Jan Jacobszoon Hinlopen

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Jan Jacobszoon Hinlopen

Jan J. Hinlopen in 1666, with his new wife Lucia Wijbrants. Painting by Bartholomeus van der Helst, now in a private collection
Born Amsterdam, 1626
Died Amsterdam, 1666, Plague?
Burial place Nieuwe Kerk
Nationality Dutch
Occupation Dealing in real estate, cloth, juridical advisor in the city hall
Employers Self-employed
Known for Art collecting,
poems by Jan Vos
Religious beliefs Reformed
Spouse 1) Leonore Huydecoper of Maarseveen (1657-63)
2) Lucia Wijbrants (1664-66)
Children Jacob, Johanna Maria, Sara and Geertrui
Parents Jacob J. Hinlopen & Sara de Wael
Relatives (Cata)lijntje (1619), Jacob (1621), Sara (1623), Frans (1628)

Jan Jacobszoon Hinlopen (May 10, 1626 – September 4, 1666) was a rich Dutch cloth merchant, an officer in the civic guard, a real estate developer in the Jordaan, alderman in the city council and a keen art collector. He would have been elected as a burgomaster, if he had not died at the age of forty, an age considered acceptabel to be in the race. He was a prominent patron of the arts in his time, and there is some speculation on being an influential protector of Rembrandt and it is likely that he had good connections with Gabriel Metsu. Hinlopen, like his father-in-law, Joan Huydecoper I, is known in art history because of the poems by Jan Vos reciting the paintings in his house and members of the family. The paintings are spread all over the world, the poems nearly forgotten.

Contents

[edit] Life

Jan J. Hinlopen was born as the son of the merchant Jacob J. Hinlopen (1582-1629), who traded spices and ship chandlery. The family origins were in Brabant, then the Southern Netherlands. After Antwerp had been occupied by the Spanish, Protestants, who did not want to convert to Catholicism, were ordered to sell their homes and immoveable possessions and depart. Within four years many Flemish cities lost half of their population emigrating to the north.[1] It is possible the family moved in an earlier stage to the north and in 1572 escaped from Naarden, where all the inhibitants were killed in a massacre.[2] Anyhow, the new immigrants lived in a house on the Nieuwendijk, named "Hinlopen" and very close to the harbour. The name of house has to do with Hindelopen, the small town in the north, delivering many captains and sailors.

After coming of age, Jan J. Hinlopen lived with his brother Jacob J. Hinlopen on the Leliegracht at the corner of the Keizersgracht, not far from their parents, who moved to Herengracht. The brothers made money from a cloth business in Warmoesstraat and through building cheap housing in the Jordaan. When their mother died in 1652, the daughter of a Haarlem brewer and burgomaster and herself the owner of a brewery, the Hinlopen brothers inherited a mansion designed by Philips Vingboons, nicely situated in the woods between Baarn, Soest and Hilversum.

[edit] Career

Wishing to make a career in city politics, Jan enrolled in the civic guard as an ensign in 1651-1653 and in 1655. He served under captain Gerrit Reynst, also an art collector. When the new town hall was opened on July 29, Jan was participating in a parade on Dam Square; he wrote three salvos were discharged, but not that his brother was send out of the city for a day. In 1656 he was appointed as a city official in the Nieuwe Kerk. He resigned within a few months, when he was appointed as an administrator in the townhall. In the schutterij Jan was promoted lieutenant. On February 1, 1661 Jan was elected as schepen. He may have witnessed the unveiling of Rembrandts' painting The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis in the town hall, as well as its removal a couple of months later.

