Attributed to Michiel Jansz. van Mierevelt

The actual painting is softer in tone and shows more detail in the darker areas than the catalogue illustration suggests. The panel appears to consist of 3 vertical planks. There's a vertical split along the right edge, which has been reinforced to the reverse with a vertical strip of wood. Another strip of wood is attached to the left side of the painting. The paint surface is a little thin in the darker areas allowing the wood grain to show through, and is under a dirty layer of varnish. A few scattered retouchings are visible in the background. Inspection under UV light reveals minor strengthening in the coat, and 3 very tiny spots in the face, which otherwise is very nicely preserved. Offered in a black wood frame with a gilt fillet, with some damage to the lower left corner. (MW)
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The sitter of this remarkable portrait has been indentified as Abraham van der Meer (1584-1638). This family from Delft carries three green lily leaves in their heraldic device, which is clearly visible in the present sitter's ring. Abraham was the youngest son of Pieter van der Meer, 'raadsheer' or judge in the Court of Holland and pensionary of Delft, and Maria van der Goes. Like his father, Abraham would become a laywer: on 3 July 1602, at the age of 18, he enrolled as a law student at the University of Leiden. When promoted to Iuris Utriusque Doctor (Doctor in Law) he was sworn in as a lawyer at the Court of Holland on 16 September 1605 and began to practice law in Delft. In this town he soon held, like many of his family members, public offices such as 'veertigraad' (member of the council of forty), from 1618 to 1621, and 'weesmeester'(governor of the orphans), in 1619 and 1620.

On 21 September 1609, Abraham van der Meer married Anna Duyck from The Hague, daughter of Adriaan Duyck, Lord of Oudkarspel and Koedijk, secretary of the States of Holland and West-Friesland, and Anna de Rechtere. Their marriage did not last for long: on 11 June 1614, Anna was buried in the Old Church. For over ten years, Van der Meer stayed a widowed bachelor. In 1624, on 26 November, he remarried 21-year old Maria van den Corput, born in Dordrecht on 31 October 1603 as the daughter of Johan van den Corput and Maria Buysen. In 1621 Abraham van der Meer became, again following his father's footsteps, a judge in the Court of Holland and moved to The Hague, where he died on 20 March (or possibly May) 1638.

Portraiture in Delft at the turn of the 17^th century was dominated by Herman van der Mast (c.1550-c.1610), Michiel Jansz. van Mierevelt (1567-1641), and Van Mierevelt's brother-in-law Jacob I Willemsz Delff (c.1540-1601). The first and last of these had probably died by the time this painting was made. Four years after this portrait, Michiel van Mierevelt painted the large Anatomical lesson of Dr. Willem van der Meer, now in the Prinsenhof, Delft, and he also painted other members of the family. Abraham's father was painted in 1610 and his aunt Maria van Bleyswijck, née Van der Meer (1572-1657) in 1615. According to a print by Van Mierevelt's son in law Willem Jacobsz. Delff (1580-1638), Van Mierevelt painted the present sitter in 1626.¹ As few other portraitists were active at this time in Delft, and the Van der Meer family was not only important but known to him, Mierevelt remains much the most likely author of this work, something its evident quality would support.

We are grateful to Olivier Mertens for his help in cataloguing this lot.

1. See E.W. Moes, Iconographia Batava, Amsterdam 1897-1905, vol. II, nr. 4430, nr. 4925 and nr. 4905. See for the print; F.W.H. Hollstein, Dutch and Flemish etchings and woodcuts, etc., Amsterdam, vol V. p. 182, nr. 46.