Andries Bicker (1586-1652). Trader with Russia and Burgomaster of Amsterdam

The inscription gives his age as 56, and the date is 1642. Andries Bicker was then one of the most powerful men in Amsterdam. He was a merchant whose fortune came partly from the trade with Russia, as the old title still says, and he served as burgomaster again and again. He and his brothers held so many of the city's offices that people spoke of a Bicker league. Eight years after this portrait, that power ended. In 1650 the young stadholder William II of Orange, quarrelling with Amsterdam over how large the army should be, sent troops toward the city. One of his conditions for pulling back was that Andries and his brother Cornelis leave the city government. Andries died in 1652 without holding office again.