id: 125895 accession number: 1948.137 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1948.137 updated: 2025-02-09 01:20:06.557000 Portrait of a Woman, probably Aeltje Dircksdr. Pater, 1638. Frans Hals (Dutch, c. 1581–1666). Oil on canvas; framed: 82 x 67 x 6.5 cm (32 5/16 x 26 3/8 x 2 9/16 in.); unframed: 66.5 x 52.3 cm (26 3/16 x 20 9/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1948.137 title: Portrait of a Woman, probably Aeltje Dircksdr. Pater title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: 1638 creation date earliest: 1638 creation date latest: 1638 current location: creditline: Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund copyright: --- culture: Netherlands technique: oil on canvas department: European Painting and Sculpture collection: P - Netherlandish-Dutch type: Painting find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS * Frans Hals (Dutch, c. 1581–1666) - artist c. 1581/85-1666 --- measurements: Framed: 82 x 67 x 6.5 cm (32 5/16 x 26 3/8 x 2 9/16 in.); Unframed: 66.5 x 52.3 cm (26 3/16 x 20 9/16 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: inscription: Inscribed upper left: "AETAT SUAE 41 / ANNO 1638" translation: remark: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: Dutch Painting, The Golden Age opening date: 1955-01-05T05:00:00 Dutch Painting, The Golden Age. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 5-February 27, 1955). title: Style, Truth and the Portrait opening date: 1963-10-01T04:00:00 Style, Truth and the Portrait. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (October 1-November 19, 1963). title: Dutch Art and Life in the Seventeenth Century opening date: 1973-07-10T04:00:00 Dutch Art and Life in the Seventeenth Century. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (July 10-September 2, 1973). title: Portraiture: The Image of the Individual opening date: 1983-11-22T05:00:00 Portraiture: The Image of the Individual. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 22, 1983-January 22, 1984). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * {'description': 'Ausstellung alter Gemalde aus Wiener Privatbesitz. Vienna, Oesterrreichisches museum für Kunst und industrie (August - September 1873), cat. no. 124.', 'opening_date': None} --- PROVENANCE Private collection, Amsterdam date: Until 1851 footnotes: *
The seller of the portrait in the 1851 auction is not identified in the catalogue, but is described as “a diligent art lover in Amsterdam
citations: (Jeronimo de Vries/Johannes Albertus Brondgeest, Amsterdam, sale, September 15, 1851, no. 198, fl. 40 [with pendant], to Brondgeest [bought in]) date: 1851 footnotes: *
According to Marieke de Winkel (2012), the two Hals portraits in this sale (“Twee stuks deftige Mans- en Vrouwenportretten; meesterlijk en breed van behandeling”) are likely the two portraits, thought to have been lost, mentioned by Jacob Scheltema in his dictionary of national biography, Staatkundig Nederland (1806)  De Winkel suggests that the female portrait in the sale (73 x 54 cm) is the CMA portrait, despite the discrepancies in dimensions and medium (which de Winkel notes occurred frequently in the nineteenth century).  The painting was bought in, and “Brondgeest” is written in the catalogue as the buyer.  Johannes Brondgeest died in 1849, so the notation likely refers to his firm. 

In her article, de Winkel lays out a possible early provenance for this painting.  It is based largely on circumstantial evidence and conjecture, and thus is not included in CMA’s provenance until further research can provide confirmation: Scheltema writes in Staatkundig Nederland (1806): “The original portraits of [Jan de Wael] and his spouse, Aeltje Pater, done by Frans Hals…were still in Kampen in 1802.”  De Winkel maintains that Scheltema would have seen these portraits in the Kampen home of Kornelis Johannes de Vriese [1729-1803] and his son, Cornelis Wilhelmus de Vriese [1768-1813].  Jan de Wael’s niece, Josina de Wael [1637-1677], was married to Abraham de Vriese, Kornelis’s father and Cornelis’s grandfather.   De Winkel speculates that because Jan de Wael and Aeltje Pater did not have any children, their portraits would have been left to their nieces or their descendents – although it is unclear who, specifically, would have inherited the portraits.  There is an inventory dated Jan. 10, 1679 (Noord-Hollands Archief, Haarlem) of the belongings left by Aeltje, but the paintings are not specified.   
