The Threatened Swan

The Threatened Swan was the first painting acquired by the Rijksmuseum when it began forming its collection in 1800, purchased from the Amsterdam collection of Jan Gildemeester Jzn. Asselijn painted it as an animal study, but three inscriptions were added to the canvas after his death — 'De Raad-Pensionaris' (The Grand Pensionary) between the swan's legs, 'Holland' on one of the eggs, and 'De Viand van de Staat' (The Enemy of the State) above the attacking dog. These transformed it into a political allegory identifying the swan with Johan de Witt, the Dutch statesman lynched by a mob in 1672, whose surname 'de Witt' means 'the white' in Dutch. Technical analysis has confirmed the inscriptions were added posthumously, probably during the 1750s as part of the 'Witten-Oorlog,' a pamphlet war among historians debating the legacy of the De Witt brothers.