Regentenstuk

A regents group portrait, regentenstuk or regentessenstuk in Dutch, literally "regents' piece", is a group portrait of the board of trustees, called regents or regentesses, of a charitable organization or guild. This type of group portrait was popular in Dutch Golden Age painting during the 17th century, and in the 18th century. They were intended to be hung in the regentenkamer, the regents' meeting room, or another prominent location in the institution.

The regents of a charitable organization (such as an orphanage, poorhouse, hospital or hofje) or guild were drawn from the regenten, the upper class of Dutch society. It was a prestigious honorary office, so the regents were keen to have themselves depicted in this role. The leading portraitists of the day were commissioned to make regentenstukken, including Rembrandt (whose Syndics of the Drapers' Guild is a subtle treatment of a group round a table), Frans Hals, Ferdinand Bol, and Bartholomeus van der Helst. The commissions proved lucrative, particularly since the regents only served for a few years, to be replaced with a new set of regents that were equally eager to be painted.

In some institutions the regentesses were all female, and so the portraits were of all-female groups, or there were mixed-gender regents who were painted separately, as in Hals' two portraits of the Regents and Regentesses of the Old Men's Almshouse. Occasionally the painting depicted not just the regents but also others, such as the binnenvader or binnenmoeder, who was in charge of the day-to-day operations. For instance, Abraham de Vries in 1633 painted a regentenstuk for the Burgerweeshuis orphanage in Amsterdam showing not only the regents but also the binnenvader leading in a young orphan girl.

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