Hendrickje Stoffels

Hendrickje Stoffels (* 1626 in Bredevoort; † July 1663 in Amsterdam) was the housekeeper and later partner of the well-known Dutch Baroque painter Rembrandt.

Life

Hendrickje Stoffels was in 1626 Bredevoort named as daughter of Stoffel fabric Else, also Jegers / Jaegher († 1646), and Mechteld Lamberts († ca.1661 ) was born into a military family. The couple had five more children.

After the father's death the mother married again. Hendrickje Stoffels was in 1647 or 1648 to Amsterdam. She was the housekeeper Rembrandts in the Sint- Anthonisbreestraat (now Jodenbreestraat ), later his partner and mother of their daughter. After 1650 Geertje Dircx ( 1610/15-ca.1656 ), the nurse of Rembrandt's son Titus, left the household had, Hendrickje, Titus was ' foster mother.

In 1654 Hendrickje Stoffels was repeatedly summoned before the Council of the Reformed Church and accused of fornication, since they are not married to him by Rembrandt was expecting a child. In the same year the baptism (1654-1684) in the Oude Kerk was held the newborn daughter Cornelia.

Rembrandt could no longer afford the rates for the house and filed for bankruptcy in 1656. The valuables were inventoried and auctioned together with the house. The family moved shortly thereafter to the Rozengracht. 1660 Hendrickje and Titus set up an art dealer who specialized in the works of Rembrandt. Rembrandt himself was performed as an employee, so that the income did not have to be passed on to the creditors of the painter through the sale of the works. Hendrickje and Titus were purely formal point of view, his superiors. After the founding of this company Rembrandt presented a striking number of paintings done. Perhaps this had to do with the fact that Hendrickje supported him energetically.

Hendrickje Stoffels died in 1663 probably due to the plague and was buried in the Westerkerk in Amsterdam. A year later, Rembrandt described it in a document as his " blessed wife ". This suggests that he regarded them as his de facto wife, even though they were not officially married. Conversely, she had referred to 1661 as his wife.

Like Rembrandt's first wife Saskia van Uylenburgh and Geertje Dircx, Hendrickje Stoffels was the painter for many works model. However, in some it may not be clearly identified.

  • Portrait of Hendrikje Stoffels. Munich, Bavarian State Painting Collections, Alte Pinakothek
  • Hendrickje Stoffels in bed. Edinburgh, National Gallery of Scotland
  • Young girl at the window. ( 1651), Stockholm, National Museum
  • Hendrickje Bathing in the river. (1654 ), London, National Gallery
  • Hendrickje as Flora. (1654 ), New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art
  • Young woman with ear-rings. (1654 ), St. Petersburg, State Hermitage
  • Young woman at the open upper door ( Hendrickje Stoffels? ). to 1656/1657, Berlin, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin - Prussian Cultural Heritage Art Gallery
  • Portrait of Hendrickje Stoffels. ( 1655), Paris, Musee du Louvre

Meaning for Rembrandt

Hendrickje Stoffels ' meaning for Rembrandt 's long been underestimated. Today it keep researchers likely that they only created the conditions for particularly admired Rembrandt 's late work. She organized his life, earned alongside with and got along well even with his son from his first marriage, Titus. Their loyalty went so far that they undertook to vouch for all his debts. Your biographer Christoph Driessen judges therefore, through all that she had " saved from utter crash " Rembrandt after its bankruptcy. According to Driessen Hendrickje recorded by a " notable grasp ": "They started with Rembrandt as a maid and died as his formal employer. "

Titus van Rijn Integrated Authority File
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