ISAAC JACOBSZ. VAN HOOREN (DUTCH C.1601-1652)

Very little is known about the life of Isaac van Hooren; prior to the discovery of the signature and inscription on the present portrait during conservation undertaken in 2003, the only dated works by the artist came from the 1640s. Excitingly, the fact that this Portrait of a Burgomeister is dated 1652 allows us to confirm this as the year of his death for the first time, as a valuation of the paintings belonging to the 'late' Isaack van Hooren was carried out by the painter Dirk van Santvoort and the art dealer Hendrick van Uylenburgh on the 22 August 1652 (A., Bredius, Künstler-Inventare, The Hague 1917 , III, p. 768.) The medal worn by the sitter must have been added at a slightly later date, as it comemorates the murder of Johan and Cornelis de Wit, who were lynched by a mob in the Hague in 1672 becasue of their opposition to the House of Orange. Such additions to portraits were not unusual, as they allowed for changes in fashion or, as in this case, to show shifting political alliegance.