On April 3, 1657, Jan J. Hinlopen married Leonore Huydecoper of Maarseveen (1631-1663), the daughter of a rich mayor, Johan Huydecoper van Maarsseveen and art lover. There is a sketch by her father for the arrangement of the chairs for the main room in his house on Singel.[3] Jan Vos the local theater director, gave five shows with accompanying poems for the occasion. Every show consisted of at least thirty to forty scenes portrayed in an allegorical manner, for example on the despairs of Amsterdam during the plague epidemic in the years 1652-1657:

“ He had Apollo and Themis, then Pallas and House-Pride, enjoying plays. Caution, Cleverness, Politeness and Reasonableness stand at one side of the throne; Charm, Kindness, Pity and Wakefulness at the other...[4] ”
The Visit to the Nursery, by Gabriel Metsu, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (1661). Gift by J. Pierpont Morgan in 1917
The Visit to the Nursery, by Gabriel Metsu, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (1661).[5] Gift by J. Pierpont Morgan in 1917

[edit] Family

Jan and Leonore had four children:

Jan Hinlopen noted distinct at what time they were born and on which day they were baptized in the Westerkerk. His diary becomes dramatic when Jan J. Hinlopen lost his youngest daughter developing measles and his wife having a miscarriage after seven months. The next day, on October 29, around ten in the evening the baby was carried to the church by his servant Jan, accompanied by two other men, most probably the undertaker's men.[6] On November 1, his wife Leonora died at 5.30 in the morning, being ill for seven days. His only son Jacob died at Pijnenburg, when his father was not present.

On January 6, 1665 Jan remarried to Lucia Wijbrants in the Nieuwe Kerk. At some time Hinlopen moved from a house in Doelenstraat, which he rented from Pieter Carpentier, to house on Kloveniersburgwal, opposite Jan Six. He was living next to his brother, Jacob J. Hinlopen, then a superintendent of a nearby elderly people home. Lucia gave birth to a dead born child on November 11, 1665. In 1666 he commissioned a painting from Bartholomeus van der Helst of Lucia, himself and the hunting dogs, but showing his deceased first wife and children in the background.[7] Jan J. Hinlopen, rather stocky built, died at the age of forty. He was buried in the Oude Kerk on September 10, 1666, next to his first wife and the baby.

[edit] Aftermath

The two surviving daughters, Johanna Maria and Sara, did not get along with their stepmother Lucia Wijbrants.[8] In 1672 she made the best of a bad situation and remarried Joan van Nellesteyn, a mayor in Utrecht. Also the uncles the Jacob J. Hinlopen and Joan Huydecoper II, were not very popular with the fairly independent girls, who could gain more independence, administrating their money, stocks and paintings, through a marriage. But Johanna Maria refused flatly to marry her cousin, having a crush on someone else.[9] In 1679 she married, against the will of her guardians, Johan van der Merct, a lawyer from Middelburg. Also Sara was presented to a cousin, Joseph Coymans. Two months later she wrote a letter to the court in the Hague, asking for trade competence. On April 5, 1680 Cornelis Geelvinck requested for his still single son Albert Geelvinck access to thirteen year younger Sara. Five months later they married the church of Sloterdijk, then a pleasure resort only a few miles outside the citywalls and near to the IJ. On September 24, in the late afternoon they invited guests for a second time.

[edit] Hinlopen's collection of paintings

Ahasuerus and Haman at the feast of Esther, by Rembrandt (1660). Pushkin Museum, Moscow
Ahasuerus and Haman at the feast of Esther, by Rembrandt (1660). Pushkin Museum, Moscow

After its completion, Rembrandt sold the painting Ahasuerus and Haman at the feast of Esther to Jan J. Hinlopen.[10] This painting may be one of the few paintings by Rembrandt whose provenance can be traced back to the year 1662. In that year Jan Vos published a poetry book in which there were sundry poems based on the paintings of Jan J. Hinlopen.[11]

In his collection were two paintings by Jan Lievens, The raising of Lazarus, now in Bristol, and a Christ in the tomb.[12] The painting by Bartholomeus van der Helst was inherited by his second wife Lucia Wijbrants. Furthermore he had a painting of flowers by Willem van Aelst, and the painting Simon in the temple with Christ as a child by Gerbrand van den Eeckhout. In his salon he showed Venus in a cloud full of Cupids by Rubens, which she inherited from her father Joan Huydecoper van Maarsseveen.

