Portret van Pieter van de Poel (1654-1710)

About this artwork

Portret van Pieter van de Poel (1654-1710). Ten halven lijve met witte strikdas en lange krullende grijze pruik. In de hand een document met een zegel en een afbeelding van een schip. Pendant van SK-C-1603.

Art Historical Context

This elegant oil-on-canvas portrait, painted by Arnold Boonen in 1705, captures Pieter van de Poel at the age of fifty-one. Shown in half-length, van de Poel wears the fashionable long, curly gray wig and crisp white bow tie of the early eighteenth century. In his hand he holds a sealed document bearing the image of a ship, a detail that quietly signals his professional ties to maritime trade, a cornerstone of Dutch prosperity during this period. Boonen, known for his refined portraiture in the late Baroque tradition, brings a sense of quiet dignity to the sitter. The careful rendering of fabrics and the subtle gleam of the wax seal demonstrate the artist’s skill at conveying both status and character within a modest format. Measuring just over eighty centimeters high, the painting was conceived as one half of a pair—its pendant likely depicting van de Poel’s wife—intended to hang together in a domestic setting. Today in the Rijksmuseum collection, the work offers visitors a vivid glimpse into the self-presentation of a prosperous Dutch burgher at the close of the Golden Age, when personal portraiture served both as a record of individual achievement and as a statement of familial continuity.