Regents of the Leper's house in Amsterdam

Jacob Ochtervelt's 1674 group portrait of the regents of Amsterdam's Leper's House (Leprozenhuis) belongs to the tradition of charitable institution portraiture that produced some of the most socially significant paintings of the Dutch Golden Age. The Leprozenhuis was one of Amsterdam's oldest institutions, dating to the medieval period and continuing to care for those afflicted with skin diseases including leprosy through the seventeenth century. Its regents — drawn from the civic elite — administered significant resources and were proud of their philanthropic role. Ochtervelt, best known for his elegant genre interiors depicting prosperous bourgeois life, here works in a more formal register, producing the kind of group portrait of civic administrators that was a staple of Amsterdam institutional commissions. The Rijksmuseum's holding places this work within its comprehensive documentation of Amsterdam's civic and charitable life.

Ochtervelt applies the same attention to characterization and costume he brought to his genre scenes, though the group portrait format required more formal arrangements and less of the narrative interaction that animated his best interior scenes. The dark costumes of the regents, relieved by white collars and cuffs, follow Dutch civic portrait convention. His characterization of individual faces maintains the psychological directness evident in his genre work.