Jump to content

Petronella Oortman: Difference between revisions

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Content deleted Content added
"{{Interlanguage link|nl|Petronella Oortmans-de la Court|Petronella de la Court}}" -> Petronella de la Court.
GreenC bot (talk | contribs)
Rescued 1 archive link. Wayback Medic 2.5
 
(40 intermediate revisions by 32 users not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
{{short description|Dutch art collector}}
[[File:Dolls’ house of Petronella Oortman.jpg|thumb|right|200px|The dollhouse, in the [[Rijksmuseum]], Amsterdam.]]
{{Infobox person
'''Petronella Oortman''' (1656-1716) was a Dutch woman whose elaborate [[dollhouse]] is part of the permanent collection of the [[Rijksmuseum]] in Amsterdam. Her dollhouse was the inspiration for the 2014 novel ''[[The Miniaturist]]'' by [[Jessie Burton]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/books/2014/08/29/jessie-burton-on-petronella-oortman-and-her-beautiful-cabinet-house/14757513/|title=Jessie Burton on the dollhouse that inspired her novel|last=Spiegelman|first=Ian|date=29 August 2014|work=[[USA Today]]|accessdate=29 January 2015}}</ref>
| name =
| image = Dolls’_house_of_Petronella_Oortman.jpg
| caption = The dollhouse in Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.
| birth_name =
| birth_date = 1656
| birth_place = [[Amsterdam]]
| death_date = {{death date and age|1716|11|27|1656||}}
| death_place = Amsterdam
| works = Dollhouse of Petronella Oortman
| spouse = Johannes Brandt
}}

'''Petronella Oortman''' ({{IPA-nl|ˌpeːtroˈnɛla ˈoːrtmɑn}}; 1656–1716) was a Dutch woman whose elaborate [[dollhouse]] is part of the permanent collection of the [[Rijksmuseum]] in Amsterdam.


Petronella Oortman should not be confused with her close namesake [[Petronella de la Court]] (1624-1707), who as it happens was also the owner of a noted dollhouse now in the collection of the [[Centraal Museum]], Utrecht.<ref name= "RKD">{{cite web|title=Petronella Oortman|url=https://rkd.nl/explore/artists/439465|publisher=[[Netherlands Institute for Art History]]}}</ref><ref name= "Westermann">{{cite book|last1=Westermann|first1=Mariët|title=A Wordly Art:The Dutch Republic 1585-1718|date=2007|publisher=[[Yale University Press]]|isbn=978-0-300-10723-4|pages=34–35|url=http://yalepress.yale.edu/book.asp?isbn=9780300107234}}</ref>
Petronella Oortman should not be confused with her close namesake [[Petronella de la Court|Petronella Oortmans-de la Court]] (1624–1707), who as it happens was also the owner of a noted dollhouse now in the collection of the [[Centraal Museum]], Utrecht.<ref name= "RKD">{{cite web|title=Petronella Oortman|url=https://rkd.nl/explore/artists/439465|publisher=[[Netherlands Institute for Art History]]}}</ref><ref name= "Westermann">{{cite book|last1=Westermann|first1=Mariët|title=A Worldly Art:The Dutch Republic 1585-1718|date=2007|publisher=[[Yale University Press]]|isbn=978-0-300-10723-4|pages=34–35|url=http://yalepress.yale.edu/book.asp?isbn=9780300107234|access-date=2015-02-04|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150204203324/http://yalepress.yale.edu/book.asp?isbn=9780300107234|archive-date=2015-02-04|url-status=dead}}</ref>