citations: Baron Anselm Mayer von Rothschild (1803–1874), Vienna (inv. AR705), by descent to his son, Baron Albert von Rothschild date: by 1873-1874 footnotes: *
The catalogue of an exhibition of Old Master paintings from Viennese private collections held at the Österreichischen Museum in 1873 situates the painting in the collection of Anselm von Rothschild.
citations: Baron Albert von Rothschild (1844-1911), Vienna, by descent to his son, Alphonse von Rothschild date: Probably 1874-1911 footnotes: citations: Baron Alphonse von Rothschild (1878-1942), until confiscated by the Nazis in March 1938. date: Probably 1911-1938 footnotes: citations: In the possession of the Nazis. Apparently intended for the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, but kept at the Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum, Innsbruck. By 1945 stored in the salt mines at Alt Aussee. date: 1938-1945 footnotes: *
This painting was confiscated from the collection of Alphonse Rothschild in March of 1938 and was chosen by Hitler for the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna (Vorschlag zur Verteilung der in Wien beschlagnahmte Gemälde: Für das Kunstmuseum in Linz October 20, 1939. Linz Museum: Consolidated Interrogation Report (CIR) No. 4 (Attachments 56-82). Restitution Research Records. Records of the U.S. Occupation Headquarters, World War II, Record Group 260. National Archives Identifier 3725274. M1946, Roll 139, page 74. Fold3.com, http://www.fold3.com/image/#283755713, retrieved July 15, 2013): here the painting is titled “Damenbildnis” and was listed under inventory no. AR 705 (“AR 705” is inscribed in chalk on the painting’s stretcher and is still visible).  The painting also appears on the “Verzeichnis der von den Staatlichen Kunstsammlungen erbetenen Gemälde aus der Sammlung Alphons Rothschild ” (no. 7), an inventory found in Hitler’s library at Berchtesgaden.  Listed above it is Hals's Portrait of Tieleman Roosterman (AR 866), also in the Cleveland Museum of Art (1999.173).   According to Felicitas Kunth and Sophie Lillie, Portrait of a Woman was kept at the Tiroler Landesmuseum/Innsbruck Ferdinandeum during the war.  It was then moved to the salt mine at Alt Aussee.
citations: In possession of the Allies. Restituted to Alphose von Rothschild's widow, Baroness Clarice de Rothschild. date: 1945-1947 footnotes: *
The Allies recovered the painting in the salt mines at Alt Aussee, which Alphonse’s widow, Clarice, visited to identify works from her family’s collection.  The painting did not go through the Munich Central Collecting Point, but was returned to Clarice in 1947.
