Portrait of Jan Jacobsz. Hinlopen and His Family

Celebrating the reciprocity between affluence and fertility, the painter here presents a prosperous family in a suitably wealthy domestic interior. The walls are covered in tooled and gilded Spanish leather, but for all their small scale, these figures are not eclipsed by so daunting a setting. The eldest son, in festive dress, plays the part of falconer, possibly emblematic of the family’s name.

Jan Jacobsz. Hinlopen (1626-1666) was a rich Dutch cloth merchant, an officer in the civic guard, a real estate developer in the Jordaan, alderman in the city council and a keen art collector. It is likely that he had good connections with Gabriel Metsu.

Formerly the painting was thought, erroneously, to portrays Burgomaster Gillis Valckenier and his family, or the merchant Geelvink and his family.