''The Corpses of the De Witt Brothers'' is a c. 1672–75

oil on canvas Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments with a medium of drying oil as the binder. It has been the most common technique for artistic painting on wood panel or canvas for several centuries, spreading from Europe to the rest of ...

painting by the

Dutch Golden Age painter Dutch Golden Age painting is the painting of the Dutch Golden Age, a period in Dutch history roughly spanning the 17th century, during and after the later part of the Eighty Years' War (1568–1648) for Dutch independence. The new Dutch Repub ...

Jan de Baen Jan de Baen (20 February 1633 – 1702) was a Dutch portrait painter who lived during the Dutch Golden Age. He was a pupil of the painter Jacob Adriaensz Backer in Amsterdam from 1645 to 1648. He worked for Charles II of England in his Dutch exil ...

, now in the

Rijksmuseum The Rijksmuseum () is the national museum of the Netherlands dedicated to Dutch arts and history and is located in Amsterdam. The museum is located at the Museum Square in the borough of Amsterdam South, close to the Van Gogh Museum, the St ...

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

. It shows the dead and mutilated bodies of the brothers

Johan Johan * Johan (given name) * Johan (film), ''Johan'' (film), a 1921 Swedish film directed by Mauritz Stiller * Johan (band), a Dutch pop-group ** Johan (album), ''Johan'' (album), a 1996 album by the group * Johan Peninsula, Ellesmere Island, Nunav ...

and

Cornelis de Witt Cornelis de Witt (; 15 June 1623 – 20 August 1672) was a Dutch politician and naval commendant of the Golden Age. During the First Stadtholderless Period De Witt was an influential member of the Dutch States Party, and was in opposition to th ...

hanging upside down on the ''Groene Zoodje'', the place of execution in front of the

Gevangenpoort The Gevangenpoort (''Prisoner's Gate'') is a former gate and medieval prison on the Buitenhof in The Hague, Netherlands. It is situated next to the 18th-century art gallery founded by William V, Prince of Orange in 1774 known as the ''Prince Will ...

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of ...

.Catalog entry
in museum website

Subject

The two de Witt brothers, opponents of the

House of Orange The House of Orange-Nassau (Dutch language, Dutch: ''Huis van Oranje-Nassau'', ) is the current dynasty, reigning house of the Netherlands. A branch of the European House of Nassau, the house has played a central role in the Politics and governm ...

, had dominated Dutch politics for some years, but left the country unprepared for the invasion by

Louis XIV of France , house = Bourbon , father = Louis XIII , mother = Anne of Austria , birth_date = , birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France , death_date = , death_place = Palace of Versa ...

in 1672, the infamous ''

Rampjaar In Dutch history, the year 1672 is referred to as the nl, Rampjaar, label=none (Disaster Year). In May 1672, following the outbreak of the Franco-Dutch War and its peripheral conflict the Third Anglo-Dutch War, France, supported by Münster an ...

''. Their killing, which took place on 20 August 1672, was an act of aggression of a furious local mob, supporters of the 22 year old William of Orange, the future William III of England, who had just been appointed

stadtholder In the Low Countries, ''stadtholder'' ( nl, stadhouder ) was an office of steward, designated a medieval official and then a national leader. The ''stadtholder'' was the replacement of the duke or count of a province during the Burgundian and H ...

and commander-in-chief of the army and navy by the political opponents of Johan. On August 4 Johan had agreed to his forced resignation from his position as Grand Pensionary of Holland, i.e. the Secretary of the government. Then his brother Cornelis was accused of treason and arrested. The verdict at his trial was exile. Johan went to the jail from their house nearby to take him home for now. The ''burgerwacht'', the local militia, gathered with a mob, angry at the mild verdict, and both brothers were lynched at the gate of the ''Gevangenispoort''. File:Grand Pensionary Johan de Witt.jpg, Johan, copy of portrait by de Baen File:Jan de Baen 001.jpg, Cornelis, copy of portrait by de Baen

Artist

De Baen, a leading portraitist based in The Hague, had also painted individual portraits of both brothers, and ''The Apotheosis of Cornelis de Witt, with the Dutch Raid on the Medway in the background'', which had been commissioned by the Dordrecht City Hall, because Cornelis de Witt first became mayor in 1650. In 1667 he had supervised the

Raid on the Medway The Raid on the Medway, during the Second Anglo-Dutch War in June 1667, was a successful attack conducted by the Dutch navy on English warships laid up in the fleet anchorages off Chatham Dockyard and Gillingham in the county of Kent. At the ...

