Jacob Toorenvliet(Leiden 1640 – 1719 Leiden)

How to cite
Bakker, Piet. “Jacob Toorenvliet” (2017). In The Leiden Collection Catalogue, 2nd ed. Edited by Arthur K.
Wheelock Jr. New York, 2017–20. https://theleidencollection.com/artists/jacob-van-toorenvliet/ (archived
June 2020).
A PDF of every version of this biography is available in this Online Catalogue's Archive, and the Archive ismanaged by a permanent URL. New versions are added only when a substantive change to the narrative
occurs.

Jacob Toorenvliet was baptized in Leiden on 1 July 1640. His parents were Abraham Toorenvliet (ca.
1610–92) and Maria Willemsdr van der Hulle (d. 1649). Jacob’s father was a drawing master and glass
painter, and as of 1636 a member of the Glassmakers’ Guild, of which he was either headman or dean almost
continuously between 1645 and 1687. In 1649 he also became a member of the recently founded Guild ofSaint Luke, giving his profession as “Constschilder” (“painter”) in two documents.[1] He was elected headman
and dean of the Guild of Saint Luke, presumably for his administrative skills, as he does not seem to havebeen a particularly productive painter.[2] He did, however, enjoy a great reputation as a drawing master,[3] askill that benefitted not only his son, but also Frans van Mieris the Elder (1635–81), and Mathijs Naiveu(1647–1726).[4] A year after Jacob’s mother died in 1649, his father married Geertruy Somers (d. before1656), the widow of Jan Dou (1609–ca. 1647), a producer of church glass. Abraham and Jan’s brother, Gerrit
Dou (1613–75), assumed guardianship of Jan’s surviving young son.[5]Jacob Toorenvliet learned the rudiments of painting from his father and subsequently completed his training
with Gerrit Dou.[6] He drew his first self-portrait in 1655, at the young age of fifteen,[7] and signed his firstpainting four years later.[8] Evidence of his independence is also found in a 1660 document, in which he is firstmentioned as a “schilder” (“painter”).[9] At the same time, he produced drawings for engraved book illustrations
and received his first portrait commissions, the most notable ones in 1660 from Cornelis Schrevelius(1608–64), dean of the Latin school, and in 1661 from Ole Borch (1626–90), a Danish scholar residing
temporarily in Leiden.[10] After 1661 the Leiden sources remain quiet regarding Toorenvliet. His name only
surfaces again in a 1674 archival document, in which he is said to be “uytlandich” (“abroad”).[11] In a document
dated two years later one reads that he was living “tot Wenen in Oostenrijk” (in Vienna, Austria).[12]© 2020 The Leiden Collection

