Portrait of Geertruyd Reael (1600-52)

The support consists of three vertically grained oak planks and is bevelled on all sides. Visible at the reservefor the figure’s cap, the ground layer is beige in colour. The figure was reserved, but not the tablecloth. Although somewhat less than in the pendant, there is thick and vigorous brushmarking in the figure’s face and hands. Details, such as the highlights in the eyes, were created with a dry brush, and thin parallel brushstrokes were used for the shadows.

Fair. The right panel join as seen from the front is visible and the retouching here is discoloured. The area of the figure’s dress around her midriff has been overpainted. There are many pinpoint losses throughout and the varnish is moderately discoloured and very uneven.

...; collection Arnold Abraham Hondius van Herwerden (1833-1907), Amsterdam;¹¹Moes II, 1905, p. 247, no. 6208. sale, Evert Moll Sr (Rijswijk) et al. [probably section ‘une ancienne famille patricienne, Amsterdam’, which can be identified as Hondius van Herwerden’s family], Amsterdam (F. Muller), 15 December 1908 sqq., fl. 660, to the museum²²Written communication R.E.O. Ekkart, 3 November 2005.

ObjectNumber: SK-A-2369

The couple Philips Denijs (see SK-A-2368) and Geertruyd Reael (shown here) shown in these pendant portraits had been married 15 years when Voskuyl immortalized them. Philips Denijs was the second son of Pieter Denijs, an enterprising businessman from London, and Elisabeth Noblet, who hailed from Antwerp.⁵⁵For the biographies of Philips Denijs and Geertruyd Reael see Kruimel 1978, p. 120; unpublished and undated research report by Ruud Koopman, RMA. Pieter Denijs began his career as a maker of ivory combs, and later imported civet cats for the yellowish musky-odoured substance found in the pouch near their sexual organs that was used in the manufacture of perfumes and medicine. In 1620, he purchased the brewery ‘Het Rode Hert’, which he gave to his son Philips at the time of his wedding on 30 November 1625. In addition to operating this brewery, Philips Denijs was a member of the dike board of Watergraafsmeer. Geertruyd Reael was four years older than her husband.⁶⁶The inscription on the painting recording Philips Denijs’s age is off by two years. It was, however, not unusual in the 17th century to be confused about one’s age. Her father, Jacob Laurensz Reael, was a merchant on the Damrak in the ‘Gouden Reael’, and, from 1606, secretary of the Admiralty of Amsterdam. Philips Denijs and Geertruyd Reael had at least eight children, three of whom died in infancy. In the evening of 21 September 1652, the couple had their will drawn up as Geertruyd lay sick in bed. She died not long afterwards and was buried in the Westerkerk on 2 October 1652.⁷⁷Kruimel (1978, p. 120) mistakenly gives the year of her death as 1662. For her correct burial date see Ruud Koopman’s research report, RMA. Philips Denijs lived more than a decade longer and was buried on 16 April 1666.

Voskuyl has portrayed the couple standing and at three-quarter length against neutral backgrounds. The table shown in both portraits serves as a unifying motif. If Voskuyl intended the diagonal shadow extending from the centre left in Geertruyd Reael’s portrait to be a continuation of the shadow in the upper right corner of her husband’s portrait, the pendants were meant to be hung some distance from each other.

Jonathan Bikker, 2007

See Bibliography and Rijksmuseum painting catalogues
See Key to abbreviations and Acknowledgements

This entry was published in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, I: Artists Born between 1570 and 1600, coll. cat. Amsterdam 2007, no. 329.

1909, pp. 407-08, nos. 2595a, 2595b; 1976, p. 590, nos. A 2368, A 2369; 2007, no. 329

J. Bikker, 2007, 'Huijgh Pietersz. Voskuyl, Portrait of Geertruyd Reael (1600-52), 1640', in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.6486