Cornelis Pronk (Amsterdam 1691 – 1759 Amsterdam)

Portrait of Hendrik van Soesdijk (1697 – 1778)

Signed and dated ‘C: Pronk / fe: 1723’ (lower right)

and

Jean Fournier (Valenciennes 1703 – 1754 The Hague)

Portrait of Margaretha Cornelia van Aalst (*1716)

Signed and dated ‘J. Fournier 1738’ (lower left)

Both oil on canvas, laid down onto panel, 30.2 x 25.8 cm (11.9 x 10.2 inch); contained in late 18th-century giltwood Neoclassical frames

Provenance
Presumably commissioned by the sitters; thence by family descent until sold in 2024.

***

Although they are by different painters, these portraits belong together and depict a husband and wife. Hendrik van Soesdijk was ‘drossaard’ and ‘schout’ of Vreeland and married Margaretha Cornelia van Aalst, his junior by thirty years. Their son, Johan van Soesdijk, born in March 1738, the same year as the portrait of his mother was painted, was married in 1767 to Geertruy Aletta Ploos van Amstel, the daughter of the collector and printmaker Cornelis Ploos van Amstel. Hendrik’s portrait was painted in 1723 by Cornelis Pronk, but when his young wife was painted in 1738, the selected artist was the French-born society portraitist Jean Fournier, who based the composition of the portrait, the support and size on the earlier portrait by Pronk, to produce a ‘matching’ set of pendants.

Cornelis Pronk was born in 1691 and was taught by Jan van Houten (1679–1713) and Arnold Boonen (1669–1729).¹ Pronk is best known for his accurate topographical drawings of Dutch towns, villages and castles, a movement mostly inspired by Pronk himself, who taught a generation of other topographical artists, including Jan de Beijer, Jacobus Buys, Paulus van Liender and Abraham de Haen. Only a handful of portraits in oils are known, dating from c.1714 to c.1730 and displaying the influence of his teacher Arnold Boonen. Our portrait can be compared to Pronk's portrait of an unidentified gentleman in the collection of the Dulwich Picture Gallery, London.²

Jean Fournier was born in Valenciennes in 1703, where he was taught by Jean-Baptiste Guidez and became master in the guild in 1722.³ In 1723 and 1724 he spent time in Paris, working in the studio of Jean-François de Troy and afterwards settled in Amsterdam, where he became a member of the Église wallon in 1727. From 1746 he lived and worked in The Hague, where he was much patronised by Stadtholder Willem IV. In 1747 he became a member of the Confrerie Pictura. Portraits by Fournier of Willem IV dated 1752 and 1753 are preserved in the collections of respectively the Museum Prinsenhof in Delft and Kasteel Duivenvoorde, Voorschoten (fig.).⁴ Our charming portrait, one of Fournier’s most intimate portraits, can be compared to the artist’s portrait of Margaretha Cornelia van de Poll (1726–1798), preserved in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam (fig.).⁵

Fournier received further commissions for portraits from the most notable families in Dutch society of the period, including members of the Van Wassenaer, Van Nassau La Lecq, Van Aylva, Van Heemskerk and Van Aerssen Beijeren families. Portraitists of foreign birth were particularly favoured during the period, frequently trained at international courts, from which they imported an elegant and refined courtly style that was much appreciated in the highest circles. The present portrait of Margaretha van Aalst is among Fournier’s earliest extant works.

1. For the artist, see: A.W. Gerlagh, Pronk met pen en penseel: Cornelis Pronk 1691-1759) tekent Noord-Holland, Amsterdam 1997.
2. Oil on canvas, 90.5 x 70.2 cm, signed and dated 1714, inv. no. DPG615.
3. For the artist, see: R.E.O. Ekkart, ‘Jean Fournier als portrettist van Willem IV’, in: J.R. ter Molen et al. (ed.), Een vorstelijk archivaris. Opstellen voor Bernard Woelderink, Zwolle 2003, pp. 111-116.
4. Oil on canvas, 115 x 92 cm, inv. no. PDS 27 and oil on canvas, 48.4 x 39.2 cm.
5. Oil on canvas, 83.5 x 68 cm, signed and dated 1750, inv. no. SK-A-1272; Jan Baptist Bedaux and Norbert Middelkoop, Kopstukken. Amsterdammers geportretteerd 1600-1800, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Amsterdam Museum) 2002-03, cat. no. 95, repr.