A regents group portrait (regentenstuk or regentessenstuk in Dutch, literally "regents' piece"), is a group portrait of the board of trustees, called regents or regentesses, of a charitable organization or guild. This type of group portrait was popular in Dutch Golden Age painting during the 17th century, and in the 18th century. They were intended to be hung in the regentenkamer, the regents' meeting room, [1] or another prominent location in the institution.
The regents of a charitable organization (such as an orphanage, poorhouse, hospital or hofje ) or guild were drawn from the regenten , the upper class of Dutch society. It was a prestigious honorary office, so the regents were keen to have themselves depicted in this role. The leading portraitists of the day were commissioned to make regentenstukken, including Rembrandt (whose Syndics of the Drapers' Guild is a subtle treatment of a group round a table), Frans Hals, Ferdinand Bol, and Bartholomeus van der Helst. The commissions proved lucrative, particularly since the regents only served for a few years, to be replaced with a new set of regents who were equally eager to be painted.
In some institutions the regentesses were all female, and so the portraits were of all-female groups, or there were mixed-gender regents who were painted separately, as in Hals' two portraits of the Regents and Regentesses of the Old Men's Almshouse . Occasionally the painting depicted not just the regents but also others, such as the binnenvader or binnenmoeder, who was in charge of the day-to-day operations. For instance, Abraham de Vries in 1633 painted a regentenstuk for the Burgerweeshuis orphanage in Amsterdam showing not only the regents but also the binnenvader leading in a young orphan girl.
Group portraits, largely a Dutch invention, were popular among the large numbers of civic associations that were a notable part of Dutch life, such as the militia group portrait or schuttersstuk showing officers of a city's schutterij or militia guards, boards of trustees and regents of guilds and charitable foundations and the like. Cornelis van der Voort, an Amsterdam-based artist originally from Antwerp, is regarded as the inventor of the new genre of the regentenstukken as he started working on three such portraits just before 1617. [2]
Especially in the first half of the 17th century, portraits were very formal and stiff in composition. Boards of trustees preferred an image of austerity and humility, posing in dark clothing (which by its refinement testified to their prominent standing in society), often seated around a table, with solemn expressions on their faces. Scientists often posed with instruments and objects of their study around them. Groups were often seated around a table, each person looking at the viewer. Much attention was paid to fine details in clothing, and where applicable, to furniture and other signs of a person's position in society. Later in the century groups became livelier and colours brighter.
The cost of group portraits was usually shared by the subjects, often not equally. The amount paid might determine each person's place in the picture, either head to toe in full regalia in the foreground or face only in the back of the group. Sometimes all group members paid an equal sum, which was likely to lead to quarrels when some members gained a more prominent place in the picture than others.
In Amsterdam most of these paintings ultimately ended up in possession of the city council, and many are now on display in the Amsterdam Museum.
Frans Hals the Elder was a Dutch Golden Age painter. He lived and worked in Haarlem, a city in which the local authority of the day frowned on religious painting in places of worship but citizens liked to decorate their homes with works of art. Hals was highly sought after by wealthy burgher commissioners of individual, married-couple, family, and institutional-group portraits. He also painted tronies for the general market.
The Frans Hals Museum is a museum in the North Holland city of Haarlem, the Netherlands, founded in 1862, known as the Art Museum of Haarlem. Its collection is based on the city's own rich collection, built up from the 16th century onwards. The museum owns hundreds of paintings, including more than a dozen by Frans Hals, to whom the museum owes its name. The Frans Hals Museum has two historic locations in Haarlem city centre: the main location on Groot Heiligland and Location Hal on Grote Markt, composed of the adjacent 17th-century Vleeshal and 19th-century Verweyhal. On Groot Heiligland is the 17th-century Oudemannenhuis with regent's rooms. It houses the famous paintings by Frans Hals and other ancient, modern and contemporary art, as well as the museum café. Location Hal regularly hosts exhibitions of modern and contemporary art.
Bartholomeus van der Helst was a Dutch painter. Considered to be one of the leading portrait painters of the Dutch Golden Age, his elegant portraits gained him the patronage of Amsterdam's elite as well as the Stadtholder's circle. Besides portraits, van der Helst painted a few genre pictures as well as some biblical scenes and mythological subjects.
Judith Jans Leyster was a Dutch Golden Age painter of genre works, portraits, and still lifes. Her work was highly regarded by her contemporaries, but largely forgotten after her death. Her entire oeuvre came to be attributed to Frans Hals or to her husband, Jan Miense Molenaer. In 1893, she was rediscovered and scholars began to attribute her works correctly.