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In his biography of Toorenvliet, Arnold Houbraken (1660–1719) also notes that the artist lived abroad for along time, but only in Italy. He does not mention Vienna, where the painter actually did reside for a longtime.[13] Houbraken reports that Toorenvliet traveled together with the Catholic history painter Nicolaes van
Roosendael (1634/35–86) to Rome, arriving there when he was “ruim 29 jaren” (over 29 years old), hencearound 1670.[14] In Rome, Toorenvliet subsequently “assiduously and diligently . . . devoted his time to
drawing after paintings by Raphael, Paolo Veronese, Tintoretto, and furthermore after the most famous works
of art hanging in palaces and churches.”[15] Like so many other northern painters in Rome, Toorenvliet joined
the Bentvueghels (“Birds of a Feather”), who gave him the nickname Jason. After some time Toorenvliet
decided to leave the Eternal City. He moved to Venice, where he lived for “verscheyden jaren” (several years)
and married a wealthy woman, who accompanied him when he returned to the Dutch Republic.
Even though Houbraken’s biography of Toorenvliet is incomplete, his assertion that the artist traveled toRome has never been doubted. Not even when it emerged that Toorenvliet not only lived in Vienna from 1674
to 1679—the year of his return—but also probably from 1668 to 1670; at least, this is inferred by various
paintings in Austrian museum collections dated 1668 and 1669 and the twenty-six engravings by the artist in a
Vienna publication of 1670.[16]These indications never led anyone to investigate whether Toorenvliet might have lived in Vienna continuously
from around 1668 to 1679. This omission is due in part to Toorenvliet’s 1669 portrait of Carel Quina(1622–89), which is assumed to have been painted in Rome.[17] In that year, Quina is thought to have stopped
in the Eternal City on his way back to the Netherlands from a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. However, in his travel
journal, which he only wrote once he was home in Amsterdam, he barely mentions this return journey.[18] That
this trip passed through Rome thus rests entirely on the assumption that Toorenvliet was living there in
1669.[19] Quina’s travelogue does include a passage from which it emerges that he traveled via Vienna on the
return trip, as he had done on the outward one. Writing extensively about his Vienna adventures, which allseem to have taken place on the outward journey, Quina also reflects on his visit to the grave of a deceased
friend. According to Quina, this took place “after I had been to Jerusalem.”[20]That Toorenvliet spent time in Rome and also “verscheyden jaren” (several years) in Venice is not contested
here. What is disputed is the timing of 1670 to 1673. This objection gains support from the fact that Houbraken
contradicts himself. Immediately following his digression on Toorenvliet’s artistic training, he writes: “When hehad made such progress in art that he could draw well and paint a good portrait, he left Leiden and went toRome to verse himself further in art.”[21] Later in the text (when Toorenvliet has arrived in Rome), Houbraken
observes that he “[had] then already painted many portraits, for which he had gained fame.”[22] To illustrate
this he refers to the aforementioned Schrevelius family portrait, including the paean it inspired, and concludes
with “Dit was in den jare 1661” (This was in the year 1661).
The content of both passages allows for no other interpretation than that Toorenvliet went to Rome soon after
completing his training and having acquired some experience as a portraitist.[23] This will have been shortly
after 1661, because most of Toorenvliet’s (few) dated portraits were painted between 1659 and 1661. It
therefore seems likely that Houbraken was mistaken and meant “ruim 20 jaren” (over 20 years old) when hewrote “ruim 29 jaren” (over 29 years old).[24]© 2020 The Leiden Collection

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A departure date not long after 1661 also accords better with the information we have about Nicolaes
Roosendael, Toorenvliet’s travel companion. Roosendael—to whom only a dozen paintings can be attributedat present—was living in Vienna already in 1655, working together with Samuel van Hoogstraten (1627–78)
on a painting of Saint Benedict intended for the Abbey of Weingarten in southern Germany.[25] The next signsof life come from Amsterdam; Roosendael made an exceptionally good match there in 1665, became a citizen
a year later, and set up a workshop where he trained several pupils.[26] What he did between 1655 and 1665 is
not documented. However, the crisp composition and bright palette of his earliest known, independent, signed
painting, the 1664 Carrying of the Cross,[27] reflects Italian art to such an extent that it seems more logical todate Roosendael’s sojourn in Rome between 1655 and 1665 rather than around 1670, when he appears tohave been leading a settled and comfortable life in Amsterdam.[28]If Roosendael stayed on in Vienna after 1655, it is possible that Toorenvliet met him there around 1662 andthat the two artists then traveled on to Rome, like Van Hoogstraten before them.[29] When Roosendael madehis return journey around 1664, Toorenvliet may have accompanied him up to Venice and subsequently
stayed there for “verscheyden jaren” (several years). We know with certainty that he was acquainted with
Roosendael and also maintained contact with him after the trip to Rome, for Roosendael’s wife witnessed thebaptism of Toorenvliet’s son Abraham (1682–ca. 1735) in Amsterdam years later.[30]Around 1667 Toorenvliet traveled from Venice to Vienna, where he may have lived continuously until the endof 1679.[31] If Houbraken is correct and Toorenvliet did indeed take his Venetian wife to Leiden, his stay there
was brief. This intermezzo, however, would have to have occurred well before 1679, given that her death inthat year would have been Toorenvliet’s main reason for returning to the Dutch Republic for good.
While we may not know the exact details of Toorenvliet’s life between 1661 and 1679, he was certainly backin Leiden in 1679. He did not remain a widower for long; in that same year he married Susanna Verhulst,
although where is unknown.[32] The couple settled in Amsterdam and was soon followed there by Jacob vander Sluis (ca. 1660–1732), who had become Toorenvliet’s pupil in Leiden.[33] Toorenvliet took possession of ahouse on the corner of the Herengracht and the Reguliersgracht. Shortly thereafter on 24 May 1680, theirdaughter Lidia was baptized in De Krijtberg, a clandestine Catholic church, suggesting that Toorenvliet had
converted to Catholicism in Italy or Austria.[xxxiv] In March 1682 their son Abraham, who would become apainter, was baptized in Amsterdam, at which, as mentioned above, Catherina Deyl (ca.1643–86), the wife ofToorenvliet’s former travel companion Nicolaes Roosendael, served as a witness.
The artist was again living in Leiden in 1686, when he joined the Guild of Saint Luke and enrolled in theuniversity, the latter undoubtedly because of the tax benefits this entailed. His return may have coincided withthe establishment of the Leiden Tekenacademie (Drawing Academy), an initiative he undertook together with
Willem van Mieris (1662–1747) and Carel de Moor (1655–1738).[35] He inventoried his father’s sizable
collection of paintings following his death in 1692.[36] Jacob’s name appears in the guild records with nearly
uninterrupted regularity, alternately as headman and dean, from 1695 to 1712, the year he stepped down. And
in 1717 he is recorded in the university as informator pingendi, which may mean that he gave drawing lessons
to students.
Toorenvliet’s extensive, generally high-quality oeuvre and his important position in the Leiden painters’© 2020 The Leiden Collection

