Museum Art Reproductions Portrait of Johann Conrad von Salm (1590-1625), Waldgrave and Rhinegrave of Dhaun, Jan Antonisz van Ravesteyn (workshop of), c. 1622 - c. 1625, 1625 by Jan Antonisz Van Ravesteyn (1572-1657, Netherlands) | WahooArt.com

Jan Antonisz Van Ravesteyn (i) - Oil On Panel (i) - 30 x 24 cm - 1625 The Leeuwarden Series: Foreigners in the Service of the States-General The inscription on this portrait calls the sitter ‘D. Rijn.Gref.’ This is on top of fragments of another inscription, probably to the same effect, for in the 1633 inventory of the Court of Friesland it is listed as ‘Den Rijngraeff’.43 In the collection catalogue of 1880 it was stated that the Rhinegrave was Adolf Hendrik van Salm (1557-1606), who married Juliana of Nassau-Dillenburg in 1588.44 In later catalogues, however, he was correctly identified as the latter’s second son, Johann Conrad von Salm.45 Johann Conrad succeeded Bartholomeus Andrio Walsdorffer in 1622 as the captain of a Swiss company in the pay of the province of Friesland in the States army.46 His grandfather on his mother’s side was Jan the Elder of Nassau. He was related to Amalia van Solms through the marriages of his mother, sister and brother to members of the Van Solms-Braunfels family.47 The prototype of this portrait is a very similar anonymous one of Johann Conrad in the collection of the Fürst zu Solms-Braunfels in Braunfels, in which he is shown half-length in civilian dress (fig. a). The face, hairstyle and collar have been copied faithfully in the Rijksmuseum portrait. This painting was already being attributed to Wybrand de Geest in the 19th century,48 and this was followed by Wassenbergh.49 However, compared with the two signed portraits by De Geest in the Leeuwarden Series, it has neither the sketchiness nor the subtlety in such details as the highlights in the sash, so the attribution to De Geest must be rejected. The style approaches that of the portrait of Albert of Nassau-Dillenburg (1596-1626) in the same Leeuwarden Series, which was executed in Van Ravesteyn’s studio.50 It is likely, then, that the portrait of Johann Conrad is the work of one of Van Ravesteyn’s studio assistants. The collection catalogues from 1903 on state that this portrait is dated 1622, but not a trace of that can be seen today. A date after Johann Conrad’s appointment as captain in the States army in 1622 and his death in 1625 is the most likely, and this is confirmed by the type of collar he is wearing.51 Yvette Bruijnen, 2007 See Bibliography and Rijksmuseum painting catalogues See Key to abbreviations and Acknowledgements This entry was published in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, I: Artists Born between 1570 and 1600, coll. cat. Amsterdam 2007, no. 390.