Paulus Verschuur (1606-1667)

Paulus Verschuur served seven terms as burgomaster of Rotterdam and was also a director of the East India Company. A bust-length portrait of Verschuur, based on the Museum's picture, is one of thirty-five identified portraits formerly in the New East India House in Rotterdam and now in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Despite Hals's reputation for conviviality, his mature portraits are often sober and restrained in all but their brushwork. This may have influenced Verschuur's choice of the artist over a fashionable portraitist of Rotterdam or The Hague, but the sitter also had family and business t... Mehr ...