[Antique drawing, watercolor] Portrait of Abraham Velters, ca. 1820, 1 p.

Unknown artist, after Jacob Adriaensz. Backer (1608-1651)

About this Item

Portrait of Abraham Velters (1603-1690) with a hat. He wears a large mantel of the same colour of the hat. He has light green eyes, red curly hair and a moustache."[.] Abraham Velters was born in Calais in 1603, the son of Reynier Velters (1567-1610). He became a highly successful merchant, with dealings in Spain and particularly in France where he served as the Dutch consul in Marseille. In 1635 he is mentioned in a maritime insurance transaction in Amsterdam, where he lived in a palatial townhouse on the Keizersgracht, no. 117. He married Helena de Haze (1621-1679) in 1644 and she bore him nine children, one of whom -- Alexander Velters (1656-1719) -- went on to become burgomaster of Amsterdam in 1707. Upon his death in 1690, Abraham left his heirs 750,000 guilders, a truly astronomical sum at the time, which elicited an ironic comment from Constantijn Huygens the Younger, who on 15 November 1690 noted in his Journal: 'I went to visit Mrs. Hop.We talked for a long time and she told me that in Amsterdam the old Velters, Mr. Cruyningen's father-in-law, had passed away, and that he had left twenty-one tons of gold, having been cheap all his life.'In addition to his commercial and familial accomplishments, Abraham Velters was a noted collector in the Amsterdam art market and is recorded by John Michael Montias as an important buyer at the Van Maerlen sale in 1637 (J.M. Montias, Art at Auction in 17th Century Amsterdam, Amsterdam, 2002, pp. 194 and 202). His posthumous inventory of 1691 lists a collection of forty-four paintings including a Head of a Woman by Rembrandt, a portrait by Van Dyck and five pictures by Rubens (all now untraced). [.]" (Christie's, London, Old master & British paintings, 03-07-2012, lot. 6)The drawing is monogrammed on the top right corner: AB.At the Rijksmuseum is another copied version from the original painting (last sold at Christie's in London, sale 5602, Old master & British paintings, 03-07-2012, lot. 6), formerly attributed to Ferdinand Bol (RP-T-1892-A-2616). Watercolor on paper; total: 305 x 265 mm; spores and foxing (some staining seems to have been copied directly from the painting), though very charming portrait. Seller Inventory # PR121121

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Title: [Antique drawing, watercolor] Portrait of ...