Portrait of Constantijn Huygens

Constantijn Huygens was about 32, secretary to the Prince of Orange, Frederick Henry, and one of the sharpest judges of painting in the Dutch Republic, when the young Jan Lievens asked to paint him. Huygens told the story himself in his autobiography. It was winter and the days were short. The sitter was busy, so Lievens painted the clothes and the hands first and came back for the face later. The two sittings still show. As the museum points out, the head is a little small for the body, set above a broad black cloak, a plain white collar and hands folded in the lap. In 1857 the portrait entered the museum at Douai in northern France as the work of another Dutch painter, Bartholomeus van der Helst. Douai has lent it to the Rijksmuseum since 1962.