==Biography==
==Biography==
[[File:Dollhouse of Petronella Ortman by Jacob Appel.jpg|thumb|right|300px|The dollhouse, painted by [[Jacob Appel (painter)|Jacob Appel]], 1710.]]
Oortman was a wealthy widow by the time she married silk merchant Johannes Brandt,<ref>Broomhall and Spinks 110.</ref> with whom she lived in the [[Warmoesstraat]] in Amsterdam.<ref name="Huygens ING">{{cite web|title=Oortman, Petronella (1656-1716)|url=http://resources.huygens.knaw.nl/vrouwenlexicon/lemmata/data/Oortman|publisher=[[Huygens Institute for the History of the Netherlands]]|language=Dutch}}</ref> Like other rich women in Amsterdam,<ref>Broomhall and Spinks 99.</ref> she had a dollhouse built for her that she [[Curator|curated]] between 1686 and 1710, decorating it with expensive materials and [[Portrait miniature|miniatures]]. At that time gentlemen often possessed "[[cabinet of curiosities|cabinets of curiosities]]" to hold collections of various objects they had acquired in their lives and travels: indeed such a cabinet can be seen in the small reception room (which also doubled as a funeral parlour) at the bottom right of the dollhouse. In the Amsterdam of the [[Dutch Golden Age]], their wealthy wives similarly created dollhouses as status symbols. The exact location of Oortman's house in the Warmooestraat is no longer known, and opinions differ as to how exact a copy the dollhouse would have been, but it would have represented Oortman's dreams and aspirations. Visitors to the household would be shown all the dollhouse's features in sessions that often lasted the entire evening.<ref>{{cite web|title=Dutch Dollhouse|url=http://education.nationalgeographic.com/education/media/dutch-dollhouse/?ar_a=1|publisher=[[National Geographic Society]]}}</ref>
Oortman grew up as one of seven children near the [[Singel canal]], the daughter of a gun-maker.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Broomhall |first1=Susan |title=Hidden women of history: Petronella Oortman and her giant dolls' house |url=https://theconversation.com/hidden-women-of-history-petronella-oortman-and-her-giant-dolls-house-108248 |website=The Conversation |accessdate=3 January 2019 |language=en |date=3 January 2019}}</ref> Oortman was a wealthy widow by the time (in 1686) she married silk merchant Johannes Brandt,<ref>Broomhall and Spinks 110.</ref> with whom she lived on [[Warmoesstraat]] in Amsterdam.<ref name="Huygens ING">{{cite web|title=Oortman, Petronella (1656-1716)|url=http://resources.huygens.knaw.nl/vrouwenlexicon/lemmata/data/Oortman|publisher=[[Huygens Institute for the History of the Netherlands]]|language=Dutch}}</ref>


Like other rich women in Amsterdam,<ref>Broomhall and Spinks 99.</ref> she had a dollhouse built for her that she [[Curator|curated]] between 1686 and 1710, decorating it with expensive materials and [[Portrait miniature|miniatures]].
After Oortman's death, the dollhouse passed to her daughter Hendrina and thence to Hendrina's brother Jan after 1743. According to Hendrina, her mother lavished some [[Dutch guilder|Fl.]] 30,000 on the dollhouse, an enormous sum certainly sufficient to buy a [[canal house]] of the time. However, an inventory of Jan's estimated its value at just Fl. 700. By way of comparision, Petronella de la Court's dollhouse, for which 1,600 pieces of furniture and paintings and 28 fine dolls were commissioned, was sold in 1744 for Fl. 1,200.<ref name= "Westermann"/><ref name="Huygens ING"/> Already celebrated in the 18th century, Oortman's dollhouse was bought by the state in 1821 and purchased by the Rijksmuseum in 1875.<ref name="Huygens ING"/> A painting of the dollhouse was made in 1710 by [[Jacob Appel (painter)|Jacob Appel]].

At that time gentlemen often possessed "[[cabinet of curiosities|cabinets of curiosities]]" to hold collections of various objects they had acquired in their lives and travels: indeed such a cabinet can be seen in the small reception room (which also doubled as a funeral parlour) at the bottom right of the dollhouse.{{cn|date=August 2021}}

In the Amsterdam of the [[Dutch Golden Age]], their wealthy wives similarly created dollhouses as status symbols. The exact location of Oortman's house on Warmoesstraat is no longer known, and opinions differ as to how exact a copy the dollhouse would have been, but it would have represented Oortman's dreams and aspirations. Visitors to the household would be shown all the dollhouse's features in sessions that often lasted the entire evening.<ref>{{cite web|title=Dutch Dollhouse|url=http://education.nationalgeographic.com/education/media/dutch-dollhouse/?ar_a=1|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131029231105/http://education.nationalgeographic.com/education/media/dutch-dollhouse/?ar_a=1|url-status=dead|archive-date=October 29, 2013|publisher=[[National Geographic Society]]}}</ref>

After Oortman's death, the dollhouse passed to her daughter Hendrina and thence to Hendrina's brother Jan after 1743. According to Hendrina, her mother lavished some 30,000 [[Dutch guilder|guilders]] on the dollhouse, an enormous sum certainly sufficient to buy a [[canal house]] of the time. However, an inventory of Jan's estimated its value at just 700 guilders. By way of comparison, Petronella de la Court's dollhouse, for which 1,600 pieces of furniture and paintings and 28 fine dolls were commissioned, was sold in 1744 for 1,200 guilders.<ref name= "Westermann"/><ref name="Huygens ING"/> Already celebrated in the 18th century, Oortman's dollhouse was bought by the state in 1821 and purchased by the [[Rijksmuseum]] in 1875.<ref name="Huygens ING"/> A painting of the dollhouse was made in 1710 by [[Jacob Appel (painter)|Jacob Appel]].


