Portrait of Dorothea Berck
Portrait of Dorothea Berck | |
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![]() Inscribed "SVAE 51/Ano 1644/FH" | |
Artist | Frans Hals |
Year | 1644 (1644) |
Medium | Oil on canvas |
Dimensions | 79.7 cm × 65.0 cm (33 in × 27.4 in) |
Location | Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore |
Accession | 1938.231 |
Website | www |
Portrait of Dorothea Berck is a 1644 painting by Frans Hals that is in the collection of the Baltimore Museum of Art. It depicts Dorothea Berck at age 51, the wife of the prosperous Haarlem merchant Joseph Coymans, whose portrait Hals also painted. Both paintings were executed on the occasion of their daughter Isabella's wedding, whose marriage pendants Hals also painted.
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/ad/Frans_Hals_-_detail_of_Dorothea_Berck_-_her_clasped_hands_with_one_glove_on.jpg/400px-Frans_Hals_-_detail_of_Dorothea_Berck_-_her_clasped_hands_with_one_glove_on.jpg)
The painting, like many of Hals's portraits, is inscribed and signed, but there is no mention of the identity of the sitter, and it was only identified as Berck in 1908.[1] The portrait is noted for its classical similarity to the Mona Lisa.[1] Like the Mona Lisa, she sits upright in a dark chair and rests her hands on either a dark desk or perhaps a large dress that surrounds her. Her ungloved hand may be clasping a book or part of her sleeve. The loose brushwork is typical of Hals and shows a fleeting gesture with the casual way her finger is hooked over her wrist. Portraits of subjects with one glove on and one glove off are common in Dutch 17th-century marriage pendant portraits. Gloves symbolize the wedding vows where the husband and wife each hold one of a pair of gloves. In this case, her husband Joseph Coymans is wearing the "other glove" in his pendant portrait. In Hals' marriage pendant portraits, the husband is always situated on the left and the woman on the right, and the light always comes from the left, shining fully on the woman.
In 1639 the portrait of Baldassare Castiglione by Raphael was auctioned in Amsterdam and caused a sensation, making this posture popular at that time among the sitters for portraits in the Netherlands. Hals is sure to have seen the Castiglione portrait, but it is not certain he was familiar with the Mona Lisa, though works by renaissance masters such as Titian were actively collected and studied throughout the Netherlands and neo-classicism was on the rise at that time.
- Pendant portrait of Joseph Coymans
- Portrait of Baldassare Castiglione by Raphael
- Mona Lisa, by Leonardo da Vinci
Dorothea Berck is also known in Haarlem as a hofje founder. She purchased the hofje now known as the Vrouwe- en Antonie Gasthuys in 1655 and gave it the name of "Coymans Hofje". It is unknown why the hofje was later resold to Kolder.[2]
See also
References
- ^ a b Frans Hals: Exhibition on the Occasion of the Centenary of the Municipal Museum at Haarlem, 1862–1962, pp 63–64, publication Frans Hals Museum, 1962
- ^ Haarlems hofjes, Dr. G. H. Kurtz, Schuyt & Co C.V., Haarlem, 1972, ISBN 90-6097-027-6
- v
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- List of paintings
- Portrait of a Woman Standing (c. 1610–1615)
- The Banquet of the Officers of the St George Militia Company in 1616 (1616)
- Shrovetide Revellers (c. 1616–1617)
- Portrait of a Woman Standing (1618–1620)
- The Rommelpot Player (c. 1618–1620)
- Catharina Both-van der Eem (1620)
- Marriage Portrait of Isaac Massa and Beatrix van der Laen (c. 1622)
- Yonker Ramp and His Sweetheart (1623)
- The Lute Player (1623–1624)
- Laughing Cavalier (1624)
- Cunera van Baersdorp (1625)
- St. John (1625)
- St. Matthew (1625)
- St. Luke (1625)
- St. Mark (1625)
- Laughing Boy (c. 1625)
- Two Singing Boys with a Lute and a Music Book (c. 1625)
- Laughing Boy with Flute (c. 1625)
- Boy with a Glass and a Lute (1626)
- Laughing Boy with a Flute (1626)
- The Smoker (1626)
- Portrait of Anna van der Aar (1626)
- Portrait of Isaak Abrahamsz. Massa (1626)
- Two Laughing Boys with a Mug of Beer (c. 1626)
- The Banquet of the Officers of the St Adrian Militia Company in 1627 (1627)
- The Banquet of the Officers of the St George Militia Company in 1627 (1627)
- Portrait of a Woman in a Chair (1627)
- Laughing Fisherboy (1628)
- Young Man with a Skull (1626–1628)
- The Fisher Boy (c. 1630)
- Fisher Boy with Basket (c. 1630)
- Man with a Beer Jug (c. 1630)
- Smiling Fishergirl (c. 1630)
- Willem van Heythuysen Posing with a Sword (1625–1630)
- The Gypsy Girl (1628–1630)
- Peeckelhaeringh (1628–1630)
- The Merry Drinker (c. 1628–1630)
- Cornelia Claesdr Voogt (1631)
- The Officers of the St Adrian Militia Company in 1633 (1633)
- Portrait of a Man in a Yellowish-Gray Jacket (1633)
- Portrait of Sara Wolphaerts van Diemen (c. 1630–1633)
- Portrait of Catharina Brugmans (1634)
- Portrait of a Man (1634)
- Portrait of a Man in a Wide-Brimmed Hat (c. 1625–1635)
- Malle Babbe (c. 1633–1635)
- Lucas de Clercq (1635)
- Portrait of Feyntje Steenkiste (1635)
- Portrait of Hylck Boner (1635)
- Portrait of a Dutch Family (c. 1635)
- Meagre Company (1633–1637)
- Claes Duyst van Voorhout (1638)
- Maria Pietersdr Olycan (1638)
- Pieter Tjarck (1638)
- Portrait of a Woman (Marie Larp) (c. 1635–1638)
- Maritge Claesdr. Voogt (1639)
- The Officers of the St George Militia Company in 1639 (1639)
- Portrait of a Man with a Glove (1640)
- Portrait of Mrs. Bodolphe (1643)
- Portrait of Dorothea Berck (1644)
- Family Group in a Landscape (c. 1645–1648)
- Portrait of Stephan Geraedts, Husband of Isabella Coymans (c. 1650–1652)
- Portrait of a Man (Frick) (c. 1660)
- Portrait of a Man (Jacquemart-André (c. 1660)
- Regents of the Old Men's Almshouse (1664)
- Regentesses of the Old Men's Almshouse (c. 1664)
- The Fingernail Test (c. 1626)
- Harmen Hals (son)
- Frans Hals the Younger (son)
- Jan Hals (son)
- Reynier Hals (son)
- Nicolaes Hals (son)
- Dirck Hals (brother)
- Karel van Mander (teacher)
- Théophile Thoré-Bürger
- Seymour Slive
- Claus Grimm
- Marriage pendant portraits by Frans Hals
- Catalogues raisonnés
- Frans Hals (song)