Portrait of Loef Vredericx (1590-1668) as an Ensign

Loef Vredericx earned his living as a silversmith. Here he appears in the honourable office of ensign in the Amsterdam civic militia, painted by Thomas de Keyser in 1626 in marksman's costume, with a green sash at his waist, an iron gorget at his throat and a rapier at his side. The banner he holds bears the Dutch lion and the words Pro Patria, for the fatherland. De Keyser put his monogram and the year above the door, and an inscription on the back of the panel records a precise date, 15 August 1626.

At some point the portrait left Amsterdam for Gatchina, the palace of Tsar Paul I outside St Petersburg. It came back through dealers in Berlin and Amsterdam, and in 1931 the Mauritshuis bought it with help from the Rembrandt Association and private donors.