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community suggest that he had a successful career. Houbraken, however, contends that Toorenvliet did notfare well at all. That he was talented went without saying, ‘‘however, it is painful to behold that others who
are less artistic, as the saying goes, just roll rather than having to crawl through the world.”[37] Toorenvliet’s
straitened circumstances at the end of his life are confirmed by a tax assessment register of 1716, in which
the artist was exempted from payment because he was “onmagtigh” (unable) to do so.[38] He died in January
1719, and was brought to Oegstgeest for burial on 25 January. This may have taken place from the house of
his brother, the notary public Dirck Toorenvliet, with whom he lived after his wife died in 1713 and whosefamily he portrayed so beautifully in 1687.[39]- Piet Bakker, 2017

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Endnotes

1. See Regionaal Archief Leiden, Notarial Archives, Notary C. van Scharpenbrant, inv. 804, 11
October 1658, and Regional Archief Leiden, Notarial Archives, Notary C. van Scharpenbrant,
inv. 808, 4 May 1662.
2. At present no works can be attributed to him, and in 17th-century Leiden estates his name islinked only to “een stukje van twee joden” (a picture of two Jews). This is mentioned in his
own inventory, for which his son Jacob provided the attributions, see Regionaal Archief
Leiden, inv. 67504 (f) Aantekeningen over Leidse schilders en de kunsthandel (1692).
Incidentally, it is not certain whether this inventory was of Abraham Toorenvliet’s estate. Nota single reference is made to the owner in the introduction and its “attribution” to him relies
on an interpretation of the description itself, see Cornelia Willemijn Fock, “Kunstbezit in
Leiden in de zeventiende eeuw,” in Het Rapenburg: Geschiedenis van een Leidse gracht, ed.
Theodoor Hermann Lunsingh Scheurleer, Cornelia Willemijn Fock, and A.J. van Dissel(Leiden, 1990), 5: 8–9. It is interesting to note that various paintings of Jewish people by
Jacob Toorenvliet are known, all dated 1675 and thus painted in Vienna. Susanne Henriette
Karau, “Leben und Werk des Leidener Malers Jacob Toorenvliet (1640–1719)” (PhD diss.,
Universität Berlin, 2002).
3. Houbraken calls him “a renowned glass painter and a drawing teacher.” (een vermaart
Glasschilder, en Teekenmeester). Arnold Houbraken, De groote schouburgh der
Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen (Amsterdam, 1718–21; rev. ed., The Hague,
1753; reprint, Amsterdam, 1976), 3: 2.
4. For Naiveu’s pupilage, see Arnold Houbraken, De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche
konstschilders en schilderessen (Amsterdam, 1718–21; rev. ed., The Hague, 1753; reprint,
Amsterdam, 1976), 3: 228. See also the biography of Frans Van Mieris in this catalogue.
5. Regionaal Archief Leiden, Notarial Archives, Notary C. van Berendrecht, 27 December 1656.
6. Houbraken mentions only his father as his teacher. The generally accepted assumption thathe completed his training with Dou is undocumented. His father’s specialty appears to havebeen drawing instruction, hence the supposition that Toorenvliet followed the same path as
Van Mieris and Naiveau is not so far-fetched, certainly not after his father married Gerrit
Dou’s sister-in-law.
