existence of this copy attests not only to the success of the composition, but also to its subsequent popularity.

¹ For the portrait of David: object no. 3382.1; oil on panel, 100 x 72.8 cm.; https://honolulu.emuseum.com/objects/35136/david-de-ruyter? ctx=5e5376ba9cb8e578832f547d317c553f5f381c84&idx=0. A second version of that portrait is at Petworth House, West Sussex; accession no. 486180; oil on canvas, 102 x 74 cm.; https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/david-de-ruyter-c-15801663-219690. For the portrait of Lucretia: oil on panel, 89.9 x 71.1 cm.; that picture sold at Lempertz, Cologne, in 2014: https://www.lempertz.com/en/catalogues/lot/1029-2/1153-jan-anthonisz-van-ravesteyn.html.

² Oil on panel, 127.5 x 90 cm.; https://www.kollerauktionen.ch/en/-4019_518301.html?RecPos=78.

³ J.B. Bedaux, in Haarlem 2000, p. 148.

⁴ This emblem is reproduced in J.B. Bedaux, in Haarlem 2000, p. 148, ill. 26b. 

⁵ Oil on panel, 120 x 90 cm.; Haarlem, Notarishuis, 7–9 June 1966, lot 91; https://rkd.nl/imageslite/593175.