Portrait of Jan van de Poll (1597-1678)

In November 1885 Jonkheer Jan Stanislaus Robert van de Poll gave the Rijksmuseum a large group of his ancestors' portraits, and this one came with them. The director, Frederik Obreen, decided the sitter was the brewer Nicolaes Hasselaer, and that name stayed on the label for almost 140 years. In 2024 the curator Jonathan Bikker went through the wills of Hasselaer's grandchildren and great-grandchildren and found that the picture could never have passed down that line. He set the face beside two portraits of the Amsterdam civic guard colonel Jan van de Poll, painted in 1650 and 1653 and now in the Amsterdam Museum. The features agree. Van de Poll, seven times burgomaster of his city, was the donor's direct ancestor. Hals shows him around 1637, sitting sideways on a chair, one arm laid across its back and a stick in his hand.