[edit] Two paintings by Metsu

One of the two paintings by Gabriel Metsu belonging to Hinlopen does depict the Hinlopen family. That one is in the Berlin Gemäldegalerie. If the one in the New York Metropolitan Museum is also depicting Hinlopen and his wife is still not clear. Arnold Houbraken, in 1721, recalled the latter painting as the largest and finest work by Metsu he had ever seen.[13]

There is still some confusion among art historians about the history of one of the paintings by Metsu, now in the Gemäldegalerie. Besides it is clear if this painting is a genre work or a portrait.[14] After the Geelvinck family ceased in the early 19th century, the traces to the real origins were lost. The Swiss family Tschiffely sold the painting in 1832. In the end of the 19th century it was known as depicting the Familie des Kaufmanns Gelfing.[15] In 1907 the known Dutch art-historian Hofstede de Groot mentioned the parrot in the painting of the Familie Geelvinck. Remarkably he described the painting as langweilig (= boring).[16]

A Cuban Amazon
A Cuban Amazon

In 1976 Van Eeghen renamed the painting to De familie van burgemeester Gillis Valckenier, and dated it in 1657.[17] This was mainly based on the bird in the painting, which van Eeghen imagined to be a falcon. Irene Groeneweg reasons that the bird, held by the boy, is a Cuban Amazon.[18] Another reason to doubt the classification is that, according to the Amsterdam City Archives, burgomaster Gillis Valckenier had only three children at the time of the paintings creation.[19]

Judith van Gent discovered during research there was a resemblance with Hinlopen's on the works of Bartholomeus van der Helst and the family, depicted by Metsu on the painting in Berlin. Additionally she discovered support for her view in Hinlopens will.[20] Nevertheless the painting is still and erroneously referred to as: The Family of burgomaster Gillis Valckenier.[21]

The painting in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, called A Visit to the Nursery, dated 1661, may depict the family Hinlopen. According to Walter Liedtke there is some general resemblance. The scene is set in an imaginary room, but the chimney resembles the one in the former Amsterdam townhall, also painted by Pieter de Hoogh.[22] A guest is greeted by the new mother and her hat-doffing husband. There is a seascape on the wall and Persian carpets on the table and the floor.[23] The dog on the painting could be a Bolognese.

The history of this painting is well-known, except between 1666 and 1706.[24] In 1662 Jan Vos published a poem about this painting, then belonging to Jan J. Hinlopen.[25] Most of Jan Hinlopen's collection passed to his daughters. In 1680, after the burial of his brother and guardian Jacob J. Hinlopen his paintings were assigned by lot to his daughters, but there might have been more people interested.[26] On November 29, 1680 Joan Huydecoper took his two nieces to the recently opened opera, where he had a box.[27]

