Quiringh van Brekelenkam(Zwammerdam [?] after 1622 – ca.
1669 Leiden)

How To CiteBakker, Piet. "Quiringh van Brekelenkam." In The Leiden Collection Catalogue. Edited by Arthur K.
Wheelock Jr. New York, 2017.
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Quiringh Gerritsz van Brekelenkam was born in 1622. His parents were Gerrit Adriaens de Plutter andMagdalena Crijnen, both of whom were probably Catholic. His place of birth may have been Zwammerdam,
a village near Alphen aan de Rijn, where his father worked as a tailor.[1] The painter thus grew up in anenvironment that most likely inspired him to paint the kinds of scenes on which he had a veritable patentand on which his present fame rests: the shops of tailors and cobblers, around twenty-five variants of which
he produced from 1653 to 1664.[2] Brekelenkam may have received his artistic education in Leiden.
According to an anonymous eighteenth-century biographer, he was “een discipel van Dou” (a pupil of[Gerrit] Dou), however since the similarity with the latter’s work is only superficial, an apprenticeship withDou (1613–75) is now seriously doubted.[3] Nonetheless, a previously overlooked signature on a document
does point to a close connection with that Leiden master. When Dou accompanied his parents to draw up
their will before a notary on 16 February 1646, they were joined by Van Brekelenkam, who signed thedocument: “Quiringh Gerritsz van Breeckelenkam, schilder” (Quiringh Gerritsz van Brekelenkam,painter).[4]Van Brekelenkam entered the newly founded Guild of Saint Luke in February 1648, the year from which hisearliest dated painting also stems.[5] Moreover, in April 1648 Van Brekelenkam and Maria Jansdr Charle
were married in the Catholic church of Rijnsaterwoude.[6] Quiringh and Maria had six children, all of whomwere baptized in the clandestine Catholic church in the Bakkersteeg. The baptism of Van Brekelenkam’s
first child, Magdalena, on 9 April 1649, was witnessed by Johannes van Oudenrogge (1621/22–53),
another Catholic painter.[7] Van Oudenrogge had married Van Brekelenkam’s sister Aeltje in Leiden onemonth earlier. In 1651 the couple moved to Haarlem, where Aeltje ran a paint supply shop after VanOudenrogge died in 1653. Death also visited the house of Quiringh van Brekelenkam, who buried Maria in
the Pieterskerk in Leiden in August of 1655 shortly after the baptism of their sixth child.
A mere year later, on 24 September 1656, Van Brekelenkam took a second wife, Elisabeth de Beaumont,widow of Willem Simons Romeijn and probably the daughter of a cobbler.[8] From 1657 to 1668 the couple
had at least three children who, like their half-brothers and sisters before them, were all baptized as© 2017 The Leiden Collection

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Catholics in the clandestine church in the Bakkersteeg.[9] According to some of his biographers, around
1656 Van Brekelenkam acquired a license from the city council to sell beer and brandy. Angelika Lasius,however, offers a plausible explanation that this request is based on a misunderstanding and, moreover, nodocument attesting to a liquor license has been found.[10] Two court cases in 1660 concerning overdue
debts suggest that the artist had financial problems, however the amounts are not high.[11] Still, he does notseem to have been prospering. According to the above-mentioned, anonymous eighteenth-century
biographer who was certain that Dou had been Van Brekelenkam’s teacher, “[Van Brekelenkam] had adifficult situation at home with children and a most austere life, leading him to produce many bad paintings,
which he simply dashed off to earn some money. What is unfortunate about various painters from the schoolof Dou is that in their time there were so many highly talented artists comparable to their master [Dou],
Frans van Mieris and others, that they were disregarded.”[12] However, judging from the extant seventeenthcentury Leiden estate inventories, the contrary seems to have been the case: no fewer than fifty-fivepaintings by Van Brekelenkam are listed in twenty documents. It is noteworthy that two individuals evenowned a remarkable number of works by him: the Catholic merchant Hendrick Bugge van Ring had
eighteen paintings and the innkeeper Pieter van Grient certainly had eleven, possibly even as numerous assixteen works.[13]The exact date of Van Brekelenkam’s death is unknown. He paid his contribution to the Guild of Saint Lukefor the last time in 1667. His youngest child was baptized one year later, on 29 May 1668, and a few dated
paintings by him are known from that same year. No subsequent traces of the artist have been found, andhe is thought to have died shortly after 1668.
-Piet Bakker

