Portretstuk met vier regenten en vier regentessen, een bediende en een meid

Jacob Backer made this portrait in the Netherlands sometime in the first half of the 17th century, using pen and brown ink, brush and brown and grey wash, and black chalk. The most striking thing about this drawing is the immediacy and the lack of finish. Backer wasn’t after smooth surfaces or a convincing illusion of reality. The wash creates volume in the figures’ clothing, but they are still very much lines on paper. The relatively humble materials are perfectly suited to the subject. Here are the people who run a charitable institution, the regents and regentesses, and their servants. The image is both a commemoration of their status, and a reminder of their civic duty. The artist's economic use of his media mirrors the social values that the sitters would want to project. It's a virtuoso display of drawing, but never flashy, always at the service of a clear-eyed vision of how Dutch society should function.