Its artist, Dirck van Santvoort, was the leading Amsterdam-based portrait painter in the 1640s and 1650s, who took the mantle from his likely master, Nicolaes Eliasz. Pickenoy (1588 – c.1650). Both artists painted portraits of our subject’s father, Frederik Dircksz. Alewijn (1603 – 1665), who was a prominent merchant and city councillor; remarkably, the earlier portrait by Pickenoy is also available for sale with The Weiss Gallery. These portraits, depicting father and son, have not been seen together since they were both sold by their descendent in 1885.

As he is still yet to be breeched, Dirck, who was named after his grandfather, Dirck Dircksz. Alwijn (1571 – 1637), here wears a skirt, and the clue to his gender lies in his accessories: he is accompanied by a deerhound, whose disciplined head parallels the straight riding crop wielded by the child.[1] The feathered cap playfully finesses his identity as a young hunter. However, despite these physical allusions to the Alewijns’ enjoyment of outdoor sports, Dirck’s costume seems completely inappropriate for such pursuits; his stark white silk bodice, trimmed and cuffed with rows of delicate lace, is interjected by flashings of red, most flamboyantly upon his lace cap, which features a dyed ostrich feather, and more delicately on his hip, which sports a red bowed ribbon. This ribbon ties together a long double strand of pearls, which sit diagonally across his chest, and culminate with a hanging rinkelbel.[2] When considered as an ensemble, Dirck Alewijn has been dressed and documented to record, in perpetuity, his family’s considerable means.[3]

The concept of this portrait differs from the famous portraits of his cousins, which are now in the Rijksmuseum [Figs. 1 & 2]. It is thought that Frederik Alewijn commissioned these for his country estate, Vredenburg in Beemster; their compositions would certainly support this as they are shown outdoors in the guise of young shepherds.[4] Whilst these portraits would have been painted only a few years prior to our portrait, their feeling is so dissimilar that it suggests their intended contexts were also different. The sporting overtones of the portraits of Martinus and Clara Alewijn suggests they were only to be housed in the country, whilst Dirck Alewijn’s setting and appearance would infer that it was intended to be hung near the portraits of his parents in their Amsterdam townhouse [Figs. 3 & 4]. These portraits of the young Alewijns demonstrate what Saskia Kuus notes in the exhibition catalogue for “Pride and Joy”: “Santvoort was clearly a versatile children’s portraitist, who alternated between conventional and more sophisticated commissions.”[5]

Dirck Alewijn would follow his father’s example by becoming a sheriff (schout) of Amsterdam. Upon his parents’ death in 1665 he inherited the Vredenburg estate in the Beemster region of the Netherlands, where he became a high bailiff. He married his cousin Agatha Bicker (1647 – 1716) in 1667, portraits commemorating their engagement by Nicolaes Maes are now in the collection of the Norton Simon Foundation in Los Angeles [Fig. 6].[6]

The Alewijns were clearly discriminating patrons of the arts – indeed, Frederik’s brother Abraham was a dealer of oriental goods – and chose the most fashionable artists to paint their portraits at different stages of their lives. In the 1630s, Frederik and Eva were both painted by Nicolaes Eliasz. Pickenoy, but before they were married to one another; Frederik’s portrait (also with The Weiss Gallery) appears to be a singular commission to document him when he was an eligible bachelor, whilst Eva’s was paired with a portrait of her first husband, Dirk de Graeff (1601 – 1637). In the 1640s, the Alewijns appeared to entrust Dirck Dircksz. Santvoort (1610 – 1680) almost exclusively with their family portraits [Figs. 1 – 4], including the present painting.

Like Pickenoy, who was likely his master, Santvoort was active in Amsterdam at the same time as Rembrandt. He was born into a family of master painters: his great-grandfather was the mannerist genre painter Pieter Aertsen (1508 – 1575), whose own son was the artist Pieter Pietersz. (1640 – 1603). Santvoort particularly excelled in his portraits of children, as seen here, during his relatively short painting career, which started in around 1632 and stopped in the mid-1640s. As his career lasted little over a decade, his oeuvre is small, and it might be that this portrait of Dirk Alewijn was one of his last commissions. The artist has taken great care in conveying a sense of conservative gravitas within his subject, so whilst the young Alewijn is apparently of an age where he has only just learned how to walk unassisted, his poise is such that he can confidently carry himself and keep his hunting dog in check. Santvoort’s apparent skill in rendering different materials convincingly is also evident here, especially with the delicate lace upon the hard tiled floor.

This painting, like the portrait depicting his father by Pickenoy (also with The Weiss Gallery), remained in the Alewijn family for some 240 years before it was sold from the estate of the heirless Dirk Margarethus Alewijn (1816 – 1885). It was bought by an art dealer in the 1885 auction and quickly found its way to the collection of Georg Lachmann (1855 – 1924) in Berlin, where it was exhibited by Dr. Wilhelm von Bode at the Prussian Royal Academy of Arts in 1890. The painting must have been on the market between 1924, when Lachmann died, and the early 1930s, when its next known owner, John “Gauldie” Goldschmidt (1918 – 2002), left Germany for the United States of America; how it changed hands between Lachmann and Goldschmidt has not yet been confirmed but it seems likely that it was acquired by Gauldie’s father, Erich Goldschmidt (1883 - 1931), who was a prominent Berlin-based Jewish banker.[7] Goldschmidt died before Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in 1933, the point at which it seems most likely that his son, almost certainly with this painting in his possession, left Germany, never to return.

[1] Symbolically, the dog is demonstrably well-trained, so too should be the impressionable Dirck. Furthermore, the leash references the need to reign in natural tendencies with disciplined actions.

[2] Rinkelbels were the most common accessory found in Dutch childrens’ portraits of the sixteenth and seventeenth century. The one shown here has a gold handle with bells at its base, with a rock crystal top, which was used for teething. The ringing of the toy’s bells was intended to ward off evil spirits. Used by both boys and girls, rinkelbels were treasured toys that often became family heirlooms.

[3] That this portrait, and those depicting his parents and wider family, were kept in the family for nearly 250 years shows the high regard in which they were held by their descendants.

[4] R. Ekkart ed., Pride and Joy, Children’s Portraits in the Netherlands 1500 – 1700, Amsterdam 2000, p. 188.

[5] Ibid.

[6] Another portrait of Dirk when he was a boy, drawn by Wallerant Vaillant in 1651, survives in the Kunsthalle Bremen [Fig. 5].

[7] As far as we can tell, no painting that fits the description of our painting appears in any German, Austrian, or Swiss auction held between 1924 and 1945.