Equestrian Portrait of Cornelis (1639–1680) and Michiel Pompe van Meerdervoort (1638–1653) with Their Tutor and Coachman ("Starting for the Hunt")

Equestrian Portrait of Cornelis (1639–1680) and Michiel Pompe van Meerdervoort (1638–1653) with Their Tutor and Coachman ("Starting for the Hunt")

Equestrian Portrait of Cornelis (1639–1680) and Michiel Pompe van Meerdervoort (1638–1653) with Their Tutor and Coachman ("Starting for the Hunt")

Artist:Aelbert Cuyp (Dutch, Dordrecht 1620–1691 Dordrecht)
Date:ca. 1652–53
Medium:Oil on canvas
Dimensions:43 1/4 × 61 1/2 in. (109.9 × 156.2 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:The Friedsam Collection, Bequest of Michael Friedsam, 1931

Inventories of Castle Meerdervoort dating from 1680 and 1749 record Cuyp’s portrait of two sons of the wealthy Pompe van Meerdervoort family with their tutor and coachman. The painting hung over the mantle in the boys’ room, as the patron probably intended. In the distance Cuyp depicted not the environs of Dordrecht but the countryside near Elten on the Rhine. The castle may allude to the family’s place among the landed gentry.

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