Amsterdam ca. 1614 – Amsterdam 1672
Portrait of Anna de Schilder (Amsterdam 1619 – Leiden 1676), at half length, wearing a black dress with a white lace collar and diamond and pearl jewellery, charged with the coat-of-arms of the sitter’s family upper left
Oil on panel
H. 69.5 cm. W. 54 cm.
PROVENANCE
Possibly in the collection of Mr. Isaac van Thije (1639-1695), son of Abraham van Thije and Anna de Schilder, Lord of Opmeer, and his wife Elisabeth Lestevenon (1642-1710)
By decent to the collection Van Thije Hannes
By decent to the collection Van Heeckeren van Waliën
Collection J.H. Cremer, Brussels
His sale, Frederik Muller, Amsterdam, 21 June 1887, lot 61, as attributed to Paulus Hennekijn, with wrong pendant
Private collection, Italy, by 1968
Collection of Prof. Dr. Antonio Paolucci (Rimini 1939 – Florence 2024), art-historian and former Minister for Cultural Heritage, director of the Polo Museale Fiorentino in Florence and director of the Musei Vaticani in Rome.
LITERATURE
Wolleswinkel, E.J. (1990). De aan Gerard ter Borch toegeschreven familiegroep De Marez-De Schilder. In: Jaarboek Centraal Bureau voor Genealogie, nr. 44, p. 177, ill. 10
REFERENCE LITERATURE
Jaffé, D. (1997). Summary Catalogue of European Paintings in the J. Paul Getty Museum. Los Angeles, p. 58
CATALOGUE NOTE
We are grateful to Prof. Dr. Rudi E.O. Ekkart and Drs. Claire van den Donk for their kind assistance in cataloguing this portrait.
This fine and exceptionally well-preserved portrait shows Anna de Schilder (1610-1676), the daughter of Pieter de Schilder I (1583/84-1643), governor of the Dutch East India Company in Amsterdam, and Elisabeth de Schilder-Cobbault (1587/1588-1655). The family coat of arms of the De Schilder-family is depicted in the upper left corner, suspended from a nail. The portraits of Anna and her husband Abraham van Thije (1603-1645), lieutenant colonel, quartermaster general, and commander of artillery in The Hague, were – together with those of her brother Pieter de Schilder II († 1689), lawyer, councillor, and later president of the Council of Brabant in The Hague, and his wife Maria Beljaerts, partly signed by the Amsterdam portrait painter Paulus Hennekyn – auctioned in 1887 by Frederik Muller in Amsterdam from a collectors’ collection as two unknown couples. Wolleswinkel (Jaarboek Centraal Bureau voor Genealogie, No. 44, 1990, pp. 167-183) however, re-identified the identity of those portrayed. The present portrait – and the rest of the group – remained in the collection of Isaac van Thije and his decedents and was past down by decent until teh sale of 1887. The portrait of Maria Beljaart, ex. coll. the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.
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. 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 notarised 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. The 1642 picture of Anna van der Does in the Rijksmuseum is his earliest securely dated painting. His last one is the portrait of an unknown man with a stubbly beard of 1667.