Portrait of Cornelis van Aerssen (1545-1627)

The man in the black doublet and wide ruff is Cornelis van Aerssen, griffier of the States General from 1584, the clerk who kept the records and letters of the Dutch Republic's governing assembly. Michiel van Mierevelt painted him in 1597, and Van Aerssen kept the post, at least in name, until his death in 1627.

The panel once carried two painted inscriptions that are no longer visible. One gave the painter's name and the year 1597. The other named the sitter as lord of Somerdijk and Spijk and recorded that he died in 1627 aged 83, so it was added some 30 years after the portrait was made. The picture stayed with the Van Aerssen family until a descendant bequeathed it to the Mauritshuis in 1914. It hangs in the Gallery Prince Willem V, and the Mauritshuis also owns a companion portrait of his son François, a diplomat.