Endnotes
1. No birth certificate has been preserved. The year of birth is derived from a list of names
related to the collection of the Poll Tax in Zwammerdam in 1622, in which Gerrit Adriaensz
stated that he had three daughters, namely Aeltje, Hillegont, and Grietje. Thus, Quiringh musthave been born in 1622 or later. For a reconstruction of the family and the changing of the name
“De Plutter” into “Brekelenkam,” see A. Lasius, Quiringh van Brekelenkam (Doornspijk, 1992),
7. The fact that Brekelenkam’s father was a tailor has never before been noted. Gerrit Adriaens,however, is called a “kleermaker” (tailor) in two successive documents of 10 February 1620. See
Streekarchief Rijnlands Midden, Protocollen Zwammerdam 1618–22, inv. 17, fol. 69v, p. 70.
2. This kind of imagery was unprecedented and, moreover, found virtually no following. Eric J.
Sluijter et al., Leidse fijnschilders: van Gerrit Dou tot Frans van Mieris de Jonge 1630–1760(Exh. cat. Leiden, Stedelijk Museum de Lakenhal) (Zwolle, 1988), 87.

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3. Van Brekelenkam, together with Jan van Staveren (1613/14–69), Abraham de Pape (ca.
1620–66), and others, ranks among the Leiden painters who are not mentioned in 17th- and 18thcentury literary sources. His name first appears in an anonymous late 18th-century manuscript.
See the biography of Jan van Staveren in this catalogue, in which he is called “een discipel vanDouw” (“a pupil of Dou”). RAL, Bibliotheek 254 (portefeuille 41a); also in Angelika Lasius,Quiringh van Brekelenkam (Doornspijk, 1992), 10–11. Sluijter, however, doubts thatBrekelenkam studied under Dou because his later style is too independent for this to have been
the case. Sluijter believes that the similarities with Dou’s work can be attributed solely to“bepaalde stilistische en iconografische karakteristieken die onder de Leidse schilders van hun
generatie algemeen waren” (“certain stylistic and iconographical characteristics that wereshared by the Leiden painters of their generation”). He does not suggest an alternative teacher(see also note 6). For the question of Brekelenkam’s teacher, see Th. Bodkin, “Quiringh
Brekelenkam’s Master,” The Burlington Magazine 44 (1924): 26–41; and Angelika Lasius,Quiringh van Brekelenkam (Ph.D. diss., University of Göttingen, 1987), 82–97.
4. RAL, NA not. J. J. Verwey, inv. 114, 16 February 1646 (the documents are unnumbered andnot ordered chronologically). This is the earliest document in which Brekelenkam’s nameappears. The will of Dou’s parents, Douwe Jansz van Arentsvelt and Marritge Jansdr vanRosenburg, is recorded in Bredius’s notes, but was not subject to further investigation.
5. Woman Combing a Child’s Hair , oil on panel, 57 x 53.3 cm, Stedelijk Museum de Lakenhal,Leiden. Angelika Lasius, Quiringh van Brekelenkam (Doornspijk, 1992), 116–17, cat. no. 129,
pl. VIII (col.).
6. The numerous variations for the spelling of the name Carle (Charle, Sjerlée, etc.) made it
impossible to trace Maria’s parents. Maria’s parents probably emigrated from the southern
Netherlands and had found employment in Leiden’s cloth industry. Many people with a variant ofher name came from places in the southern Netherlands (such as Belle or Poperinge) that had aflourishing cloth industry prior to 1585.
7. On Van Oudenrogge, see: Neeltje Köhler et al., Painting in Haarlem 1500–1850: The
