Portrait of Johan Maurits (1604-1679), Count of Nassau-Siegen, Founder of the Mauritshuis, Jan de Baen
Count Johan Maurits of Nassau-Siegen spent several years as governor of the Dutch colony in Brazil. He got artists and scientists to study the country, its inhabitants and nature. But Johan Maurits was also the man responsible for drawing the Dutch into the transatlantic slavetrade. He managed that enslaved African men, women and children were transported to Brazil where they were put to work on the sugar plantations.
In this portrait we see Johan Maurits as stadholder of the city of Kleef, located just over the Dutch-German border. It was painted by the Hague portrait painter Jan de Baen and is one of the few paintings in the Mauritshuis still in its original 17th-century frame.
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