Cornelis Tromp’s trophies: The origins of a late portrait (1675-1676) by Ferdinand Bol

Abstract

In 2018, Het Scheepvaartmuseum in Amsterdam acquired a portrait of Lieutenant-Admiral Cornelis Tromp (1629-1691), painted by Ferdinand Bol, from a private collection. Previously, this work was only known from a reproduction print by Lambert Visscher. After its acquisition, the portrait was restored in 2019, which is when its material and (art) historical aspects were examined. In the portrait, Tromp wears two insignia: a diamond portrait medallion on a red ribbon and the badge of the Danish Order of the Elephant. This badge was added to the portrait later, but by Bol himself. Tromp was thus initially depicted wearing only one of the insignia: the diamond medallion with the red ribbon. That Bol regarded this version of the portrait as completed is evidenced by the egg-white varnish he applied to it. At a later stage however, he exchanged this insignia for the badge of the Order of the Elephant. He carefully hid the medallion and ribbon from view by first scraping off their paint and then obscuring the remains of these forms with a layer of grey paint. Finally, he added the insignia of the Order of the Elephant. During a later restoration, the paint Bol used to cover the medallion and ribbon was largely removed, revealing these forms once again. The ship in the background is the Gouden Leeuw (Golden Lion), Tromp’s flagship during the Third Anglo-Dutch War (1672-1674). Since Tromp had received the portrait medallion from the English king in January 1675, the first portrait version can be dated to February 1675 at the earliest and May 1676 at the latest, when Tromp was appointed commander-in-chief of the Danish fleet in Denmark. After Tromp was elevated to the Order of the Elephant upon his arrival in Copenhagen, Bol altered the portrait to keep it in step with Tromp’s career. This chronology sheds new light on Bol’s artistic practice. which was always assumed to have ended in 1669 when Bol married the wealthy widow Anna van Erckel. However, Tromp’s portrait demonstrates that Bol continued to paint into the second half of the 1670s. After his elevation to the Order of the Elephant, Tromp only allowed himself to be portrayed with this insignia, which was always depicted correctly. It was only Bol who depicted the badge incorrectly, indicating that he did not make the adjustment at Tromp’s instigation. Presumably Bol did this of his own initiative, or that of his wife’s, Anna van Erckel. Archival evidence strongly suggests that she was the first owner of the portrait and that she also owned a portrait, painted by Bol, of Tromp’s wife Margaretha van Raephorst. It was not previously known that Bol had painted her, however a portrait by him of an anonymous woman is clearly Van Raephorst’s likeness. Archival documents show that Van Erckel and Bol knew the Tromp couple personally and maintained friendly relations with them. In Bol and Van Erckel’s stately canal house, the portraits would have been ‘proof’ of that personal relationship.