Portret van Cornelis Lampsins 1749 - 1796

This engraving is Jacob Houbraken's portrait of Cornelis Lampsins, a Baron from Tobago. The work is now held in the Rijksmuseum. Lampsins wasn’t just a Baron; he was also a knight and a mayor of Vlissingen. Houbraken’s print suggests how the Dutch Republic had a complex relationship with its own nobility, its colonies, and with the political and economic institutions of its cities. In portraits like this, the sitter’s social position is communicated through symbols, codes, and references. Lampsins’s cross refers to his status as a knight. The text below names his home city of Vlissingen, which was a key port for the Dutch East India Company, and also became an important site in the slave trade. To fully understand a portrait like this, we need to draw on different kinds of historical resources. We must look at the history of Dutch nobility, the history of Dutch trade and the nation’s relationship with its colonies, and the institutional histories of places like the Rijksmuseum itself.