Olga's Gallery
Frans Hals.
Portrait of Pieter van den Broecke.
c.1633. Oil on canvas, 71.2 x 61 cm. The Iveagh Beuest, Kenwood House, London, UK. More. 
Pieter van den Broecke (1585-1640), a colonial trader, born in Antwerp. He was first active as a merchant in West Africa and afterward served the Dutch East India Company in Java, Arabia, Persia and India. In 1630, he brought back to the Netherlands an important fleet from India and was rewarded by the Dutch East India Company for his seventeen years of service with a gold chain, which he is proudly wearing in the portrait. In 1634, van den Broecke published his autobiography, with this portrait engraved on the frontispiece