Catharina e Johannes: Did Vermeer Ever Paint his Wife Catharina?
Two Tulips, a Shell and an Insect
Jacob Marrel
1639
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
Did Vermeer ever paint his wife Catharina Bolnes? Were his sitters professional models, friends or relatives? Although no evidence survives that would connect any Vermeer's sitters to known individuals, the artist's style of living and working habits suggests he may have used his wife, daughters, even a maid to pose for some of his paintings. Gerrit ter Borch, a fellow Dutch artist whose discreet genre interiors probably inspired some of Vermeer's own compositions, frequently employed members of his own family as models, in particular his step-sister Gesina. Alejandro Vergara, who curated the Vermeer and the Dutch Interior exhibiton (2003, Madrid) feels that "the tenderness with which Ter Borch portrays this woman on numerous occasions indicates his fondness for her." From a practical point of view, not having to pay models for long hours of posing may have represented a significant economic advantage.
A declaration concerning Johan van Santen
with
the signatures of Vermeer and Catharina Bolnes.
Critics have dedicated only passing comments about the identity of Vermeer's sitters. Other than the lack of historical evidence, the scarcity of in-depth inquiry in regards may be due to the fact that it is generally believed that Vermeer's interiors are not biographical statements: that is, they are not portraits. Consequentially, the eventual individual identity of the sitters is of little importance to our understanding of Vermeer's art since it was irrelevant to Vermeer's artistic intentions.
In any case, critics have seen Catharina's likeness in one painting or another. The most frequent candidates are the Girl Reading a Letter by an Open Window, Woman in Blue Reading a Letter, and Woman Holding a Balance (see images below). She has the same high brow, straight nose and wide-spaced eyes and also appears to be pregnant in two of the pictures. In less than two decades, Catharina is know to have bore Johannes 15 children, a few of which did not survive infancy. However, modern scholarship has not come to agreement to the fact that these, or any other women in Vermeer's paintings, were portrayed while they were carrying children. (see Were Some of the Women in Vermeer's Paintings Pregnant?) Pregnant women were probably not considered beautiful from a an esthetic point of view and pregnant women in Dutch 17th c. painting occur only rarely. Would Vermeer, who seemed entirely content to work within the established framework of contemporary themes and compositions, have addressed such an unconventional theme such as that of a pregnant women?
Another candidate is the young woman dressed in the characteristic lemon yellow morning jacket who looks out directly at the viewer from A Lady Writing. It has been noted that the painting, more than others, "possesses a singularity and mood that points to it being a portrait."1 Arthur Wheelock, in the Johannes Vermeer catalogue, wrote: "The problem of identifying the sitter, however, seems insurmountable. The most likely candidate is that she is his wife, Catharina Bolnes, who, having been born in 1631, would have been in her early-to-mid thirties when Vermeer painted the work. While it is difficult to judge the age of models in painting, such an age does seem appropriate for this figure. Little else, however, confirms this hypothesis."
Vermeer and Maria de Knuijt, the wife of Vermeer's patron Pieter van Ruijven
As John Michael Montias has shown, Vermeer had a close relationship with Van Ruijven. As for Van Ruijven's wife, we know that in her will she bequeathed to Vermeer 500 florins. This sum was comparable to the cost of from one to three expensive cabinet pictures. Such a bequest, made to a painter who was not a family member, was possibly unique. It thus counts as a gesture of special esteem and commitment to the painter's well-being. Maria de Knuijt might have been acting on behalf of her husband, but she evidently had brought the far greater share of money to the marriage, and her taste must have been taken into account. Indeed, Dutch domestic scenes as well as many other subjects were designed to appeal to a woman's gaze at least as much as to a man's. That is, in conceiving female figures, Vermeer needed to include among his concerns (to paraphrase Gowing) the attention that woman pays to woman. As a supporter of the Orthodox wing of the Reformed church, De Knuijt might have found particularly appealing the chaste dignity that informs Vermeer's interpretations of femininity.
