Van Alewijn is presented to the viewer, contrapposto, with his mantle draped over his shoulder and wrapped around his waist, left arm akimbo, hand on hip. His black attire may not look ostentatious, but in fact black dye was the costliest pigment at the time. Likewise, his starched white collar and matching cuffs of Flemish bobbin lace are an expensive status symbol, executed deftly and with great attention to detail. The cuff of the left arm is portrayed in foreshortened perspective to give the illusion of depth, in a painterly tour de force. Pickenoy imbued his sitters with ‘tranquillitas’: the neo-stoic ideal of keeping control of one’s emotions. Despite this unwritten artistic rule, he nonetheless developed and adopted idiosyncrasies to make his sitters appear more spontaneous and natural. Those qualities are shown to great effect here – an honourable and realistic likeness, with an accurate portrayal of his costly wardrobe, as well as the covetable ‘tranquillitas’.

Interestingly, in our portrait Van Alewijn’s body and face are directed towards our left. Usually in portraiture, this pose was reserved for a woman, with the husband standing on the other side – body and face directed to his wife. This unusual stance suggests that our portrait was painted when the sitter was still a bachelor, giving us a terminus ante quem of 1637, the year he married Agatha Geelvinck (1617 – 1638), daughter of Amsterdam’s mayor, Jan Cornelisz. Geelvinck. His costume conforms with this dating and, stylistically, the portrait can be compared to Pickenoy’s Civic Guard Painting of District IX of 1632 (Amsterdam Museum), which shows similar bold brushwork in the heads.

Frederick Alewijn was the son of Dirck Alewijn (1571 – 1637) and Maria Schurman (1575 – 1621). He studied in Leiden, becoming the first of his family to be admitted as a regenten in Amsterdam’s ruling class. Latterly he was appointed Lieutenant of the Militia in 1650, then its Captain in 1657. Unfortunately, Alewijn’s first wife Agatha, the daughter of Amsterdam’s mayor, died only five months after their nuptials, and so in 1640 he married secondly the widow of Dirck de Graeff, Eva Bicker (1609 – 1665).[1] The Alewijn, Geelvinck, Bicker, and de Graeff families were amongst the most influential in Amsterdam’s republican ruling class and major patrons of the arts. In the 1640s, Frederik Alewijn appeared to entrust Dirck Dircksz. Santvoort (1610 – 1680) almost exclusively with family portraits, including that of his only son, Dirck Frederiksz. Alewijn (1644 – 1687); this extremely charming portrait is also available for sale with The Weiss Gallery.

A significant article dedicated to the life of Pickenoy, written in 1886 by Prof. Jan Six (1857 – 1925) explicitly refers to our portrait, dating it to c.1632. Six was the first to re-attribute the painting to Pickenoy after it had previously been sold as a work by Dirck van Santvoort in the Alewijn family sale of the previous year.[2] He noted that it had been purchased by ‘Mr. A. de Stuers’ – the diplomat Alphonse de Stuers (1841 – 1919). Alphonse and his brother, Victor de Stuers (1843 – 1916), were at that time prominent collectors of Dutch old master paintings and other objects.[3] By 1918 our painting had passed via his brother Victor, to Alice de Stuers, Lady van de Wiersse (1895 – 1988).[4]

The artist might not be a household name today, but between 1625 and 1640, Nicolaes Eliasz. Pickenoy was the most sought-after portrait painter in the thriving city of Amsterdam, keeping this coveted position even when Rembrandt settled there in the early 1630s. Pickenoy was the son of Elias Claesz. Pickenoy (1565 – 1640), an armorial mason, and Heijltje Laurens d’Jonge (1562 – 1638), who were both from Antwerp. It is likely that he was named after Saint Nicholas, the patron saint of Amsterdam and to whom the Oude Kerk is dedicated, where he was baptised in January 1588. It seems more than likely that he trained with Van der Voort as he inherited his workshop upon his death in 1624. From this point onward he became the portrait painter of choice in Amsterdam, his only serious rival being Thomas de Keyser (c.1596 – 1667). He particularly excelled in group civic guard portraits, but his production largely lay within individual portraits that depicted notable citizens of Amsterdam, such as the present example.

Pickenoy painted no less than five civic guard paintings and four group portraits for craft guilds or charitable institutions, making him even more productive in this field than his most successful pupil, Bartholomeus van der Helst (1613 – 1670). With the exciting bravura stylings of Rembrandt and his immediate circle, Pickenoy’s dominance within the portraiture genre was challenged but never fully dominated during the 1630s. However, by 1640 he seems to have effectively retired; there are only two works of his from post-1640 that survive.

In 1637, Pickenoy bought a house from the politician Adriaan Pauw (1585 – 1653), which had previously belonged to his (likely) master Van der Voort and the art dealer Hendrick van Uylenburgh (c. 1587 – 1661). Located on the corner of Sint Antoniesbreestraat and Jodenbreestraat, the immediate area had become a hub for painters and art dealers alike; indeed, it was from Pickenoy’s house that Van Uylenburgh first supported Rembrandt when he moved to Amsterdam. Buying this house guaranteed Pickenoy social and artistic cachet within the Amsterdam elite for it had already been established as a studio for successful portrait painters and a base for art dealers with rich clientele. In 1639 Rembrandt returned to the neighbourhood after buying the house next door to Pickenoy’s, which is now home to the Rembrandthuis museum.

[1] Eva Bicker was also painted by Pickenoy during her first marriage, in pendant to her then husband (both on loan to Adel High Council in The Hague).

[2] According to Jan Six, (op. cit.), three other Pickenoy portraits from the 1885 Alewijn sale were bought for the Rijksmuseum (their attribution to Pickenoy has since been downgraded).

[3] Victor de Stuers was an influential art historian and administrator who did much to promote and preserve the integrity of Dutch institutional art collections. He discovered Vermeer’s masterpiece The Girl with the Pearl Earring when it was being sold anonymously at an auction in The Hague. He entered an agreement with the buyer that he would not bid on it so long as they promised to bequeath the painting to the Mauritshuis, which they did in 1902.

[4] See: L. Sorenen (ed.), “Stuers, Victor Eugène Louis de, Jonkheer.” from Dictionary of Art Historians.