citations: Baroness Clarice de Rothschild (1894-1967); sold to Rosenberg & Stiebel, New York date: 1947-1948 footnotes: citations: (Rosenberg & Stiebel, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art) date: 1948 footnotes: citations: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio date: 1948- footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: digital description: wall description: --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Roos, Cornelis François, and Jeronimo de Vries. Schilderijen, door voorname oude en hedendaagsche meesters. 1851. page number: url: Hofstede de Groot, Cornelis. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century Based on the Work of John Smith. Vol. 3. London: Macmillan, 1910. page number: url: Roos, Cornelis François, and Jeronimo de Vries. Schilderijen, door voorname oude en hedendaagsche meesters. 1851. page number: url: Marieke de Winkel, “Frans Hals’s Portraits of Michiel de Wael and Cunera van Baersdorp and of Jan de Wael and Aeltje Dircksdr. Pater Identified,” Face book: studies on Dutch and Flemish portraiture of the 16th-18th centuries, eds. Edwin Buijsen, Charles Dumas, and Volker Manuth, Leiden: Primavera Pers, 2012, pp. 141-150. page number: url: page number: url: Kunth, Felicitas. Die Rothschild'schen Gemäldesammlungen in Wien. Vienna: Böhlau, 2006. page number: url: Lillie, Sophie. Was einmal war: Handbuch der enteigneten Kunstsammlungen Wiens. Vienna: Czernin, 2003. page number: url: Slive, Seymour. Frans Hals. London: Phaidon, 1970. page number: url: Katalog der Gemälde alter Meister aus dem Wiener Privatbesitze, ausgestellt im k.k.Österreichischen Museum August-September 1873. 1873. page number: url: Hofstede de Groot, Cornelis. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century Based on the Work of John Smith. Vol. 3. London: Macmillan, 1910. page number: url: Slive, Seymour. Frans Hals. London: Phaidon, 1970. page number: url: Slive, Seymour. Frans Hals. London: Phaidon, 1970. page number: url: Kunth, Felicitas. Die Rothschild'schen Gemäldesammlungen in Wien. Vienna: Böhlau, 2006. page number: url: Lillie, Sophie. Was einmal war: Handbuch der enteigneten Kunstsammlungen Wiens. Vienna: Czernin, 2003 page number: url: Francis, Henry Sayles, “’Portrait of a Lady in a Ruff,’ by Frans Hals,” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 35:7, Pt. I (Sept. 1948): 163-165, 169-170. page number: url: "A Plan for Loot: Blue-Prints for a New 'House of German Art.' How Hitler Intended to Dispose of the 'Purchased' Rothschild Collections." The Illustrated London News 207, no. 5542 (July 7, 1945): 25 page number: url: Kunth, Felicitas. Die Rothschild'schen Gemäldesammlungen in Wien. Vienna: Böhlau, 2006 page number: url: Lillie, Sophie. Was einmal war: Handbuch der enteigneten Kunstsammlungen Wiens. Vienna: Czernin, 2003. page number: url: Slive, Seymour. Frans Hals. London: Phaidon, 1970. page number: url: page number: url: Francis, Henry Sayles, “’Portrait of a Lady in a Ruff,’ by Frans Hals,” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 35:7, Pt. I (Sept. 1948): 163-165, 169-170. page number: url: Kunth, Felicitas. Die Rothschild'schen Gemäldesammlungen in Wien. Vienna: Böhlau, 2006 page number: url: Slive, Seymour. Frans Hals. London: Phaidon, 1970. page number: url: Lillie, Sophie. Was einmal war: Handbuch der enteigneten Kunstsammlungen Wiens. Vienna: Czernin, 2003 page number: url: Francis, Henry Sayles, “’Portrait of a Lady in a Ruff,’ by Frans Hals,” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 35:7, Pt. I (Sept. 1948): 163-165, 169-170. page number: url: "A Plan for Loot: Blue-Prints for a New 'House of German Art.' How Hitler Intended to Dispose of the 'Purchased' Rothschild Collections." The Illustrated London News 207, no. 5542 (July 7, 1945): 25. page number: url: Slive, Seymour. Frans Hals. London: Phaidon, 1970. page number: url: Katalog der Gemälde alter Meister aus dem Wiener Privatbesitze: ausgestellt im K.K. Österreichischen Museum [für Kunst und Industrie]. Vienna: K.K. Österreichischen Museums, 1873. page number: Mentioned: p. 31, no. 124. url: Moes, E. W., and Jean de Boschère. Frans Hals, sa vie et son œuvre. Brussels: G. van Oest & Cie, 1909. page number: Mentioned: 108, no. 190 url: Hofstede de Groot, C. P. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century. 8 vols Translated and edited by Edward G. Hawke. London: Macmillan and Co, 1907-1927. page number: Mentioned: vol. 3 (1910), p. 114, no. 398 url: "A Plan for Loot: Blue-Prints for a New 'House of German Art.' How Hitler Intended to Dispose of the 'Purchased' Rothschild Collections." The Illustrated London News 207, no. 5542 (July 7, 1945), 24-25. page number: Mentioned and reproduced: p. 25 url: Francis, Henry S. ""Portrait of a Lady in a Ruff," by Frans Hals." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 35, no. 7 (1948): 163-70. page number: url: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25141484. "A French Rococo collection goes to Cleveland." ArtNews 47, no. 5 (September 1948).
