Portrait of Josina Copes-Schade van Westrum and Her Children - c. 1651

Group family portraits were among the most prestigious commissions in seventeenth-century Dutch and Flemish painting, documenting the unity and prosperity of a household across generations. Josina Copes-Schade van Westrum belonged to a family of Dutch nobility, and this 1651 portrait of her with her children was painted as the family established itself in 's-Hertogenbosch — Van Thulden's home city after 1635. The Noordbrabants Museum's holding of this work reflects its regional significance: a major portrait commission by one of Brabant's leading painters of a prominent Brabantine family. Van Thulden's portrait of a mother with children required him to manage the compositional challenge of integrating adult and child figures with different scales, postures, and attention spans into a coherent and dignified family image.

The mother-and-children format typically centres the adult figure, with children arranged around or before her in poses that communicate their age, relationship, and status. Van Thulden handles the children with the careful observation of individual physiognomy that distinguishes good portrait work from formulaic repetition. The mother's dress — mid-century Dutch aristocratic fashion — is rendered with attention to its specific materials and construction.