This portrait of Margriet Benningh (1565-1641), the second wife of Pieter Dircksz Hasselaer (1554-1616), was originally larger. It must have been the same size as its companion piece, the Portrait of Pieter Dircksz Hasselaer (see SK-A-1249).5 Hasselaer was an Amsterdam councillor and civic magistrate, and was one of the founders of the Compagnie van Verre (Company of Distant Lands) in 1594.6 Van Dam van Isselt knew of three versions of the pendants.7 The pair now in Muiderslot (Muiden) seem to have been the original versions.8 The main argument behind this assumption is the fact that, unlike the Rijksmuseum version, the portrait of Margriet Benningh in Muiderslot is dated 1629 and gives the sitter’s age as 64. It also probably has its original dimensions of 69.5 x 54 cm. The Rijksmuseum’s Portrait of Pieter Dircksz Hasselaer may be a copy after a work that is attributed to Cornelis van der Voort in Muiderslot.9 The attribution of the two Rijksmuseum portraits is extremely difficult. They appear to have been painted by different artists. It is likely that Pickenoy made the female portrait, since there is a certain similarity to other likenesses by him, such as that of Maria Joachimsdr Swartenhont of 1627 (SK-A-699). The modelling, however, is a little harsher. It may be an autograph repetition. It is remarkable, though, that Margriet’s husband had been dead for over 13 years in 1629, which means that Hasselaer’s portrait must have been made earlier than his wife’s. What is equally interesting is that the provenance of the two portraits in the Rijksmuseum and of those in Muiderslot can be traced back without a break to the 17th-century patrons.10 Everhard Korthals Altes, 2007 See Bibliography and Rijksmuseum painting catalogues See Key to abbreviations and Acknowledgements This entry was published in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, I: Artists Born between 1570 and 1600, coll. cat. Amsterdam 2007, no. 239.