 page number: Mentioned: p. 29. url: "Recent Acquisitions." Pictures on Exhibit 11, no. 1 (Oct. 1948).
 page number: Reproduced: p. 2; Mentioned: pp. 3, 48. url: "Trinity of Masterpieces for Cleveland." ArtNews 47, no. 7 (November 1948).
 page number: Mentioned and reproduced: cover, pp. 5, 28. url: “Part II. Annual Report Issue for the Year 1948.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 36, no. 6, 1949, pp. 111–142. page number: Mentioned: p. 112 url: https://www.jstor.org/stable/25141566 The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. page number: Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 449 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1958/page/n82 Milliken, William Mathewson. Great Museums of the World: The Cleveland Museum of Art. New York: H.N. Abrams, 1958. page number: Reproduced: p. 43 url: Saisselin, Rémy G. Style, Truth, and the Portrait. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1963. page number: Mentioned and Reproduced: no. 7 url: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. page number: Reproduced: p. 123 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1966/page/n147 The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. page number: Reproduced: p. 123 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1969/page/n147 Slive, Seymour. Frans Hals. 3 vols London: Phaidon, 1970-1973. page number: Reproduced: vol. 2, pls. 191, 193; Mentioned: vol. 3, p. 64, no. 121. url: Grimm, Claus. Frans Hals: Entwicklung, Werkanalyse, Gesamtkatalog. Berlin: Mann, 1972. page number: Mentioned: p. 98, no. 91 url: Grimm, Claus, and E. C. Montagni. L'Opera completa di Frans Hals. Milan: Rizzoli, 1974. page number: Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 100-101, no. 129 url: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. page number: Reproduced: p. 157 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1978/page/n177 The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Catalogue of Paintings, Part 3: European Paintings of the 16th, 17th, and 18th Centuries. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1982. page number: Mentioned: p. 238-240; Reproduced: p. 239 url: Grimm, Claus. Frans Hals: the complete work. New York: H.N. Abrams, 1990. page number: Mentioned and reproduced: p. 283, no. 91. url: Lillie, Sophie. Was einmal war: Handbuch der enteigneten Kunstsammlungen Wiens. Vienna: Czernin Verlag, 2003. page number: Mentioned: p. 1027, no. 705 url: Kunth, Felicitas. Die Rothschild'schen Gemäldesammlungen in Wien. Vienna: Böhlau, 2006. page number: Mentioned: pp. 192-193 url: Winkel, Marieke de. "Frans Hals's Portraits of Michiel de Wael and Cunera van Baersdorp and of Jan de Wael and Aeltje Dircksdr. Pater Identified." pp. 141-150. In Face book: studies on Dutch and Flemish portraiture of the 16th-18th centuries. Ed. Edwin Buijsen, Charles Dumas, and Volker Manuth. Leiden: Primavera Pers, 2012. page number: Reproduced: p. 144, fig. 5 url: Dudok van Heel, Sebastien A. C., and Marten Jan Bok. 'Frans Halsen' aan de muur: omgang met familieportretten in Haarlem: Voocht--Olycan--Van der Meer. The Hague: Koninklijk Nederlandsch GEnootschap voor Geslacht- en Wapenkunde, 2013. page number: Mentioned: p. 14, 16; Reproduced: p. 17, fig. 7d url: Paintings in the Cleveland Museum of Art: Picture Book No. 4 . [Cleveland]: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1952. page number: Reproduced: p. 26 url: Paintings in the Cleveland Museum of Art: Picture Book No. 4 . [Cleveland]: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1952. --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1948.137/1948.137_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1948.137/1948.137_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1948.137/1948.137_full.tif