Collection of the Frans Hals Museum (Ghent and Haarlem, 2006), 263–64. Johannes vanOudenrogge, who moved to Haarlem shortly before he married, trained in Leiden under his uncleAdriaen Jansz van Witveld (ca. 1581–1638). He was probably also a Catholic, since he wed
before the aldermen. Because of the family relationship, the shared faith, and similar artistic
specialty—workshop interiors—the possibility that Oudenrogge and Brekelenkam also had thesame teacher and that Brekelenkam thus (partly) studied under Van Witveld should beconsidered. For the time being, however, there is no evidence for this hypothesis, in part
because no work by Van Witveld has come down to us (see also endnote 4 of this biography).
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8. The marriage certificate of Quiringh van Brekelenkam and Elisabeth de Beaumont calls
Elisabeth the widow of Willem Simons van Noortwyck. In the certificate of 1643 relating toElisabeth’s marriage to Willem, however, is listed a “Willem Symons Romeijn” from Noordwijk. In
this document Elisabeth van Beaumont is called “Elisabeth Garbrants” and her mother “AnnetjeThomas.” The Leiden marriage registers list only one “Garbrant” who married an “AnnetjeThomas,” namely Garbrant Auckes of Dokkum, a cobbler. He married the Danish Annetje
Thomas in Leiden in 1612. While they might be Elisabeth van Beaumont’s parents, this is notcertain, because in various documents Elisabeth is mentioned with the patronymic “Willems.” No“Willem van Beaumont” is found in the Leiden death, marriage, or baptism registers.
9. From 1657 to 1665 there is no mention of a child. During this time a son, Willem vanBrekelenkam, was probably born. He was a cobbler, mentioned in a few notarial documents.
See, for example, RAL NA not. D. de Fries, inv. 1230, docs. 72 and 103 (1679). In anotherdocument he is called the “neef” (nephew/cousin) of Albert Eysing, the husband of Aeltje vanBrekelenkam, Quiringh’s sister. However, since Quiringh did not have a brother, Willem musthave been his son.
10. Angelika Lasius, Quiringh van Brekelenkam (Doornspijk, 1992), 9.
11. Angelika Lasius, Quiringh van Brekelenkam (Doornspijk, 1992), n. 7.
12. “Hadde [Van Brekelenkam] een swaar huijshouden met kinderen en meest sober teeren,‘tgeen oorzaak is geweest dat veele slegte stukjes van hem inde wereld zijn gekomen, die hijmaar schielijk afgeroffeld heeft om maar geld in handen te krijgen. Het ongeluk van verscheide
Schilders uit ‘t School van Douw ist geweest, dat er in hunne tijd zo veele grote bazen in dekunst als hun meester [Dou], Frans van Mieris en anderen in wezen waren, en er dus niet veelom hen gedagt wierdt.” Angelika Lasius, Quiringh van Brekelenkam (Doornspijk, 1992), 11.
13. Inventory of Pieter de Grient, innkeeper, and Catharina Verhaven (RAL Weeskamer, WK
1391d, 13 December 1656) and inventory of Henric Bugge van Ring and Aeltgen Henricxdr vanSwieten (RAL NA not. L. van Swieten, 1005 [deed 10], 30 March 1667).

Literature
Bodkin, Th. “Quiringh Brekelenkam’ s Master.” The Burlington Magazine 44 (1924): 26–41.
Lasius, Angelika. “Quiringh van Brekelenkam.” Ph.D. diss., University of Göttingen, 1987.
Sluijter, Eric J. et al. Leidse fijnschilders: van Gerrit Dou tot Frans van Mieris de Jonge
1630–1760. Exh. cat. Leiden, Stedelijk Museum de Lakenhal. Zwolle, 1988.
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Lasius, Angelika. Quiringh van Brekelenkam. Doornspijk, 1992.
Köhler, Neeltje et al. Painting in Haarlem 1500–1850: The Collection of the Frans HalsMuseum. Ghent and Haarlem, 2006, 263–64.

© 2017 The Leiden Collection