===The dollhouse===
===The dollhouse===
The dollhouse contains nine rooms. The current state of the rooms is still very much like it was depicted in Appel's painting, though of the wax dolls''—''"dressed to perfection"<ref>{{Cite book |last=Grootenboer |first=Hanneke |title=The Pensive Image: Art as a Form of Thinking |publisher=University of Chicago Press |year=2020 |isbn=9780226717951 |location=Chicago |pages=92}}</ref>''—''only the child in the nursery is left. Also missing are the doll clothes, which were still visible in a photograph from the 1950s.<ref>Winkelman 100.</ref> [[Willem Frederiksz van Royen]] painted a mural in the game room, and [[Johannes Voorhout]] decorated the tapestry room.<ref>Scott 80.</ref> Porcelain objects were ordered from China.<ref>Miller 45.</ref> Zacharias von Uffenbach noted in 1718 that it was the most valuable dollhouse in Europe, at between 20,000 and 30,000 guilders.<ref>Quoted from Pijnzel-Dommisse (2000) in Grootenboer (2020), p. 93.</ref>
[[File:Dollhouse of Petronella Ortman by Jacob Appel.jpg|thumb|right|200px|The dollhouse, painted by [[Jacob Appel (painter)|Jacob Appel]], 1710.]]
The dollhouse contains nine rooms. The current state of the rooms is still very much like it was depicted in Appel's painting, though only a few of the dolls remain: only the child in the nursery is left. Also missing are the doll clothes, which were still visible in a photograph from the 1950s.<ref>Winkelman 100.</ref> [[Willem Frederiksz van Royen]] painted a mural in the game room, and [[Johannes Voorhout]] decorated the tapestry room.<ref>Scott 80.</ref> Porcelain objects were ordered from China.<ref>Miller 45.</ref>


There are various accounts that [[Peter the Great]] attempted to buy such a dollhouse. Harry Donga suggests that Oortman's was the dollhouse manufactured on the order of {{Interlanguage link|nl|Christoffel van Brants}} for Peter the Great; the Russian emperor stayed with the van Brants family for a few days during his second visit to the Netherlands but left, allegedly after van Brants and the emperor had a falling-out over the Fl. 30,000 price demanded by van Brants.<ref>Donga 57-58.</ref>
There are various accounts that [[Peter the Great]] attempted to buy such a dollhouse. Harry Donga suggests that Oortman's was the dollhouse manufactured on the order of {{Interlanguage link multi|Christoffel van Brants|nl}} for [[Peter the Great]]; the Russian emperor stayed with the Van Brants family for a few days during his second visit to the Netherlands but left, allegedly after Van Brants and the emperor had a falling-out over the 30,000-guilder price demanded by Van Brants.<ref>Donga 57–58.</ref>

The dollhouse was the inspiration for the 2014 novel ''[[The Miniaturist]]'' by [[Jessie Burton]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/books/2014/08/29/jessie-burton-on-petronella-oortman-and-her-beautiful-cabinet-house/14757513/|title=Jessie Burton on the dollhouse that inspired her novel|last=Spiegelman|first=Ian|date=29 August 2014|work=[[USA Today]]|accessdate=29 January 2015}}</ref>


==References==
==References==
Line 21: Line 42:


