Under the skin: Portraits by Abraham de Vries (c. 1590-1649/50) recognised and revealed

Abstract

This article discusses four portraits by Abraham de Vries (c. 1590-1649/50), three of which were recently recognised as the artist’s work, and all of which were subject to changes over time. The appearance of these portraits, as the authors came across them, prompted further investigation.

The first two are portraits of the same girl (figs. 1a and 2a) from c. 1629 that originally had virtually the same appearance, as technical research has revealed. The first was reduced in size, the second was overpainted substantially, particularly in the costume.

A portrait of a bearded man (fig. 11a) had been sold as a portrait of a rabbi by Simon Kick, but technical examination revealed that it was initially painted as a portrait of the French garden designer Jacques Boyceau, signed in monogram by De Vries and dated 1629 under a layer of overpaint. The original appearance of the portrait is known through a contemporary print (fig. 14). Interestingly, later changes appear to have been executed by De Vries himself, but the circumstances remain unclear. Additionally, a signed portrait of an unidentified sitter, also from 1629 and now in the Petit Palais in Paris (fig. 12a), had received a different collar at some point in its history, which was cleaned off before its acquisition by the museum.

Similarities in handling and execution with other portraits by Abraham de Vries, for instance in the hair, collars and eyes, prove his authorship of the four portraits that are the focus of this article. They enrich the painter’s oeuvre and further confirm his excellent abilities as a portraitist in the first half of the seventeenth century.