Portrait of (possibly) Pieter Gerritsz Bicker, pendant of (possibly) his wife Anna Codde

The double portrait is dated to about 1529, aligning with Maarten van Heemskerck’s early Haarlem period. The sitters have been linked to Pieter Gerritsz Bicker and his wife Anna Codde, a couple prominent in Amsterdam’s Six family network in the 1530s–1540s.

By the mid-seventeenth century the portraits belonged to Alida van Ruytenburgh, Vrouwe van Vlaardingen, and by descent passed to Sophia Dina, Rijksgravin van Leyden, then Adriana Sophia van Rhemen. They remained in the Rhemen family until Willem Anne Assueer Jacob Schimmelpenninck van der Oye acquired them. Subsequent owners were Jacoba Christina Baroness Schimmelpenninck van der Oye-van Pallandt and Jonkheer Rudolph Everard Willem van Weede.

The works entered the Jacques Goudstikker collection before being earmarked for the planned Führermuseum in Munich. After World War II they were restituted to the Netherlands and allocated to the Rijksmuseum.

The pendant portraits are held by the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, inventoried as SK-C-2239 (man) and SK-C-2240 (woman).

They were restituted to the heirs of Jacques Goudstikker in 2006 and subsequently allocated to the Dutch national collection. The works were displayed in the 2016 exhibition “Remember Me: Maarten van Heemskerck in Haarlem” at the Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem.

Created in 1529, this oil portrait is attributed to Maarten van Heemskerck, a Haarlem‑based painter of the Northern Renaissance. The work forms one half of a paired set, the companion depicting a woman identified as Anna Codde. Both panels are part of the Rijksmuseum’s collection and exemplify early 16th‑century Dutch portraiture.