Lot 30: Pauwels van Hillegaert (Amsterdam 1596-1640)

An equestrian portrait of the Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand (1609-1641), an extensive river landscape beyond
oil on canvas
162.3 x 157.8 cm.

The Collection of the late Mr and Mrs Frans Dony-van Lanschot, The Hague (Lots 18-20, 30, 85 and 86)

The sitter was the son of King Philip III of Spain and Margaret of Austria; born in Madrid, he became the archbishop of Toledo at the age of ten, subsequently becoming Cardinal-Infante. Ferdinand was made Governor-General of the Habsburg Netherlands in 1634 and died young at the age of 32, having undermined his health with a life of warfare. He was buried in the Gudula Cathedral, Brussels.

The Amsterdam history and battle-scene painter Pauwels van Hillegaert probably painted the present picture between 1635 and 1640, after the Cardinal-Infante moved to the Netherlands and after Sir Peter Paul Rubens finished his esquestrian portrait of Don Ferdinand with the Siege of Nördlingen in the background (now in Museo del Prado, Madrid). It is certainly possible that Van Hillegaert was familiar with Rubens' portrait when he painted the present picture; the stance and angle of the horse is closer, however, to that of Rubens' Equestrian Portrait of George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham (1625-7; formerly Earl of Jersey, Osterley Park; destroyed by fire 1949).

The Osterley picture was Rubens' earliest known use of the levade pose that he established through his studio in the so-called Riding School (c. 1615; formerly Kaiser-Friedrich Museum, Berlin), and which he subsequently employed in the Prado picture and the now lost Equestrian portrait of King Philip IV (1628; formerly Madrid, Alcazar; destroyed by fire 1734). Interestingly, the figural types here also follow an engraving by Antony van der Does (1609-1680), published by Martin van den Enden, on the basis of a sketch by Diepenbeeck of 1634 that made use of Rubens' prototypes and that predated the Prado portrait. It may be, therefore, that the engraving was the immediate basis for Van Hillegaert's composition.

In 1639, when Van Hillegaert had just joined the Schutterscompagnie of captain Dirck Theulingh in Amsterdam, he was depicted by Nicolaes Eliasz. Pickenoy amongst the others in the Schutterstuk (now in the Amsterdam Historical Museum, Amsterdam). By the time Pickenoy finished this masterpiece Van Hillegaert had already a long and well established reputation as a painter of equestrian portraits and sieges. He depicted notable Dutchmen like Prins Frederik Hendrik, Prins Maurits and Count Ernst Casimir seated on horseback, as well as celebrated foreigners such as Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden.

We are grateful to Karen E. Schaffers-Bodenhausen, of the Iconographic Buro, The Hague, for her help in cataloging this lot.

Christie's charge a premium to the buyer on the final bid price of each lot sold at the following rates: 23.8% of the final bid price of each lot sold up to and including € 150,000 and 14.28% of any amount in exces of € 150,000. Buyers' premium is calculated on the basis of each lot individually.