[edit] Sources

  1. ^ Israel, J.I. (1995) The Dutch Republic, p. 219, 308.
  2. ^ RAU 274-20.
  3. ^ Fock, W. (red.) et al. (2001) Het Nederlandse interieur in beeld 1600-1900, p. 31.
  4. ^ Translated from W. Frijhoff & M. Spies (1999) Bevochten eendracht 1650, p. 456-7. (In Dutch.)
  5. ^ Metropolitan Museum of Art The Visit to the Nursery by Gabriel Metsu
  6. ^ RAU 1002-919
  7. ^ Dudok van Heel, S.A.C., (1996) Een opmerkelijke dikzak. Jan Hinlopen door Bartholomeus van der Helst, In: Maandblad Amstelodamum, p. 161-166. (In Dutch.)
  8. ^ Goudbeek, R. (z.j.) Geelvinck Hinlopen Huis. Geschiedenis van het Huis en zijn Bewoners (1687-1998) (In Dutch.)
  9. ^ Kooymans, L. (1997) Vriendschap en de kunst van het overleven in de zeventiende en achttiende eeuw, p. 174. (In Dutch.)
  10. ^ Dudok van Heel, S.A.C. (1969) De Rembrandt's in de verzamelingen Hinlopen. In: Maandblad Amstelodamum, pp. 233-237. (In Dutch.)
  11. ^ Jan Vos (1726) Alle de gedichten van Jan Vos, pp. 360-3; see also pp. 388, 516, 536. (In Dutch.) Jan Vos also praised the spinning wheel, made of amber, given to Leonora by Frederick William.
  12. ^ The raising of Lazarus by Jan Lievens (1631)
  13. ^ Houbraken 1718-1721, vol. 3, p. 41.
  14. ^ An impression of the painting can be found here.
  15. ^ Meyers Konversationlexicon (1885-1892) (In German.) Gelfing should be understood as the family Geelvinck.
  16. ^ Hofstede de Groot, C. (1907) Beschreibendes und kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke des hervorragendsten holländischen Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts, p. 327.
  17. ^ Van Eeghen, I.H. (1976) De familiestukken van Metsu van 1657 en van De Witte van 1678 met vier levensgeschiedenissen (Gillis Valckenier, Nicolaas Listing, Jan Zeeuw en Catharina van de Perre; In: Jrb Amstelodamum, pp. 78-82. (In Dutch.) Valckenier being the Dutch form of falconer.
  18. ^ Groeneweg, I. (1995) Regenten in het zwart: vroom en deftig? In: R. Falkenburg, e.a. (red) Beeld en zelfbeeld in de Nederlandse kunst, 1550-1750, pp. 200-4 (Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek, dl. 46) (In Dutch.)
  19. ^ Birth certificates of six children from Gillis Valckenier and Jacoba Ranst
  20. ^ Van Gent, J. (1998) Portretten van Jan Jacobsz Hinlopen en zijn familie door Gabriël Metsu en Bartholomeus van der Helst. In: Oud Holland 112, pp. 127-138. (In Dutch.) Not. Justus van der Ven, 16 oktober 1663; Getty Provenance Index, N-1706.
  21. ^ Montias, J. M & J. Loughman (2000) Public and Private Spaces: Works of Art in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Houses, p. 113; Zandvliet, K. (2006) De 250 rijksten van de Gouden Eeuw, no. 117, p. 211.
  22. ^ Os, H. van (2002) Beeldenstorm in het Paleis op de Dam, p. 28-33.
  23. ^ Liedtke, W. (2007) Dutch Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, p. 463.
  24. ^ Van Gent, p. 134-135, notes 20, 22. See also note 4 and check provenance. The "extraordinary pretty" painting was sold as no. 2 on May 18th, 1706 bringing up 435 guilders, for most people in those days a year salary.
  25. ^ Vos, J. (1662) p. 654.
    Wat wonder komt Moetsu aan ons gezicht vertoogen?
    'tIs leevendt vlees en bloedt; ja zilver, wol en zijdt.
    De kunst heeft op het oog een ongemeen vermoogen.
    D'alteelende Natuur besterft van enkle spijt,
    Nu zij uit doode verf zoo leevendigh ziet scheppen.
    De vandster, die beleeft ter kraamzaal in komt treên,
    Schijnt haar gezicht en mondt eerbiedelijk te reppen.
    Hier zijn geen schaaduwen om 't werk te ronden: neen.
    Wie wel wil schildren moet het allereelst verkiezen.
    Een schoone schildery heeft overgroote kracht.
    Wie kracht door schaduw zoekt zal al zijn kracht verliezen.
    Dus lang was 't vanden voor het vrouwelijk geslacht:
    Nu noodt de kunst de mans om deze vrouw te vanden.
    De kunsten trekken meer dan d'allerstarkste banden.
  26. ^ RAU 67-59. Familiearchief Huydecoper, on 11/7/1679, 12/8/1679 and 2/22/1680.
  27. ^ RAU 67-59. Family archives Huydecoper: diary 1679-1680.

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