Paulus Hennekyn

Portrait of Anna van der Does (1609-1650)

1642

Inscriptions

  • signature and date, top left (P and H ligated):PHennekyn .f 1642
  • inscription, top right (A and E ligated):AET. 33
  • label, on the reverse:Anna vander Does / Geboore 18 November 1609 / Obiit 7 february 1650 / troude 20 Desember 1633 / met Jan de Hooghe / Geboore 26 Juny 1608 / Obiit 5 April 1682.(Anna van der Does, born 18 November 1609, died 7 February 1650, married 20 December 1633 to Jan de Hooghe, born 26 June 1608, died 5 April 1682.)
  • label, on the reverse:No 4 / Anna v.d. Does / huisvrouw van J. de Hooghe / geb: 18 Nov: 1609(No. 4, Anna v.d. Does, wife of J. de Hooghe, born 18 Nov. 1609)

Technical notes

Support The plain-weave canvas has been wax-resin lined. All tacking edges have been preserved, though trimmed. Cusping is visible on all sides.
Preparatory layers The double ground extends over the tacking edges. The first, red layer consists of mostly fine red pigment particles and some coarser red pigment, a few coarse white and some black pigment particles. The second, beige-grey ground contains mostly white pigment (including some coarse particles) and some fine brown, ochre and black pigment particles. The ground seems identical to the one found on the possible pendant (SK-A-2184).
Underdrawing No underdrawing could be detected with the naked eye or infrared reflectography.
Paint layers The paint extends up to the tacking edges. The background was indicated in a translucent dark brown paint, becoming thinner from top left to bottom right, and leaving the figure in reserve. The face has a translucent brown undermodelling, which has remained visible in the shaded area of the nose, and was further built up wet in wet and from dark to light. The dress consists of a grey base, over which the black pattern was applied with a thin brush, followed by the thin dark shadows and the bright highlights. The middle part of the bodice was reserved. Greyish paint was applied wet in wet on top of a white base to depict the collar, and dark paint and highlights were added to define the folds. The cap was executed in a similar way. The paint surface is smooth throughout.
Anna Krekeler, 2022

Scientific examination and reports

  • technical report: W. de Ridder, RMA, 9 juni 1998
  • paint samples: A. Krekeler, RMA, nos. SK-A-2185/1-2, 16 juni 2009
  • technical report: A. Krekeler, RMA, 16 juni 2009
  • infrared reflectography: A. Krekeler, RMA, 18 juni 2009

Condition

Fair. Lining increased the visibility of the canvas weave. Discoloured retouching is obvious in the left part of the collar and also in the area to its right. The varnish is extremely thick and has drips and an uneven gloss. It saturates moderately, but has yellowed severely.

Conservation

  • H. Heijdenrijk, 1905: canvas lined

Provenance

? Commissioned by or for the sitter;1According to the labels on the reverse; see Inscriptions. ? her daughter, Anna de Hooghe (?-1717), Amsterdam; ? her son, Johannes Bakhuizen (1683-1731), Amsterdam; ? his son, Ludolf Bakhuizen (1717-1782), Amsterdam/Rotterdam; ? his daughter, Christina Sebilla Charlotte van den Brink (1750-1810), Amsterdam; ? her son, Hendrik Arend van den Brink (1783-1852), Amsterdam; his daughter, Maria Elisabeth van den Brink (1824-1905), Velp; by whom bequeathed to the museum, with 295 other objects, including 29 paintings, mostly family portraits, 1905;2Verslagen omtrent ’s Rijks verzamelingen van geschiedenis en kunst 1905 (annual report of the Rijksmuseum), pp. 10, 16. on loan to Prof. Jan Nicolaas Bakhuizen van den Brink (1896-1987), 40 Rapenburg, Leiden, with SK-A-2184, 1950-873The portraits can be seen in a photograph of the interior in T.H. Lunsingh Scheurleer, C.W. Fock and A.J. van Dissel (eds.), Het Rapenburg: Geschiedenis van een Leidse gracht, Va, Leiden 1990, p. 359.

