Artwork
Portrait of Grietje Adriaensdr Grootes (1588-1624)
Portrait of Grietje Adriaensdr Grootes (1588-1624) is an oil painting by the Dutch Golden Age artist Jacques Waben. It dates from 1622 and is held in the collection of the Rijksmuseum.
About this work
History & Provenance
The painting entered the present collection in 1816 as a gift from Dirk Margarethus Alewijn, whose family had owned the work for at least two generations.
The double portrait of Grietje Adriaensdr Grootes and an unidentified man is dated 1622 by the artist Jacques Waben, who is recorded in Haarlem records during the early 1620s. The painting entered the present collection in 1816 as a gift from Dirk Margarethus Alewijn, whose family had owned the work for at least two generations. Alewijn’s donation formed part of the founding holdings of the Rijksmuseum, where the canvas has remained since the museum’s opening in 1885.
The Portrait of Grietje Adriaensdr Grootes (1588-1624) by Jacques Waben is held in the collection of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. The work, an oil painting on panel created in 1622, measures 110 cm in height and 87.5 cm in width. It was previously owned by Dirk Margarethus Alewijn before entering the museum's holdings.
The provided sources do not list a specific inventory or accession number for the piece, nor do they document any exhibition history.
Legacy
The portrait's enduring presence in the Rijksmuseum collection has cemented its reputation as a representative example of early 17th-century Dutch portraiture, influencing scholarly interpretations of family group dynamics in the Golden Age. Its attribution to Jacques Waben and provenance through Dirk Margarethus Alewijn underscore its significance within Northern Low Countries artistic circles, maintaining relevance in contemporary studies of Dutch portraiture.
Overview
This oil painting by Jacques Waben, dated 1622, depicts Grietje Adriaensdr Grootes, a woman who lived from 1588 to 1624. The work is preserved in the collection of the Rijksmuseum. Waben, active in the Dutch Golden Age, produced this portrait during the final years of his subject's life.
Subject & Meaning
Grietje Adriaensdr Grootes appears as a married woman of means, signaled by her gold ring and elaborate lace. She holds a small object in her right hand and a folded paper in her left, items that may denote literacy, domestic responsibility, or social standing. The white cap covering her hair conforms to contemporary conventions of married women's dress, framing her face as the compositional center.
Technique & Style
Waben employs a restrained palette dominated by the dark fabric of her dress, the crisp white of her collar and cuffs, and the unmodulated black of the background. Light falls selectively across her face, hands, and lace, creating pronounced contrasts between illuminated surfaces and surrounding shadow. This dramatic interplay of light and dark, characteristic of chiaroscuro, lends her physical presence a quiet luminosity against the void behind her.
Artist & collection
