HALS, Frans
(b. 1580, Antwerpen, d. 1666, Haarlem)

Petrus Scriverius

1626
Oil on panel, 22 x 17 cm
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

The small portrait and its pendant, Anna van der Aar, are each monogrammed and dated 1626. The sitters were a couple who lived in Leiden. Pieter Schrijver (1576-1660) is better known by his Latinized name, Petrus Scriverius. He attended the Latin School in Haarlem, then at the age of nineteen transferred to the University of Leiden. In 1599, he married Anna van der Aar, daughter of a city councilman in Leiden. He spent most of his life in Leiden where he became a well-known scholar.

The painting was produced as a modello for engraving, which indeed was executed by Jan van de Velde II. In the case of pendant portraits of a public figure and his wife, it was normal that only the male portrait would be engraved.




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