ObjectNumber: SK-A-2185

Credit line: M.E. van den Brink Bequest, Velp

The artist

Biography

Paulus Hennekyn (Amsterdam c. 1614 - Amsterdam 1672)

Paulus Hennekyn was born in Amsterdam around 1614 to the silversmith François Hennekin and his wife Anne Begin. His parents had left Antwerp for Amsterdam for religious reasons, arriving there on 21 November 1612, according to notes made by his father. In 1636 Paulus married Cornelia Swart in Amsterdam. They had five children, but only David survived into adulthood. He very probably was active as a painter too, but not a single work of his has survived. It is known that Paulus Hennekyn served in the Amsterdam civic guard from his inclusion in a group portrait that Bartholomeus van der Helst made of the signing of the Peace of Münster in 1648.4http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.8662">SK-C-2. That was not the only connection between them, for in 1652 he was a witness when Van der Helst gave his wife a power of attorney, and in 1653 both were among the artists who made a deposition for Hendrick Uylenburgh about the authenticity of a work by Paul Bril. In 1658 Van der Helst made a sworn statement that he, Hennekyn and someone called Molenaar painted two garden decorations in return for the hospitality of the owner of the Huis te Manpad estate near Heemstede.

Various notarized documents show that Hennekyn was regularly in debt. In addition, in 1645 the father of a maidservant of his accused him of paying her unwanted attention. These events would have had something to with the fact that around 1649 he spent some time in Alkmaar, where he is known to have joined the Guild of St Luke. Hennekyn was a widower by 12 November 1668, when he married Anna van Neck. On 15 April 1672 he was buried in the Leidse Kerkhof in Amsterdam.

Hennekyn’s modest oeuvre comprises portraits, most of them busts, and still lifes. His likenesses, which are of variable quality, show that he was a follower of Bartholomeus van der Helst. There are reports of works from 1640, but there are no extant photographs of them.5Portrait of a Man; see sale, The Hague (Van Marle and Bignell), 15 April 1930, no. 828; IB, no. 28738. Portrait of a Woman, Belgium, private collection; see U. Thieme and F. Becker (eds.), Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, XVI, Leipzig 1923, p. 395. The 1642 picture of Anna van der Does in the Rijksmuseum is his earliest securely dated painting.6SK-A-2185. His last one is the portrait of an unknown man with a stubbly beard of 1667.7Present whereabouts unknown; illustrated in the catalogue for the sale, London (Sotheby’s), 20 April 1994, no. 227.

Richard Harmanni, 2022

References
C. Kramm, De levens en werken der Hollandsche en Vlaamsche kunstschilders, beeldhouwers, graveurs en bouwmeesters: Van den vroegsten tot op onzen tijd, IV, Amsterdam 1864, p. 76; F.D.O. Obreen, Archief voor Nederlandsche kunstgeschiedenis: Verzameling van meerendeels onuitgegeven berichten en mededeelingen betreffende Nederlandsche schilders, plaatsnijders, beeldhouwers, bouwmeesters, juweliers, goud- en zilverdrijvers [enz.], II, Rotterdam 1879-80, p. 34; A.D. de Vries, ‘Biografische aanteekeningen betreffende voornamelijk Amsterdamsche schilders, plaatsnijders, enz. en hunne verwanten’, Oud Holland 3 (1885), pp. 55-80, 135-60, 223-40, 303-12, esp. p. 149; F.D.O. Obreen, Archief voor Nederlandsche kunstgeschiedenis: Verzameling van meerendeels onuitgegeven berichten en mededeelingen betreffende Nederlandsche schilders, plaatsnijders, beeldhouwers, bouwmeesters, juweliers, goud- en zilverdrijvers [enz.], VII, Rotterdam 1888-90, p. 302; A. Bredius, ‘Kunstkritiek der XVIIe eeuw’, Oud Holland 7 (1889), pp. 41-44, esp. p. 43; A. von Wurzbach, Niederländisches Künstler-Lexikon, I, Leipzig/Vienna 1906, p. 678; A. Bredius, Künstler-Inventare, II, The Hague 1916, p. 401; ibid., IV, 1917, pp. 1105-11; U. Thieme and F. Becker (eds.), Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, XVI, Leipzig 1923, pp. 395-96; A.I. Menalda-van der Hoeven, ‘Johan Hennequin (1616-1670) en zijn bloedverwanten’, De Nederlandsche Leeuw 91 (1974), cols. 365-404, esp. cols. 378, 381-83; J.G.C.A. Briels, Vlaamse schilders en de dageraad van Hollands Gouden Eeuw 1585-1630, Antwerp 1997, p. 336; Ekkart in Saur Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon: Die Bildenden Künstler aller Zeiten und Völker, LXXI, Munich/Leipzig 2011, p. 515

