Lot 258: MICHIEL JANSZ. VAN MIEREVELT

JACOB VAN DALEN, CALLED VALLENSIS (1570-1644); MARGARETHA VAN CLOOTWIJK (.CIRCA. 1580/81-1662)
The man, signed, inscribed and dated middle left: AEtatis.70. / A.υo 1640. / M. Miereveld and charged with the arms of the Van Dalen family upper left;
The woman, charged with the arms of the Van Dalen and Van Clootwijk families upper right

each: 43 1/4 by 33 1/2 in.; 109.8 by 85.1 cm.

a pair, both oil on panel

Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, on loan each summer, 1955-1990.

Acquired by the grandfather of the present owner before the 1950s.

These late portraits by van Mierevelt are three-quarter length versions of a pair of half-length depictions of the same sitters in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. (1) The Metropolitan's portraits are signed and dated 1640 (Portrait of Jacob van Dalen) and 1639 (Portrait of Margaretha van Clootwijk) and bear the same family crests. A 1641 inventory of van Mierevelt's estate refers to "four large and two small portraits" of Jacob van Dalen and his wife that he was to receive and that still remained in the artist's house. (2) The half-length pair in the Metropolitan's collection must be those referred to in the inventory as the "small portraits", while the present pair must be two of the four "large portraits." The location of the other pair of larger portraits is presently unknown. (3)

Though both versions of the Portrait of Jacob van Dalen are dated 1640, the Metropolitan's version is inscribed with his age as 69 rather than 70, as is inscribed on the present version. Van Dalen was born on November 21, 1570, thus allowing us to pinpoint the completion of the present version of his portrait to sometime in the last six weeks of the year 1640 and, presumably, after the version in the Metropolitan.

Jacob van Dalen was born in Speyer Germany and studied medicine at the University of Leiden from 1589-1593. He was the personal physician of the Dutch Stadholders Prince Maurits (1567-1625) and Prince Frederick Hendrick (1584-1647). He settled in Delft, where he died on February 14, 1644. Margaretha van Clootwijk was his second wife. Both are buried in the Oude Kerk, Delft. Van Dalen is also depicted in a group portrait by van Mierevelt and his son Pieter, The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Willem van der Meer, painted twenty three years earlier. (4)

1. Portrait of Jacob van Dalen, signed, dated and inscribed middle left: AEtatis. 69/A.o 1640/M. Miereveld, oil on panel, 27 ½ by 23 in.; 69.9 by 58.4 cm (inv. no. 25.110.13); Portrait of Margaretha van Clootwijk, signed, dated and inscribed middle right: AEtatis. 56/A.o 1639/M. Miereveld, oil on panel, 27 3/4 by 22 7/8 in.; 70.5 by 58.1 cm. (inv. no. 25.110.12).
2. In the inventory, van Dalen is referred to as "Dr. Vallensis," the Latinized form his name and how he was professionally known.
3. See W. Liedtke, Dutch Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 2007, Vol. I, p. 476, under cat. no. 121; and A. Bredius, "Michiel Jansz van Mierevelt, een nalezing," in Oud Holland 26, 1908, p. 8.
4. In the Gemeente Musea Delft; Collection Stedelijk Museum Het Prinsenhof.