When it came to the burgher household, Dutch scenes of ideal domesticity tended to identify its presiding spirit as female. So we may partially explain Vermeer's focus on burgher women through their association with the clearly ordered spaces of an ideal home. Artistically, Vermeer felt comfortable with such spaces, with the perspective needed to construct them, and with the quiet demeanor expected of women. Encouragement by faithful, sympathetic patrons to explore domestic subjects no doubt nourished his artistic perfectionism as well as his sense of self.
from:
Lisa Vergara, "Perspectives on Women in the Art of Vermeer." in The Cambridge Companion to Vermeer, Cambridge, edited by
Wayne Franits, 2001, p. 69
Woman Reading a
Letter by an Open Window
(detail)
Woman in Blue
Reading a Letter
(detail)
Woman Holding
a Balance
(detail)
A Lady Writing
(detail)
Catharina Bolnes and Johannes Vermeer
- Johannes Vermeer
- Jan Vermeer
- Catharina Bolnes
mp3 files by marco schuffelen
Even though we know nothing of Catharina's character, we do some facts about her childhood, her troubled family life and her marriage with Vermeer which have been gathered from documents drawn up by contemporary notaries. Recently, the novel and film Girl with a Pearl Earring has portrayed Catharina in an very unpleasant light. She is characterized as a jealous, selfish, superficial and spoiled young woman. Perhaps worse, she is sadly incapable of understanding her husband's art to the point that she attempts to destroy one of her husband's finest paintings in a hysterical fit of envy. However, in a recent interview Arthur Wheelock, curator of Northern Baroque Painting of the National Gallery, organizer of the historic 1995/1996 Vermeer exhibition as well as author of important publications on the Delft master has noted: "the film was quite beautiful, but I had a hard time with the characterization of Mrs. Vermeer. She was portrayed as a very unpleasant individual. And there's nothing at all remotely to suggest that in what we know about her. She was a model for a lot of his work. I don't think the picture is fair to her memory." (to read Mr. Wheelock's interview, click here). 2
Writer and London Times columnist Simon Jenkins has penned a strongly critical article entitled Johannes Vermeer, you've been framed (to read Jenkin's article, click here) in which he attempts to picked apart the premise of the novel and film. Jenkins is extremely unsatisfied with both the portrayal of Vermeer and his wife as well as with the idea that Griet, the author's fictitious young maid, had posed for Vermeer's masterwork Girl with a Pearl Earring. He argues that the negative images of Catharina and Johannes Vermeer "are doomed to be forever fixed in the public imagination as the 'true' Vermeer." According to Jenkins that is wholly at odds with all that scholars have gleaned of Vermeer’s home life..." and that "there is not a shred of evidence that Johannes and Catharina were unhappily married." Jenkins is convinced that Vermeer's youngest daughter, Maria, posed for the Mauritshuis masterpiece.
the signatures of Johannes Vermeer and
his wife Catharina Bolnes which appear
on a notorial document
In effect, even though there is no historical evidence that speak directly of the nature of Vermeer’s relationship with his wife, surviving archival documents would on the contrary seem to suggest that Johannes and Catharina had been a reasonably good, if not finely matched couple. The had 15 children (some of them did not survive infancy) a rare occurrence in 17th c. Netherlands where most couples had only two or three children. While the burden of so many children may have certainly made itself felt, their choice to have an unusually large family must have been taken mutually since other couples who desired so evidently managed to keep their families within limits. Simon Schama3 has shown family planning was avidly practiced by the 17th-century Dutch, Catholics included. When questioning himself on the singularity of Vermeer's marriage to Catharina, John Michael Montias, in his seminal study of Vermeer's extended family Vermeer and His Milieu, suggests that it was love which attracted the two and goes on to note that " ' Romantic love ' was not unknown in mid-seventeenth century Holland. Indeed, it was thought to be a source of artistic aspiration."
If the public were to come to believe that the portrayal of Catharina as an antagonist to her husband's life and work was accurate, a deep injustice will have been dealt to both of their memories. Unfortunately, archival documents indicate quite clearly that Catharina had suffered a great deal before her marriage and after the death of Johannes. Her childhood memories were "full of violence, fits of temper and tears. Her father, after 13 years of being married, had become an ogre. Maria's (Catharina's mother) relatives and neighbors were to testify that they saw him insulting his wife, kicking her, pulling her naked from her bed by her hair when she was sick, attacking her with a stick when she was pregnant, and chasing her out of the house. On one occasion, Catharina aged nine, ran to some neighbors in fright, yelling that her father was about to kill her sister Cornelia."3
After childhood, her tragedy did not end. Johannes died leaving her an enormous debt and numerous children to care for with no one to help except for her mother Maria Thins. Notary documents offer us another glimpse into her hardships as she later struggled desperately to keep her husband's masterpiece, The Art of Painting and another work, from the hands of her creditors. One would at least suspect that she had acted so because of her love of her husband and her pride in his work. Perhaps the brief years with Johannes were the most happy ones.