===Bibliography===
===Bibliography===
*{{cite book|last1=Broomhall|first1=Susan|last2=Spinks|first2=Jennifer|title=Early Modern Women in the Low Countries: Feminizing Sources and Interpretations of the Past|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=6I3NHTk-iHAC&pg=PA99|year=2011|publisher=Ashgate|isbn=9780754667421|pages=99–122|chapter=Imagining Domesticity in Early Modern Dutch Dolls Houses}}
*{{cite book|last1=Broomhall|first1=Susan|authorlink1=Susan Broomhall|last2=Spinks|first2=Jennifer|title=Early Modern Women in the Low Countries: Feminizing Sources and Interpretations of the Past|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6I3NHTk-iHAC&pg=PA99|year=2011|publisher=Ashgate|isbn=9780754667421|pages=99–122|chapter=Imagining Domesticity in Early Modern Dutch Dolls Houses}}
*{{cite book |last=Donga |first=Harry |title=Christoffel van Brants en zijn hofje: Geschiedenis van het Van Brants Rus Hofje vanaf 1733 |location=Hilversum |publisher=Verloren |year=2008 |isbn=9789087040499 |chapter=De legende van het poppenhuis van Christoffel Brants |pages=57&ndash;58 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jjXOqYcwcLoC&pg=PA57&dq=Harry+Donga++Christoffel+van+Brants&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Z5_KVPKiMoK3ogSOh4GABQ&ved=0CB0Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=poppenhuis&f=false }}
*{{cite book |last=Donga |first=Harry |title=Christoffel van Brants en zijn hofje: Geschiedenis van het Van Brants Rus Hofje vanaf 1733 |location=Hilversum |publisher=Verloren |year=2008 |isbn=9789087040499 |chapter=De legende van het poppenhuis van Christoffel Brants |pages=57&ndash;58 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jjXOqYcwcLoC&q=poppenhuis&pg=PA57 }}
*{{cite book |last=Grootenboer |first=Hanneke |title=The Pensive Image: Art as a Form of Thinking |location=Chicago |publisher=University of Chicago Press |year=2020 |isbn=9780226717951 |chapter=Room for Reflection: Interior and Interiority |pages= |language=en-US}}
*{{cite book|last=Miller|first=Judith|title=Furniture|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=OyRxlOvE95IC&pg=PA45|year=2005|publisher=DK|isbn=9780756672881}}
*{{cite book|last=Scott|first=Sharon M.|title=Toys and American Culture: An Encyclopedia|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=mbTUorcuXkoC&pg=PA80|year=2010|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=9780313351112}}
*{{cite book|last=Miller|first=Judith|title=Furniture|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OyRxlOvE95IC&pg=PA45|year=2005|publisher=DK|isbn=9780756672881}}
*{{cite journal|last=Winkelman|first=Helene J. M.|title=Naar aanleiding van het proefschrift van Jet Pijzel-Dommisse, Het Hollandse pronkpoppenhuis. Interieur en huishouden in de 17e en 18e eeuw|journal=Textielhistorische bijdragen|language=Dutch|pages=91–102|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qoGHjTgdiAYC&pg=PA100|volume=41|year=2001}}
*{{cite book|last=Scott|first=Sharon M.|title=Toys and American Culture: An Encyclopedia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mbTUorcuXkoC&pg=PA80|year=2010|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=9780313351112}}
*{{cite journal|last=Winkelman|first=Helene J. M.|title=Naar aanleiding van het proefschrift van Jet Pijzel-Dommisse, Het Hollandse pronkpoppenhuis. Interieur en huishouden in de 17e en 18e eeuw|journal=Textielhistorische bijdragen|language=Dutch|pages=91–102|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qoGHjTgdiAYC&pg=PA100|volume=41|year=2001|isbn=9071715167}}


==External links==
==External links==
*[https://rkd.nl/explore/artists/439465 Petronella Oortman's entry at the Netherlands Institute for Art History (RKD)]
*[https://rkd.nl/explore/artists/439465 Petronella Oortman's entry at the Netherlands Institute for Art History (RKD)]
*[http://www.cindyhesse.nl/2013/07/28/het-poppenhuis-van-petronella-oortman-1686-1710/ Dolls’ house of Petronella Oortman 1686 -1710] - a room by room description (in Dutch)
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20150202011923/http://www.cindyhesse.nl/2013/07/28/het-poppenhuis-van-petronella-oortman-1686-1710/ Dolls’ house of Petronella Oortman 1686 -1710] - a room by room description (in Dutch)
* [http://centraalmuseum.nl/ontdekken/object/?img_only=1#o:2044 Petronella de la Court's dollhouse at the Centraal Museum, Utrecht]
* [http://centraalmuseum.nl/ontdekken/object/?img_only=1#o:2044 Petronella de la Court's dollhouse at the Centraal Museum, Utrecht]


{{Netherlands topics}}
{{Netherlands topics}}


{{Authority control}}
{{Persondata

| NAME = Oortman, Petronella
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES =
| SHORT DESCRIPTION =
| DATE OF BIRTH = 1656
| PLACE OF BIRTH =
| DATE OF DEATH = 1716
| PLACE OF DEATH =
}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oortmans, Petronella}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oortmans, Petronella}}
[[Category:Dutch Golden Age]]
[[Category:1656 births]]
[[Category:1656 births]]
[[Category:1716 deaths]]
[[Category:1716 deaths]]
[[Category:Art collectors from Amsterdam]]
[[Category:Dollhouses]]

Latest revision as of 03:13, 24 November 2023

Petronella Oortman
The dollhouse in Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.
Born1656
DiedNovember 27, 1716(1716-11-27) (aged 59–60)
Amsterdam
WorksDollhouse of Petronella Oortman
SpouseJohannes Brandt

Petronella Oortman (Dutch pronunciation: [ˌpeːtroˈnɛla ˈoːrtmɑn]; 1656–1716) was a Dutch woman whose elaborate dollhouse is part of the permanent collection of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

Petronella Oortman should not be confused with her close namesake Petronella Oortmans-de la Court (1624–1707), who as it happens was also the owner of a noted dollhouse now in the collection of the Centraal Museum, Utrecht.[1][2]

Biography

[edit]
The dollhouse, painted by Jacob Appel, 1710.

