Hendrickje Stoffels
Encyclopedia
Model (art)
Art models are models who pose for photographers, painters, sculptors, and other artists as part of their work of art. Art models who pose in the nude for life drawing are usually called life models...
and mistress of Rembrandt.
Youth
Hendrickje was born in the garrison city of BredevoortBredevoort
Bredevoort or Brevoort is a small city with Town privileges of about 1600 inhabitants, located in the municipality of Aalten, Netherlands. It is situated between the towns of Aalten and Winterswijk....
, Gelderland
Gelderland
Gelderland is the largest province of the Netherlands, located in the central eastern part of the country. The capital city is Arnhem. The two other major cities, Nijmegen and Apeldoorn have more inhabitants. Other major regional centers in Gelderland are Ede, Doetinchem, Zutphen, Tiel, Wijchen,...
, the daughter of sergeant Stoffel Stoffelse and Mechteld Lamberts. Sergeant Stoffel Stoffelse was Jager (hunter) for the castle at Bredevoort and so was also nicknamed Jeger, with his children nicknamed 'Jegers', but always officially referred to as 'Stoffels'. Herman was a highly respected citizen in Bredevoort, and many present day families there are descended from him, via the female line.
Hendrickje had three brothers: Hermen, Berent and Frerick. Hermen and Berent were longtime soldiers in Bredevoort, never serving elsewhere. Berent and Frerick both died young; Berent died in the same year as Hendrickje's father. Hendrickje had a sister, Martijne Jegers, and perhaps also another sister, Margriete. Martijne married Jan Kerstens Pleckenpoel from Lichtenvoorde, who was another longtime soldier in Bredevoort. After his death Martijne remarried, to Berent van Aelten.
Hendrickje's father died almost certainly in July 1646, though he is possibly not to be identified with the victim of the explosion of the gunpowder tower in Bredevoort in that month as some have done. In January 1647, after the normal mourning time of half a year, his widow Mechteld Lamberts remarried to a neighbor, Jacob van Dorsten, a widower with three young children. As a consequence, Hendrickje in 1646 or 1647 unhappily had to leave for Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
.
Time in Amsterdam
Dutch Revolt
The Dutch Revolt or the Revolt of the Netherlands This article adopts 1568 as the starting date of the war, as this was the year of the first battles between armies. However, since there is a long period of Protestant vs...
was past, and peace was finally reaching even the eastern Netherlands. There are several paintings of Rembrandt for which she is suspected to have modeled.
In 1654, when she was pregnant with Rembrandt's daughter, Hendrickje had to appear before the church council for "living in sin" with Rembrandt, who was a widower and 20 years her senior. She admitted that she had "committed the acts of a whore with Rembrandt the painter" and was banned from receiving communion. On 30 October 1654, Cornelia van Rijn was baptized in the Oude Kerk in Amsterdam.
Rembrandt did not want to marry Hendrickje, because he would have forfeited the inheritance of his first wife Saskia van Uylenburgh by that. Even with this inheritance he had major financial problems, but without it he would have been bankrupt. Hendrickje wanted to strike up a friendship with Titus
Titus van Rijn
Titus van Rijn was the fourth and only surviving child of Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn and Saskia van Uylenburgh...
, the son of Rembrandt and Saskia. When Rembrandt was forbidden to trade as a painter by the Guild of Saint Luke
Guild of Saint Luke
The Guild of Saint Luke was the most common name for a city guild for painters and other artists in early modern Europe, especially in the Low Countries. They were named in honor of the Evangelist Luke, the patron saint of artists, who was identified by John of Damascus as having painted the...
, she and Titus came up with the idea of, and realized, an art dealership that was run by them and only stocking the paintings of the master. Also Titus appointed his half sister Cornelia as his heir.
In 1663, the plague
Black Death
The Black Death was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, peaking in Europe between 1348 and 1350. Of several competing theories, the dominant explanation for the Black Death is the plague theory, which attributes the outbreak to the bacterium Yersinia pestis. Thought to have...
hit Amsterdam, and Hendrickje died of it. She was buried in the Westerkerk
Westerkerk
The Westerkerk is a church of the Protestant Church in the Netherlands denomination in Amsterdam, built in 1620-1631 after a design by Hendrick de Keyser. It is next to Amsterdam's Jordaan district, on the bank of the Prinsengracht canal....
in Amsterdam on 24 July 1663.
In later culture
- She is a character in the film Rembrandt, where she is portrayed by Elsa LanchesterElsa LanchesterElsa Sullivan Lanchester was an English-American character actress with a long career in theatre, film and television....
. - In Peter GreenawayPeter GreenawayPeter Greenaway, CBE is a British film director. His films are noted for the distinct influence of Renaissance and Baroque painting, and Flemish painting in particular...
's film NightwatchingNightwatchingNightwatching is a 2007 film about the artist Rembrandt and the creation of his painting The Night Watch. The film is directed by Peter Greenaway and stars Martin Freeman as Rembrandt, with Eva Birthistle as his wife Saskia van Uylenburg, Jodhi May as his lover Geertje Dircx, and Emily Holmes as...
, she is played by Emily HolmesEmily HolmesEmily Holmes is a Canadian television and film actress.Holmes was born in Ottawa, Ontario. She has appeared in such television series as Night Visions, Mysterious Ways, The Dead Zone , Stargate SG-1, Dark Angel and more. In 2002, Holmes appeared in Steven Spielberg's Taken as Julie Crawford...
. - A LINTAlstom LHB Coradia LINTThe Alstom Coradia LINT is a diesel single-unit or two-unit articulated passenger railcar manufactured by Alstom. The acronym LINT is short for the German "Leichter Innovativer Nahverkehrstriebwagen"...
-24 train, run by the Dutch transportation firm SyntusSyntusSyntus bv is a public transport company operating bus and passenger train services in the east of the Netherlands. It is owned jointly by NS Reizigers and Keolis...
, is named after her.