Featured an interesting old Dutch painting

a few years ago I bought this 17th Century Dutch painting of a clergyman from Leiden named Peter Van der Hagen. Holland has a very cool website which catalogs as much of it's historical works of art and provides a provenance when possible along with a brief bio of the subject if known. I am adding a couple of images, there is a lot of overpainting and it needs to be cleaned badly. It was originally attributed to Nicolaes Maes in the 18th or 19th Century (a pupil of Rembrandt) but has since been overpainted extensively and lost it's attribution. When I shine a lamp from behind I see whole areas of darker paint added later. The subject (Peter Van der Hagen)'s maternal grandfather Nicolaes Ruts was painted by Rembrandt himself and is in The Frick Collection.

I love it so much! Here is the Holland catalog entry and I'm adding images.

https://rkd.nl/en/explore/images/record?query=van+der+hagen&start=4

 

You are very fortunate. I'd like to have almost anything painted by someone represented in the Frick!!

 

Is your painting the painting in that link? The link says the painting is anonymous and from the circle of Nicolaes Maes - so a student of a student of Rembrandt.

And you're saying that the attribution to Nicolaes Maes was made in the 18th or 19th century?

Where did the link gets its information?

The inscription mentions the marriage of Peter Van der Hagen. If this is a marriage portrait, makes you expect there's a painting of his wife out there somewhere.

 

Yes that is my painting listed in the link, which is The official Dutch national art directory. The inscription on the back reads (in English) Petrus Vanderhagen married Adrianna Van Wassener. The painting was attributed to Nicolaes Maes until 2008 when it appeared at auction for the first time since 1897. It has extensive over painting which is very common for a painting of it's age (Salvador Mundi is a recent example of note). The subject was a very important religious leader in Leiden. His grandfather was painted by Rembrandt (Nicolaes Ruts).

 

Beautiful painting, James, hope you will get it cleaned/restored some day.
Petrus van der Hagen was a young clergyman in the 'gereformeerde kerk', which is the strictest protestant church. The 'mainstream' Dutch reformed church is called the 'hervormde kerk'.
At a very early age he was minister to Dutch diplomats in Britain and France. He died aged 30. Several of his sermons were published.
I hope you are getting used to reading a bit of Dutch by now. Here are some data from a Dutch genealogy site:
http://alsemgeest.hele.nl/getperson.php?personID=I14160&tree=Alsemgeest
Some general info on the Ruts family, the same site. Petrus van der Hagen is mentioned further down the page, your portrait of him is there too:
http://alsemgeest.hele.nl/Geschiedenis/Familie in de gouden eeuw.php

There was, and probably still is somewhere. Maybe James should search for Adriana van Wassenaer and reunite the young couple. In the auction info it says "met pendant" (Dutch), which refers to the other painting:

• Lepke, Berlijn, 1897-05-04, lotnr. 163
  met pendant

It also says: " 'Umkreis N. Maes'; " (German) as you said, the circle of N. Maes.
It doesn't say it was originally attributed to Nicolaes Maes.

 

The attribution was originally to Maes and I can't stress enough how disfiguered the painting is from over painting. The subjects face, hands and clothing have all been "adjusted" and with backlighting you can see the amazing detail hidden under the newer paint.

Here is one of Maes works which really resemble my painting

https://www.cutlermiles.com/media/c...h-his-dog_nicolaes-maes-aka-nicolaes-maas.jpg

 

You can get an idea of what I mean from these photos using strong backlight

The stretcher is large and was not original as it has been relined and "repaired" so I can't get the light to penetrate key areas which are covered completely in black which are much later. It will cost $1000 to restore so I plan on doing that someday. The 1880 Auction was from the estate of Carolina Mathilda Henrietta Huydecoper-van den Heuvel, who was the direct descendant of Petrus Van Der Hagen through her paternal grandmother, and the painting was in the family from c.1660 until her death in 1880.

 

If you would click on Full Image after you load your photos, they would appear in the body of your post and not as tiny links.

 

Thank You!

 

The Dutch painters are my favorites