Bildnis des Admirals Cornelis Evertsen d. Ä.

Bildnis des Admirals Cornelis Evertsen d.Ä. (Portrait of Admiral Cornelis Evertsen the Elder), dated 1651 in the Führermuseum collection, represents an unusual excursion into formal portraiture by Steen, who was predominantly a genre painter. Cornelis Evertsen the Elder (c.1610–1666) was a prominent Dutch naval commander who distinguished himself in the First Anglo-Dutch War (1652–1654). A portrait of Evertsen by Steen in 1651 — just before the war in which Evertsen became famous — would place the commission in the period when Evertsen was already a significant naval figure but not yet at the height of his fame. The attribution of a formal portrait to Steen warrants scrutiny, as formal portraiture was not his primary practice, and the Führermuseum provenance means the work passed through disrupted wartime circumstances that complicate its history.

Formal portraiture in the Dutch tradition required a different approach from Steen's genre work — careful attention to likeness, the rendering of official dress and insignia, and a compositional dignity appropriate to the sitter's status. The naval uniform and any insignia of rank would have been rendered with the precision Dutch patrons expected of their portrait commissions.