Adriaen van der Werff,
Dutch 1659-1722-
Portrait of Adriaen Paets, half-length,...

Adriaen van der Werff,

Dutch 1659-1722-

Portrait of Adriaen Paets, half-length, seated in a landscape, with his right arm resting on a carpet;

oil on canvas, 49.5 x 40 cm.

Provenance: The estate of the late designer Anthony Powell.

Literature: O. Ydema, 'Carpets and Their Datings in Netherlandish Paintings, 1540-1700', Antique Collectors' Club, 1999, p.107, fig.110 (illustrated) (listed as whereabouts unknown).

Note: Adriaen Paets (1631-86) was a director of the Rotterdam Chamber of the Dutch East India Company. His portrait was also painted by Adriaen van der Werffs younger brother and principal studio assistant Pieter van der Werff (1695-1722) as part of a series of portraits of the directors of the Rotterdam Chamber of the Company. The portrait is currently held at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam [SK-A-4511], https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/nl/collectie/SK-A-4511.

The present work is certainly familiar with Van der Werff's oeuvre: a half-length figure, with one arm leaning, and with a landscape beyond (see, for example, the Portrait of Cornelis Gerard Fagel of 1694 in the Goltziusmuseum, Venlo, or the Portrait of a gentleman in a silk gown of 1685 in the National Gallery, London). Characteristic also is the artist's concentration on the rendition of texture and surface, which strongly connects his style with the Leiden fijnschilders, and besides possesses a distinctive elegance that is drawn not only from the fine fabrics and gracefully mannered pose of the sitter, as well as from the classical allusion of the statue in the background that is also closely reminiscent of his portraiture. Significant emphasis is placed on the sitters wealth and social status, conveyed through his nonchalant pose as well as the items around him, including the luxurious carpet on which the gentleman leans.

Van der Werff completed a number of significant commissions for high-profile sitters throughout northern Europe, including John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough; William III and Mary II (with Étienne-Jehandier Desrochers); and Johann Wilhelm II, Elector Palatinate. For a comparable work with similar dimensions, see Portrait of a Man in a Quilted Gown, National Gallery, London [no.NG1660]. The present work was presumably painted in around 1680-90.