Portrait of Constantijn Huygens (1596-1687) and his Five Children

Constantijn Huygens, secretary to Frederik Hendrik, Prince of Orange, lost his wife Suzanna van Baerle in 1637, the year their fifth child was born. In 1640 he had this painted for his house on the Plein in The Hague, facing the Mauritshuis, where it hung above a fireplace. He sits at the centre in black, and his five children surround him, each in an oval frame of their own, with putti and heavy garlands of fruit in between. The eldest, Constantijn, was 12. Christiaan, the boy in purple at the upper right, was 11 and would later invent the pendulum clock and discover the ring around Saturn. At the top is Suzanna, three years old. Their mother does not appear. Below him runs a Latin line he chose himself, Ecce hæreditas Domini, Behold the legacy of the Lord, meant as a memorial to her.