Oortman grew up as one of seven children near the Singel canal, the daughter of a gun-maker.[3] Oortman was a wealthy widow by the time (in 1686) she married silk merchant Johannes Brandt,[4] with whom she lived on Warmoesstraat in Amsterdam.[5]

Like other rich women in Amsterdam,[6] she had a dollhouse built for her that she curated between 1686 and 1710, decorating it with expensive materials and miniatures.

At that time gentlemen often possessed "cabinets of curiosities" to hold collections of various objects they had acquired in their lives and travels: indeed such a cabinet can be seen in the small reception room (which also doubled as a funeral parlour) at the bottom right of the dollhouse.[citation needed]

In the Amsterdam of the Dutch Golden Age, their wealthy wives similarly created dollhouses as status symbols. The exact location of Oortman's house on Warmoesstraat is no longer known, and opinions differ as to how exact a copy the dollhouse would have been, but it would have represented Oortman's dreams and aspirations. Visitors to the household would be shown all the dollhouse's features in sessions that often lasted the entire evening.[7]

After Oortman's death, the dollhouse passed to her daughter Hendrina and thence to Hendrina's brother Jan after 1743. According to Hendrina, her mother lavished some 30,000 guilders on the dollhouse, an enormous sum certainly sufficient to buy a canal house of the time. However, an inventory of Jan's estimated its value at just 700 guilders. By way of comparison, Petronella de la Court's dollhouse, for which 1,600 pieces of furniture and paintings and 28 fine dolls were commissioned, was sold in 1744 for 1,200 guilders.[2][5] Already celebrated in the 18th century, Oortman's dollhouse was bought by the state in 1821 and purchased by the Rijksmuseum in 1875.[5] A painting of the dollhouse was made in 1710 by Jacob Appel.

The dollhouse

[edit]

The dollhouse contains nine rooms. The current state of the rooms is still very much like it was depicted in Appel's painting, though of the wax dolls"dressed to perfection"[8]only the child in the nursery is left. Also missing are the doll clothes, which were still visible in a photograph from the 1950s.[9] Willem Frederiksz van Royen painted a mural in the game room, and Johannes Voorhout decorated the tapestry room.[10] Porcelain objects were ordered from China.[11] Zacharias von Uffenbach noted in 1718 that it was the most valuable dollhouse in Europe, at between 20,000 and 30,000 guilders.[12]

There are various accounts that Peter the Great attempted to buy such a dollhouse. Harry Donga suggests that Oortman's was the dollhouse manufactured on the order of Christoffel van Brants [nl] for Peter the Great; the Russian emperor stayed with the Van Brants family for a few days during his second visit to the Netherlands but left, allegedly after Van Brants and the emperor had a falling-out over the 30,000-guilder price demanded by Van Brants.[13]

The dollhouse was the inspiration for the 2014 novel The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton.[14]

References

[edit]

Notes

[edit]
  1. ^ "Petronella Oortman". Netherlands Institute for Art History.
  2. ^ a b Westermann, Mariët (2007). A Worldly Art:The Dutch Republic 1585-1718. Yale University Press. pp. 34–35. ISBN 978-0-300-10723-4. Archived from the original on 2015-02-04. Retrieved 2015-02-04.
  3. ^ Broomhall, Susan (3 January 2019). "Hidden women of history: Petronella Oortman and her giant dolls' house". The Conversation. Retrieved 3 January 2019.
  4. ^ Broomhall and Spinks 110.
  5. ^ a b c "Oortman, Petronella (1656-1716)" (in Dutch). Huygens Institute for the History of the Netherlands.
  6. ^ Broomhall and Spinks 99.
  7. ^ "Dutch Dollhouse". National Geographic Society. Archived from the original on October 29, 2013.
  8. ^ Grootenboer, Hanneke (2020). The Pensive Image: Art as a Form of Thinking. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. p. 92. ISBN 9780226717951.
  9. ^ Winkelman 100.
  10. ^ Scott 80.
  11. ^ Miller 45.
  12. ^ Quoted from Pijnzel-Dommisse (2000) in Grootenboer (2020), p. 93.
  13. ^ Donga 57–58.
  14. ^ Spiegelman, Ian (29 August 2014). "Jessie Burton on the dollhouse that inspired her novel". USA Today. Retrieved 29 January 2015.

Bibliography

[edit]
[edit]