10 things to know about Wolff and Deken

After their first, inspirational meeting on 13 October 1776, Wolff wrote ‘Now Deken appeals to me even more’. Following the death of Wolff’s husband, Deken moved in with her. From 1782 onwards, they spent their summers at this country residence in the city of Beverwijk, and they remained together until their death.

It was in this thatched garden house that Wolff and Deken wrote their books, poetry, pamphlets and letters. They were each other’s closest friends, with a profound relationship that is difficult to characterise in modern terms.

Wolff and Deken’s greatest literary success was Historie van mejuffrouw Sara Burgerhart (‘The History of Miss Sara Burgerhart’), an epistolary novel based on fictional letters. The book is regarded as the first modern Dutch novel, one that very much typifies Enlightenment attitudes in its encouragement of women to think independently.

We know of only three 18th-century women who were portrayed in the form of a stipple (dot) engraving on glass: Wolff, Deken and Wilhelmina van Pruisen, the wife of the Stadtholder, the Dutch leader. That says all you need to know about the fame of Wolff and Deken!

David Wolff, who was not related to Betje, was a glass engraver from The Hague. He used the stipple engraving technique to build up the image using only tiny dots.

This print by Antoine Alexandre Joseph Cardon (1772-1813) shows two people of very different character. Wolff was reputed to be charming and full of life, while Deken was reflective and modest. They complemented one another.

The republican Patriots opposed the Orangist system of rule by hereditary stadtholders. Following the restoration of the House of Orange in 1787, many Patriots fled to France. Wolff and Deken went there in 1788, but returned later in difficult financial circumstances.

Both the Patriots and the Orangists used glasses engraved with portraits to toast their heroes. Should we see the glasses in this context? Perhaps this inscription on the rear of the glass portraying Wolff sheds some light on the matter.

In 1800, Wolff wrote that ‘We can envisage no greater sorrow than that she should survive me, or I her.’ Wolff died following a long illness on 5 November 1804; Deken died just nine days later. They were buried in the same grave.

While the glass with the portrait of Deken was already in the Rijksmuseum collection, the Wolff glass was previously held privately. A generous donation has made it possible for the museum to purchase this second glass.