Aelbert Cuyp: Starting for the Hunt (1652-1653)

(Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA)

a painting by the Dutch artist Aelbert Cuyp (1620-1691). The painting depicted 2 sons of Michiel Pompe van Meerdervoort (1613-1639) and his wife Maria Sasbout (1578-1629), their governor and a servant. From left to right:

- Michiel Pompe van Meerdervoort (1638-1653) 
- Cornelis Pompe van Meerdervoort (1639-1680), knight of Saint Michael, lord of Meerdervoord, Hendrik-Iden, en Schildmans-Kinderen-Ambachten. Bailiff of Dordrecht and Wieldrecht, steward of South-Holland,  chair (= 'dijkgraaf') of the water board of Lande van Stryen and Swijndrechtsen-Waard. He married with Alida van Beveren (a daughter of the sister of Johan de Wit) in 1662 and got 14 children  
- Caulier, the governor of the 2 brothers as both their parents had died
- a servant

The ruins in the background is propably the ruins of castle Honingen in Kralingen. Painting from 1652-1653.