Entry

An eighteenth or nineteenth-century label on the back of this portrait states that the sitter is Anna van der Does, living from 1609 to 1650. Given her date of birth she would indeed have been 33 years old in 1642, as inscribed on the front, and that also seems to be affirmed by her physiognomy. The note on the reverse of the painting also records that she married Jan de Hooghe (1608-1682) in 1633; for his putative likeness see SK-A-2184 (also fig. a). Her husband was a member of a merchant family, and four children were born to the couple between 1634 and 1643. The youngest, Anna (or Anneke), became the fourth wife of the marine artist Ludolf Bakhuizen in 1680.8W.L. van de Watering, ‘Ludolf Bakhuizen, zijn leven en werk’, in R. Kromhout (ed.), Ludolf Bakhuizen 1631-1708: Schryfmeester – teyckenaer – schilder, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Nederlands Scheepvaartmuseum) 1985, pp. 3-10, esp. pp. 3, 5; G. de Beer, Ludolf Backhuysen (1630-1708): Sein Leben und Werk, Zwolle 2002, p. 80.

Anna van der Does’s flat cartwheel ruff was very fashionable around 1642, and is of a type that became even wider and flatter before disappearing after 1645.9J.H. der Kinderen-Besier, Spelevaart der mode: De kledij onzer voorouders in de zeventiende eeuw, Amsterdam 1950, p. 147. Underneath she is wearing an embroidered bodice with a black overgarment and a lace collar on top. Her tightly combed-back hair is adorned with a small lace cap held with a gold pin, with a few of her locks hanging beside it. As far as we know this is the earliest dated picture by Paulus Hennekyn. The execution and pose betray the influence of Cornelis Verspronck, but the portrait lacks his liveliness.

Through inheritance the painting came into the possession of the Van den Brink branch. Its last member, the unmarried Maria Elisabeth, made a bequest to the Rijksmuseum on her death in 1905, which in addition to family portraits contained prints, drawings, miniatures, miscellaneous objects and a number of letters.10See Provenance.

Richard Harmanni, 2022

See Key to abbreviations, Rijksmuseum painting catalogues and Acknowledgements

Collection catalogues

1905, p. 454, no. 1166b; 1976, p. 272, no. A 2185

Citation

Richard Harmanni, 2022, 'Paulus Hennekyn, Portrait of Anna van der Does (1609-1650), 1642', in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.8674

(accessed 10 May 2025 15:24:46).

Figures

  • Paulus Hennekyn, Portrait of a Man, possibly Jan de Hooghe (SK-A-2184) and Portrait of Anna van der Does (SK-A-2185)

Footnotes

  • 1According to the labels on the reverse; see Inscriptions.
  • 2Verslagen omtrent ’s Rijks verzamelingen van geschiedenis en kunst 1905 (annual report of the Rijksmuseum), pp. 10, 16.
  • 3The portraits can be seen in a photograph of the interior in T.H. Lunsingh Scheurleer, C.W. Fock and A.J. van Dissel (eds.), Het Rapenburg: Geschiedenis van een Leidse gracht, Va, Leiden 1990, p. 359.
  • 4http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.8662">SK-C-2.
  • 5Portrait of a Man; see sale, The Hague (Van Marle and Bignell), 15 April 1930, no. 828; IB, no. 28738. Portrait of a Woman, Belgium, private collection; see U. Thieme and F. Becker (eds.), Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, XVI, Leipzig 1923, p. 395.
  • 6SK-A-2185.
  • 7Present whereabouts unknown; illustrated in the catalogue for the sale, London (Sotheby’s), 20 April 1994, no. 227.
  • 8W.L. van de Watering, ‘Ludolf Bakhuizen, zijn leven en werk’, in R. Kromhout (ed.), Ludolf Bakhuizen 1631-1708: Schryfmeester – teyckenaer – schilder, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Nederlands Scheepvaartmuseum) 1985, pp. 3-10, esp. pp. 3, 5; G. de Beer, Ludolf Backhuysen (1630-1708): Sein Leben und Werk, Zwolle 2002, p. 80.
  • 9J.H. der Kinderen-Besier, Spelevaart der mode: De kledij onzer voorouders in de zeventiende eeuw, Amsterdam 1950, p. 147.
  • 10See Provenance.