Adriaan de Lelie

De Lelie grew up in a Catholic family in Tilburg. While his father worked in the textile industry, he went to Antwerp and Düsseldorf to master the art of painting. After this training he settled as an artist in Amsterdam.

De Lelie was a master of so-called conversation pieces. In these informal family portraits, the sitters are portrayed in a domestic setting interacting with each other. The interiors and costumes are often in the latest fashion.

De Lelie’s most original works are his portraits of collectors. In them he meticulously recorded the interior of their picture galleries. The paintings gracing the walls can be recognized and some are still as famous now as they were then.

The Amsterdam society Felix Meritis (Happy through Merit) was the cultural centre for the bourgeoisie. De Lelie portrayed the members four times in the Society’s building. In doing so, he introduced a new type of group portraiture to the Netherlands.

In his portraits, De Lelie emphasized the qualities of his sitters and their contribution to society by means of carefully chosen attributes. Scientists show off their measuring instruments, writers proudly hold their latest publication.

De Lelie made kitchen scenes in the tradition of 17th-century genre painting, with typical through-views to the background and great attention to detail. Nevertheless, these paintings are unmistakably contemporary due to their bright palette, illumination and furnishings.

De Lelie often used the same models. The identity of the old woman who stood for this pancake-maker is known, namely Lijsje Pieter Ruiter, who died in 1804 at the ripe old age of 107. De Lelie portrayed her in the year she turned 100.

In the 1780s, the struggle between the Patriots and the Orangists in the Netherlands flared up. The Patriots wanted greater influence in the national government and were diametrically opposed to the supporters of William V. De Lelie received many commissions from the camp of the Patriots.

The art world changed spectacularly in De Lelie’s time with the organization of the first, large sales exhibitions of contemporary art. The portraits that De Lelie submitted were praised in the new genre of art criticism for their verisimilitude and smooth painterly style.

De Lelie took an active part in Amsterdam’s cultural life. Accordingly, his likeness is found in his group portraits of the Felix Meritis Society. He can also be discerned among the visitors in his paintings of collectors in their picture gallery.