Portrait of Gertrude van Limborch

Nine years after their marriage, Gertrude and Frans van Limborch approached Thomas de Keyser to paint a pair of portraits commemorating their union. (The painting of Frans hangs in northern England; see illustration.) In selecting de Keyser, Amsterdam’s great master of polished and elegant figures, the couple signaled their wealth and social standing, which is reinforced here by Gertrude’s rings and costly lace cuffs and ruff. They most likely met the painter in church; all three were Remonstrants, a Protestant sect expelled from the Dutch Reformed Church.