Conclusion
Catharina's presence in Vermeer's compositions is largely hinged on the presumed but unproven pregnancy of some of his sitters and the subjective interpretation of these women's expressions. Even in the best of circumstances, the task of identifying anonymous sitters in an artist's work is compounded by the cultural distance of 300 years which separates us from distance from them. For further information on Vermeer's marriage to Catharina Bolnes, click here.
2. "Vermeer's work becomes part of viewer's soul"
by James Auer, April 21, 2004 editions of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
http://www.jsonline.com/onwisconsin/arts/apr04/223525.asp)
3. Simon Scahama, The Embaressment of Riches, New York, 1987
4 Anthony Bailey, Vermeer: A View of Delft, p. 58
emblem p.43: 'Au milieu plus seur' (Fly in the middest) from Otto van Veen Amorum Emblemata
Love in Painting
The love of art is not a matter for the viewer alone. It is of great consequence for the artist. In his book published in 1678; Inleyding tot de hooge schoole der schilderkonst, Vermeer's contemporary, the painter and theorist Samuel van Hoogstraten, contended that there were three fruitful consequences of artistic effort for the artist himself. He cited Seneca's ascription, in De beneficiis, of benefits that accrued to the sculptor Pheidias by means of his art. These were, first, the knowledge and the satisfaction of the conscience gained when the work was complete; secondly, reputation; and, thirdly, the practical advantage of profit to be gained from its sale or other disposal. Van Hoogstraten goes on to explain that the first benefit demonstrates that painting must be counted as one of the liberal, rather than the mechanical, arts, a point he elaborates with many references to both classical and modem examples. He contends that what is to be learned from the practice of art is itself the reward of art; therefore it is to be loved for its own sake. Love of art, as well as of fame and wealth, must therefore inspire and propel the artist.
from:
Ivan Gaskell, Vermeer's Wager, London, 2000, pp. 63-63
Catharina after Vermeer's Death
Catharina outlived her husband by twelve years. Considering the number of children she had given birth to and raised, this was good going. Unfortunately the records that have been found concern themselves only with the debts and obligations in which her many children involved her. She seems to have stayed on in Delft for a few years. In 1681 she borrowed 800 guilders. In 1684 she was living in Breda, a largely Catholic city near the border with the southern Netherlands, while still trying to support eight children, one of whom - Gertruyd - was sick at the time. Catharina applied to the burgomasters of Gouda for assistance from the funds her ancestors had left the town for helping the worthy poor; she was awarded 96 guilders a year for five years. In October 1687 she acknowledged before a notary in Breda debts to a respectable widow named Pitronella de Lange that included a loan of 300 guilders and boarding costs of 175 guilders. Catharina was now in her late fifties and apparently unwell, and the debt acknowledgement may have been a formal way of regularizing a situation that Juffrouw de Lange feared might lose her money if her tenant died. At the end of that year Catharina returned to Delft; she, the writer, if we can take her husband's paintings as evidence, of many personal letters in the past was unable to sign in her usual educated hand when she made her last testament on 27 December 1687 and named a lawyer in The Hague as guardian to her five minor children. (The local notary C. Ouwendijck endorsed her feeble pen marks as her signature.) In this will Hendrick van Eem lost his guardianship for unexplained reasons; his last recorded task had been to empower Leeuwenhoek in November 1682 to sell two sureties in Gouda worth about 1,400 guilders, arising from property passed by Willem Bolnes to Maria Thins, on behalf of the Vermeer estate. Catharina was now staying at the Blue Hand, the house on the Verwersdijck that was the home of her daughter Maria and son-in-law Johannes Cramer. A few days later, another end-of-the-year departure, she was dead - Father Philippus de Pauw having given her the last sacraments. She was buried in the Nieuwe Kerk on 2 January 1688; the grave in the Oude Kerk was full, but it seems strange that no one thought it right to bury her near Vermeer. There were twelve pallbearers in attendance, no doubt paid for by the Cramers. No donation found its way to the Chamber of Charity.
from:
Anthony Bailey, Vermeer: A View of Delft, New York, 2001, pp. 210-211