458 PIETER VAN SLINGELAND SECT. See Moes, Iconographia Batava, No. 2728. Exhibited at Leyden, 1850, No. 136 ; and at The Hague, 1881, No. 273, and 1903, No. 120. 134. JOHANNES MEERMAN (1624-1675), Burgomaster of Leyden, with his wife, DINA VAN NES (1623-1681), and THEIR TWO CHILDREN (or, a Dutch Family). Sm. 28. In the centre of a handsome room the wife sits, turned three-quarters right, wearing a flowered satin skirt and a vermilion jacket trimmed with fur. She looks at the spectator, and points with her left hand to her little daughter, standing beside her to the left. The child wears a long light frock and a white cap. She holds a bird's nest and looks at her mother with a smile. Behind the little girl, at a table covered with a Turkey carpet on which is a lily in a vase, stands the father. He has long hair, and wears a long robe falling in folds. He looks at the spectator. He rests his right hand on a book. He stretches out his left hand to one side, to take a letter from a negro servant. In front, his young son steps from the right towards the group. The boy wears a handsome costume, richly adorned with ribbons. His long fair hair falls on his shoulders. In his gloved right hand he holds a bamboo cane ; in his left hand is his hat. At the mother's feet, in front, lies a spaniel. In the left corner of the foreground is an arm-chair. Behind the mother is a parrot on a perch ; its cage hangs from the ceiling. Above to the left is a curtain. In the left wall is the chimney-piece j on the shelf is a childish figure. In the right background is an open door. A masterpiece of the painter. It is not proved that the picture represents the family of J. Meerman ; it is thus uncertain whether it is identical with the portrait group of the family of J. Meerman mentioned by Houbraken. Sm. says of it : " This is the most consequential picture which the writer knows by this painter ; and it is probably the one mentioned by Descamps, representing the family of J. Meerman ; in the execution of which the artist was engaged three years, he having devoted a whole month to the painting of the ruffles and frill only of the young gentleman ; and, indeed, such is the extraordinary finishing of this picture, that it requires the aid of a magnifying glass to discover the delicacy of its pencilling." Panel, 2o inches by 17^ inches. A copy was in the sale : J. A. van Dam, Dordrecht, June I, 1829, No. 1 18 (1350 florins, bought in). See Moes, Iconographia Batava, No. 4942, I and 4. Engraved by Filhol. Mentioned by Houbraken, iii. 162 ; by Descamps ; and by Ch. Blanc, Histoire des Peintres, ii. Acquired in the reign of Louis XVI., King of France, by D'Angevilliers from an English brewer (for 12,000 francs). In the Louvre, Paris, 1907 catalogue, No. 2568 ; it was valued by the experts in 1816 (at 20,000 francs).
- 35- Johannes Joosten van Musschenbroek (1660-1707). In
this portrait was represented the Oriental lamp in the gable of his house in the Rapenburg at Leyden, with some of the physical apparatus made by him. [Pendant to 136. Cf. 1450.]
