Hendrickje Stoffels

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Hendrickje Stoffels
Statue of Hendrickje Stoffels ( Bredevoort )

Hendrickje Stoffels (* 1626 probably in Ramsdorf ; † July 1663 in Amsterdam ) was the housekeeper and later life partner of the well-known Dutch baroque painter Rembrandt .

Life

Hendrickje Stoffels was born in Ramsdorf in 1626 as the daughter of Stoffel Stoffelse, also called Jegers / Jaegher († 1646), and Mechteld Lamberts († approx. 1661) into a soldier's family. The couple had five other children and are moving to Bredevoort , where their father's garrison is stationed.

After the father's death, the mother remarried. Hendrickje Stoffels went to Amsterdam in 1647 or 1648. She became Rembrandt's housekeeper in the Sint-Anthonisbreestraat (now Jodenbreestraat), later his partner and mother of a daughter. After Geertje Dircx ( 1610/15 – approx. 1656), the wet nurse of Rembrandt's son Titus , had to leave the household in 1650 , Hendrickje became Titus' foster mother.

In 1654 Hendrickje Stoffels was summoned several times before the Council of the Reformed Church and accused of fornication because she was expecting a child from Rembrandt without being married to him. In the same year, the newborn daughter Cornelia (1654–1684) was baptized in the Oude Kerk .

Rembrandt could no longer raise the installments on the house and filed for bankruptcy in 1656. The valuables were inventoried and auctioned together with the house. The family moved to Rozengracht shortly afterwards . In 1660 Hendrickje and Titus founded an art shop specializing in Rembrandt's works. Rembrandt himself was run as an employee so that the income from the sale of the works did not have to be passed on to the painter's creditors. From a purely formal point of view, Hendrickje and Titus were his superiors. After founding this company, Rembrandt completed a remarkable number of paintings. Perhaps this had something to do with the fact that Hendrickje actively supported him.

Hendrickje Stoffels probably died of the plague in 1663 and was buried in the Westerkerk in Amsterdam. A year later, Rembrandt referred to her in a document as his "Blessed Wife". This suggests that he considered her his de facto wife even if they weren't officially married. Conversely, she had also referred to herself as his wife in 1661.

Like Rembrandt's wife Saskia van Uylenburgh and Geertje Dircx, Hendrickje Stoffels modeled numerous works for the painter. In some, however, it cannot be clearly identified.

  • Portrait of Hendrikje Stoffels. Munich, Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Alte Pinakothek
  • Hendrickje Stoffels in bed. Edinburgh, National Gallery of Scotland
  • Young girl at the window. (1651), Stockholm, National Museum
  • Hendrickje bathes by the river. (1654), London, National Gallery
  • Hendrickje as Flora. (1654), New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art
  • Young woman with earrings. (1654), St. Petersburg, Hermitage
  • Young woman at the open upper door (Hendrickje Stoffels?). around 1656/1657, Berlin, State Museums in Berlin - Prussian Cultural Heritage, Picture Gallery
  • Portrait of Hendrickje Stoffels. (1655), Paris, Louvre

Meaning for Rembrandt

Hendrickje Stoffels' importance for Rembrandt has long been underestimated. Today researchers believe it is likely that she created the prerequisites for Rembrandt's particularly admired late work. She organized his everyday life, earned money on the side and got on well with his son from his first marriage, Titus. Her loyalty went so far that she undertook to stand up for all of his debts. Her biographer Christoph Driessen therefore judges that through all of this she “saved Rembrandt from a complete fall” after his bankruptcy. According to Driessen, Hendrickje was characterized by a “remarkable perception”: “She began with Rembrandt as a maid and died as his formal employer.”

literature

Web links

Commons : Hendrickje Stoffels  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Google Books [1] , accessed May 5, 2014
  2. ↑ wordpress.com (PDF; 1MB), accessed on May 5, 2014
  3. ^ The Penny Cyclopaedia of the Society for the Difussion of Useful Knowledge , Volume 19 (Google Books, accessed May 5, 2014)
  4. ↑ Christoph Driessen: Rembrandt and the women. Regensburg 2011, p. 175.
  5. ↑ Christoph Driessen: Rembrandt and the women. Regensburg 2011, p. 179.
  6. ↑ Christoph Driessen: Rembrandt and the women. Regensburg 2011, p. 183.
  7. ↑ Christoph Driessen: Rembrandt and the women. Regensburg 2011, p. 191.
personal data
SURNAME Stoffels, Hendrickje
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Housekeeper and later partner of Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn
DATE OF BIRTH 1626
PLACE OF BIRTH Bredevoort
DATE OF DEATH July 1663
Place of death Amsterdam