L a - b e a u t é - s a u v e r a - l e - m o n d e ~ D o s t o ï e v s k i

L a - b e a u t é - s a u v e r a - l e - m o n d e  ~  D o s t o ï e v s k i



Friday, September 25, 2020

Picturing importance - two portraits by Mattheus Verheyden, 1755



Gerard Cornelis Van Riebeeck (1722-1759), Secretary of Delft. He is shown standing in front of his country house "Essensteyn" in Voorburg; the building was demolished in the nineteenth century. His portrait is paired with that of his second wife, Charlotte Beatrix Strick van Linschoten (1732-1795).


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Mattheus Verheyden (1 July 1700, Breda - 3 November 1777, The Hague), Dutch painter. The youngest of seven children, his mother died when he was two years old. His father, also a painter, died when he was eleven, and he was made a ward of the city of Breda. The regents of the orphanage sent him to The Hague where he studied with several prominent artists; it appears he was working as a professional by the age of seventeen. At twenty-two, planning a trip to England, he returned to Breda to paint portraits of the orphanage regents who had sponsored him, and to accept his inheritance, the. money with which he was to travel. But in addition to the regent's portraits, he received commissions from many of the city's leading citizens, as well as falling in love and marrying, and he never made the planned trip to England.


1 comment:

  1. We might expect noble or wealthy women to look beautifully dressed, in real life or at least in portraits, but
    Gerard Cornelis Van Riebeeck, Secretary of Delft, looked even better. His suit, with gold and lace, was amazing.

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