Portrait of Herman Jacobsen Wormskerck

Van der Helst was one of the most prominent portraitists in Amsterdam beginning in the early 1640s. His style, a combination of elegance and flattery, proved attractive to the city's wealthy merchant class. This portrait was made at the height of the artist's fame.
The gentleman portrayed here has been identified as Herman Jacobsen Wormskerck, one of the characters depicted in Rembrandt van Rijn's famous painting, The Night Watch. Wormskerck was a successful cloth merchant who decided to retire in 1642, the same year in which the artwork of the Dutch master was completed. The portrait is dated 1653, the year Wormskerck died. After his death, the sitter, a man of great devotion, left numerous bequests to religious institutions. This is believed to be a posthumous portrait that the artist painted following Wormskerck's portrait in The Night Watch.