Jan de Bray was a Dutch Golden Age painter. He lived and worked in Haarlem until the age of 60, when he went bankrupt and moved to Amsterdam.
Cornelis Corneliszoon van Haarlem was a Dutch Golden Age painter and draughtsman, one of the leading Northern Mannerist artists in the Netherlands, and an important forerunner of Frans Hals as a portraitist.
Hendrik Gerritsz Pot was a Dutch Golden Age painter, who lived and painted in Haarlem, where he was an officer of the militia, or schutterij. Dutch artist Frans Hals painted Pot in militia sash in Hals' The Officers of the St Adrian Militia Company in 1633. Pot is the man reading a book on the far right.
Schutterij refers to a voluntary city guard or citizen militia in the medieval and early modern Netherlands, intended to protect the town or city from attack and act in case of revolt or fire. Their training grounds were often on open spaces within the city, near the city walls, but, when the weather did not allow, inside a church. They are mostly grouped according to their district and to the weapon that they used: bow, crossbow or gun. Together, its members are called a Schuttersgilde, which could be roughly translated as a "shooter's guild". It is now a title applied to ceremonial shooting clubs and to the country's Olympic rifle team.
Johannes Cornelisz Verspronck was a Dutch Golden Age portrait painter from Haarlem.
Abraham de Vries was a Dutch painter who was one of the leading portraitists of his age. As he led a peripatetic lifestyle and worked in France, Antwerp and the Dutch Republic his stylistic qualities are difficult to pin down.
The St. Elisabeth Gasthuis (EG) is a former hospital complex of buildings founded in 1581 in Haarlem on the Gasthuisvest. The last location of the hospital on the Boerhaavelaan retains its hospital function and is part of the Spaarne Gasthuis (SG) today, formerly known as Kennemer Gasthuis (KG). The hospital complex on the Gasthuisvest was built for the "Minnebroers" monastery and was reclaimed after the Protestant reformation in 1581 and given by the city council to the hospital. As a hospital during four centuries, the complex underwent many major renovations. The main facade dates from 1871.
Andries van Hoorn, or van der Horn, was a Dutch mayor of Haarlem, known best today for his portraits by Frans Hals.
The Meagre Company, or The Company of Captain Reinier Reael and Lieutenant Cornelis Michielsz Blaeuw, refers to the only militia group portrait, or schutterstuk, painted by Frans Hals outside of Haarlem. Today the painting is in the collection of the Amsterdam Museum, on loan to the Rijksmuseum, where it is considered one of its main attractions of the Honor Gallery. Hals was unhappy about commuting to Amsterdam to work on the painting and, unlike his previous group portraits, was unable to deliver it on time. The sitters contracted Pieter Codde to finish the work.
The Regents of the Old Men's Almshouse is a regents group portrait of five regents and their servant painted by Frans Hals in 1664 for the Oude Mannenhuis in Haarlem, the Netherlands. It forms a pendant with the Regentesses of the Old Men's Almshouse.
The Voetboogdoelen was a 16th-century building on the Singel canal in Amsterdam, at the corner of Heiligeweg near Koningsplein square, which served as headquarters and shooting range of the local schutterij. Frans Hals painted a group portrait for the Voetboogdoelen, known as the Meagre Company.
Portrait of a Man is an oil-on-canvas painting by the Dutch Golden Age painter Frans Hals, painted c. 1660 and now in the Frick Collection, New York City. The man has been mistakenly identified as Michiel de Ruyter.
Three Regentesses of the Leprozenhuis of Amsterdam is a group portrait by the Dutch painter Ferdinand Bol representing three regentesses of the leper colony of Amsterdam, painted c. 1668. The painting is held in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.
Portrait of the Trip Sisters, also known as Portrait of Margarita Trip as Minerva Teaching Her Sister Anna Maria Trip, is an oil on canvas painting by Dutch artist Ferdinand Bol, created in 1663. It is in the collection of the Rijksmuseum, in Amsterdam, but is currently displayed at the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, also in Amsterdam. It is signed and dated 'fBol 1663'.
Portrait of Stephan Geraedts, Husband of Isabella Coymans is a late oil on canvas painting by the Dutch Golden Age painter Frans Hals, made when the artist was about 70. The painting is one of a pendant pair of wedding portraits, now separated. Hals probably painted the present portrait, Stephanus Geraerdts', an alderman of Haarlem, which was designed to be on the left, and the accompanying portrait of his wife Isabella Coymans around 1650–1652, six or seven years after their marriage in 1644. Isabella's portrait is now in a private collection in Paris.
Media related to Regents group portraits at Wikimedia Commons