Signed and dated lower left: T. van der Wilt / 1690

Private collection, Canada.

Thomas van der Wilt (Dutch, 1659-1733) Portrait of a Dutch gentleman, possibly Dr. Herman Boerhaave, 1690 Oil on canvas 21-1/2 x 17-7/8 inches (54.6 x 45.4 cm) Signed and dated lower left: T. van der Wilt / 1690 Inscribed upper right: Dr. Boerhaave. PROVENANCE: Private collection, Canada. The author of this striking portrait of an educated gentleman wearing a long peruke and a fashionable Japan robe was the Delft-based painter Thomas van der Wilt. He trained with Jan Verkolje I for three years and settled on the Koorenmarkt in Delft. He is recorded in the Guild of St. Luke for the first time in 1677, and served as its 'hoofdman' (dean) several times between 1690 and 1714. Van der Wilt had a very influential network comprised of the city's notables and artists, among them still life painter Daniel van Beke, painter Jacob Campo Weyerman, who was his apprentice, and collector Valerius Röver. Among his sitters were a Burgemeester of Delft, engraver Jacob Houbraken, the poet Hubert Poot, Secretary of Delfland, Jacob Meerman, and Juliaan van Groenewegen, Cashier of the Dutch East India Company. The present work is purported to portray the young Herman Boerhaave in 1690, at age 22, the year he completed his master's degree in philosophy from the University of Leiden, before turning his studies to medicine, where he distinguished himself as the originator of "the bedside manner." He is regarded as the founder of clinical teaching and of the modern academic hospital and is sometimes referred to as "the father of physiology." HID12401132022 © 2024 Heritage Auctions | All Rights Reserved

Lined canvas. Minor frame abrasion and a very few small repaired tears at edges. Stretcher bar marks very faintly visible under raking light at left and right edges. Yellowing to the varnish layer. Finely patterned craquelure throughout. Some scattered very small of surface abrasion and minor loss. This lot is offered unframed. Under UV: heavily applied varnish fluoresces green unevenly and appears to have been removed in some areas. An older treatment campaign is visible beneath the varnish layer as scattered small dots and dashes of finely applied retouching to the figure's hair and costume. A more recent campaign above the varnish is comprised of dots and dashes of retouching along edges and background, with a very few small dashes affecting the lower half of the figure's robe.