This impressive portrait, dating from the last decade of Rembrandt's life, depicts the extremely wealthy Dordrecht merchant Jacob Trip.
Jacob Trip (1575 - 1661) made his vast fortune from mining, manufacturing iron and from trading with armaments. The Trips married in 1603. They sat for their portraits when they were both in their eighties, just before Jacob's death in 1661. The portrait of Jacob Trip has less vitality than that of his wife, 'Margaretha de Geer'. It is conceivable that it was finished posthumously.
Between 1660 and 1662 the couple's sons, Louis and Hendrick, built the 'Trippenhuis', a grand classicising mansion on one of Amsterdam's canals. It is possible that these portraits were meant to hang there.
