Portrait of Sara Philippine Hoeufft, Vrouwe van Oijen (1701-1761), aged 27, seated small full length on a terrace by a curtain, wearing a white silk dress with blue silk wrap, with her right hand holding up a bowl to pigeons perched on the rim of the pot of an orange plant, with her left arm holding a lamb, in a formal garden

Details

Mattheus Verheyden (1700- after 1776)
Portrait of Sara Philippine Hoeufft, Vrouwe van Oijen (1701-1761), aged 27, seated small full length on a terrace by a curtain, wearing a white silk dress with blue silk wrap, with her right hand holding up a bowl to pigeons perched on the rim of the pot of an orange plant, with her left arm holding a lamb, in a formal garden
signed and dated centre below Mattheus Verheijden; Fec 1728; inscribed oy. on the collar of the swan lower left and with the coat-of-arms of the sitter upper right; with inscription identifying the sitter Sara Philippina Hoofft van Oije; AE(linked)tatis XXVII on the reverse
oil on unlined canvas
51.5 x 43.7 cm

Provenance

By descent from the sitter, governor of the Hofje Floris van Dam, Lange Beestenmarkt 43, The Hague, to the present owner

Literature

J. van Gool, De Nieuwe Schouburg der Nederlantsche Kunstschilders en Schilderessen, II, 1751, p. 289
Voorloopige Lijst der Nederlandsche Monumenten van Geschiedenis en Kunst, III, de Provincie Zuid-Holland, 1915, p. 137, under no. 6
R.E.O. Ekkart, Schilderijen uit Nederlandse Hofjes (2), De Leidse Hofjes, X, 1981, p. 46
L. de Vries, Diamanten Gedenkzuilen en leerzaeme Voorbeelden, een Bespreking van Johan van Gools Nieuwe Schouburg, 1990, p. 198; p. 133, fig. 74

Sale room notice

The illustrations in the catalogue of the lots 72 and 73 have been exchanged.

Lot Essay

Although Verheyden is now a neglected master, the present and following lot, for the first time on public display, show that his reputation needs re-assessment. Van Gool, op. cit., pp. 289-297, accounted that Verheyden, a native of Breda, was one of the most successful portrait painters of The Hague of his day. He had settled there by 1725. His style reflects the influence of his master Carel de Moor, the important portrait painter Caspar Netscher and of Arnold Boonen, whom Verheyden had visited in London in 1722. From these masters derives his predeliction for the small scale, the beautifully crafted depiction of dresses and attributes, and a sense of restrained elegance.
The sitter was a daughter of Mattheus Hoeufft and Constantia Theodora Doublet. She married the Reverend Jean Royer in 1735.
The Hofje Floris van Dam was founded in 1563 by Floris van Dam, councillor of the City of The Hague. First situated on the Juffrouw Idastraat, it was moved to the Lange Beestenmarkt 43 in 1680. In 1976 the Hofje was handed over to the City of the Hague and was deprived of its original function. The present and following lot, displayed in the Regentenkamer, were removed in the same year.

See colour illustration

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