Regents of St Elisabeth’s Hospital in Haarlem

Five male trustees of St Elizabeth’s Hospital sit around the table in the trustees’ room. St Elizabeth’s Hospital, the hospital for the poor, was located in Groot Heiligland, opposite the present-day Frans Hals Museum. These regents were appointed for a year.
From left to right are Siewert Sem Warmont, Salomon Cousaert, Johan van Clarenbeeck (secretary, shown with a book), Dirck Dircksz Del (president) and François Wouters (identifiable as the treasurer by the coins on the table in front of him). The regents are dignified and serious; they are dressed soberly in black, in accordance with the fashion and as appropriate to their position in a charitable institution. The map hanging on the wall in the background may allude to one of the duties of the trustees of the hospital: they managed the land owned by the hospital.
St Elizabeth’s Hospital also had four female trustees. Their portraits were also painted in 1641, by Johannes Verspronck. These two regents’ portraits of 1641 by Hals and Verspronck were the first ever painted in Haarlem.