Portrait of Maria van Reigersberg (1589-1653)

Maria van Reigersberg (1589–1653) was the wife of Hugo Grotius — the great jurist whose imprisonment and dramatic escape in a book chest became one of the most celebrated stories of the Dutch Golden Age. Maria was herself a figure of exceptional courage and intelligence: it was entirely her plan and execution that enabled Grotius's escape, and she remained loyal to him through his decades of exile, accompanying him to Paris and beyond. Mierevelt painted her in 1640, by which time she was fifty-one and had spent nearly two decades in exile with her husband. The Prinsenhof collection in Delft — where the portrait of Grotius himself also resides — makes this a paired portrait series in a historically significant location. Maria's portrait at fifty-one is therefore the image of a woman who had sacrificed a comfortable life in the Dutch Republic for her husband's freedom and principles.

The 1640 panel portrait represents Mierevelt's very late autograph work — he was approaching eighty and died the following year. The technique remains precise in the facial modelling despite the artist's age. Any slight loosening of handling in secondary areas might reflect studio assistance, but the face of this historically important sitter would have received Mierevelt's personal attention. The mature, serious face of a woman in her early fifties is rendered with characteristic honesty.