(Delft 1566–1641)
Portrait of Johann Ernst Count van Nassau Siegen (1582–1617), aged 29, half-length, wearing a gold embroidered blue/grey silk coat with orange sash and lace collar,
indistinctly inscribed and dated lower left: Aetatis 29/ Anno 1612,
oil on panel, 56 x 47.5 cm, in the original seventeenth century oak frame

Provenance:
said to be a present by the Stadholders’ court of Leeuwarden to Isabella Susanna thoe Schwartzenberg on the occasion of her wedding to Count Gustav Carlsson (1649–1708);
thence by descent to the late W. Baron von Schwartzenberg and Hohenlandsberg, the Netherlands

The present portrait, which has remained in the Schwartzenberg family for more than three centuries, has been extensively examined in the original by Anita Jansen and Johanneke Verhave in 2015. Both have confirmed the painting’s origin in the van Miereveldt workshop, pointing out that the tongue groove connection of the three boards of the oak panel as well as the size and shape of the face of the sitter and the thin application of paint layers are characteristic features for the artist’s portrait production. Moreover, the pentimento in the sitter’s collar, which can be discerned in striking light, whereby the original flat lace collar was changed into a molenkraag, also occurs frequently in van Miereveldt’s portraits.

Michiel Jansz. van Miereveldt was the most successful portrait painter in the Netherlands during the last quarter of the sixteenth and first quarter of the seventeenth century. Based in Delft, he was able to meet the growing demand for portraits in the new republic by introducing a standardisation in formats and using cartoons for the shape and size of the face. This standardisation lead to the series in full, three-quarter and half-length of William of Orange and Prince Maurits among others.

Johann Ernst of Nassau Siegen was the son of Jan VII of Nassau Siegen and his wife Magdalena van Waldeck. At the request of his godfather Prince Maurits, he joined the Dutch revolt and served as commander at the Siege of Gulik in 1610. In 1616 Johann Ernst, through the States General embarked on negotiations with the Republic of Venice for a position of commander during the war of the Uskoks on the Adriatic. Bad weather and mutiny among the 3100 raised troops caused such a delay that Ernst Johann only arrived in Venice on 4 April 1617, where he was received by Doge Giovanni Bembo. Eventually he served at the Siege at Gradisca d’Isonzo, but resigned following his conflict with Giovanni de Medici. Ernst Johann died in September 1617 in Udine.

Another portrait of Johann Ernst van Nassau Siegen from the workshop of Jan Anthonisz. van Ravensteyn is in the Rijksmuseum, inv. no. SK A 531, and is part of the so-called Leeuwarden series of portraits of military officials from the Eighty Years War as well as members of the House of Orange. This series was first mentioned in 1633 in the Stadholder’s Court in Leeuwarden.

A report by Anita Jansen and Johanneke Verhave, dated 19 May 2015, is available on request.