, which had been celebrated as a great victory and which had been planned by his brother Johan. The city hall painting in Dordrecht was destroyed at the same time as the mob in The Hague lynched the brothers, such was the state of the country in the ''rampjaar''. The modello was purchased by Alexander Gogel in 1806, followed by copies of Jan de Baen's portraits of the brothers in 1808.

Provenance and other depictions

This painting has been considered a highlight of the national history collection since it was bought in 1802 by

Alexander Gogel Isaac Jan Alexander Gogel (10 December 1765 – 13 June 1821) was a Dutch politician, who was the first minister of finance of the Batavian Republic and the Kingdom of Holland. He married Catharina van Hasselt in 1800, and had three children. Car ...

for the high price of nearly 1000 guilders and has been on show ever since, though mostly only displayed in rooms with anatomy scenes out of respect for the effect it may have on casual visitors. It was purchased for the National Kunst Galerie in the Hague, against the advice of

Cornelis Sebille Roos Cornelis Sebille Roos or Cornelis Roos (1754 – 1820) was a Dutch art dealer and inspector of the Nationale Konst-Gallery collection in Huis ten Bosch during the years 1799-1801 Roos was born 10 January 1754 in Amsterdam and baptized six days lat ...

, who felt it should be covered with a curtain. The same subject was a popular print by

Roelant Roghman Roelant Roghman (14 March 1627 - 3 January 1692) was a Dutch Golden Age painter, sketcher and engraver. Biography Roghman was born in Amsterdam, the son of the engraver Henrick Lambertsz Roghman and Maria Jacobs Savery. His mother was a daughte ...

, and Roos also claimed it was a copy after a print and not by Frans van Mieris as the seller had advertised. It was reattributed to Jan de Baen soon after the purchase. File:De verminkte lichamen van de gebroeders De Witt hangend aan de wip, 1672 Rijksmuseum Amsterdam RP-P-1888-A-12801.jpg, Print by Roghman File:Groene Zoodje, Gebroeders de Witt.jpg, Anonymous print File:Lambert-van-den-Bos-Schauplatz-des-Krieges MG 9528.tif, Anonymous print

In popular culture

The painting was featured in season 2 episode 4, of ''

Killing Eve ''Killing Eve'' is a British spy thriller television series, produced in the United Kingdom by Sid Gentle Films for BBC America and BBC Three. The series follows Eve Polastri (Sandra Oh), a British intelligence investigator tasked with capturi ...

'', when Villanelle (

Jodie Comer Jodie Marie Comer ( ; born 11 March 1993) is an English actress who rose to global prominence for her role as Oksana Astankova / Villanelle in the BBC America spy thriller ''Killing Eve'' (2018–2022). She has received various accolades inc ...

) executed an assassination that replicated the subjects in the painting, having viewed the picture earlier.

References

SK-A-15
painting record on museum website * ''Rijksmuseum Amsterdam: The Masterpieces Guide'', by Marleen Dominicus van Soest, 2003–2009, page 33 * ''Pantheon der Gouden Eeuw : van Nationale Konst-Gallerij tot Rijksmuseum van Schilderijen (1798–1896)'', thesis by Ellinoor Bergvelt for the University of Amsterdam, 1998 {{DEFAULTSORT:Corpses Of The De Witt Brothers 1670s paintings Paintings in the collection of the Rijksmuseum History paintings History of The Hague History of the Netherlands