7. Susanne Henriette Karau, “Leben und Werk des Leidener Malers Jacob Toorenvliet(1640–1719)” (PhD diss., Universität Berlin, 2002), 2: 105, no. E 3.29.
8. This is The Young Composer, signed and dated 1659, see Susanne Henriette Karau, “Leben
und Werk des Leidener Malers Jacob Toorenvliet (1640–1719)” (PhD diss., Universität Berlin,
2002), 2: 2, no. A1.
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9. Regionaal Archief Leiden, Notarial Archives, Notary C. Scharpenbrant, inv. 806, 30 March
1660. It is striking that he did not become a member of the guild during his first active period
in Leiden. He did so only in 1686 upon his return from a lengthy sojourn abroad. The mostlogical explanation is that in his early years he assisted his father and was therefore exempt
from membership.
10. Arnold Houbraken, De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen(Amsterdam, 1718–21; rev. ed., The Hague, 1753; reprint, Amsterdam, 1976), 3:
166–67. Portrait of the Schrevelius Family, signed and dated 1660 (Private Collection);
Susanne Henriette Karau, “Leben und Werk des Leidener Malers Jacob Toorenvliet(1640–1719)” (PhD diss., Universität Berlin, 2002), 2: 2, no. A3; see also Susanne Henriette
Karau, “Brüderliche Bande. Jacob Toorenvliet malt das Familienporträt seines Bruders
Dirck,” Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch 67 (2006): 279–80, fig. 2. Portrait of Ole Borch, signed anddated 1661 (The Museum of National History, Frederiksborg); Susanne Henriette Karau,“Leben und Werk des Leidener Malers Jacob Toorenvliet (1640–1719)” (PhD diss.,
Universität Berlin, 2002), 2: 5, no. A11.
11. Regionaal Archief Leiden, Notarial Archives, Notary P. van Scharpenbrant, inv. 149, 17
December 1674. In this document Abraham Toorenvliet states that his sons Christiaen andJacob “beyde uitlandich synde” (are both abroad).
12. Regionaal Archief Leiden, Notarial Archives, Notary. P.C. van Scharpenbrant, inv. 1276, 13
May 1676.
13. Alexander Hajdecki, “Die Niederländer in Wien,” Oud-Holland 25 (1907): 12; Theodor von
Frimmel, “Jacob Toorenvliet als Wiener Maler und die Verteilung seiner Arbeiten inÖsterreichischer Galerien,” in Von Alter und Neuer Kunst (Vienna, 1922), 1: 69–81; SusanneHenriette Karau, “Leben und Werk des Leidener Malers Jacob Toorenvliet (1640–1719)”(PhD diss., Universität Berlin, 2002), 1: 62–83, esp. 62.
14. When it was discovered that Toorenvliet was not born in 1641, as Houbraken contended, but
in 1640, 1670 was still maintained as the year of his departure from Leiden, as this was
supported by a notarial deed published by Abraham Bredius, Künstler-Inventare: Urkunden
zur Geschichte der holländischen Kunst des XVIten, XVIIten und XVIIIten Jahrhunderts. (The
Hague, 1916), 2: 541. It concerned Toorenvliet’s travel companion Roosendael, who drew up
his will in Amsterdam on 5 March 1670. At the time this was a common precautionary
measure taken by people about to embark on a long and dangerous journey. For example,
see Paul Dirkse, “Nicolaes Roosendael (1634/5–86). Historieschilder voor katholiek
Amsterdam,” in Begijnen, pastoors en predikanten. Religie en kunst in de Gouden
Eeuw (Leiden, 2001), 203.
15. “Naarstig en yverig . . . zyn tijd waargenomen met teekenen naar de Schilderyen van Rafael,
Paulo Veronees, Tintoret, en zoo voorts naar de beroemdste konstwerken die in paleizen en
Kerken ophingen.” Arnold Houbraken, De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche© 2020 The Leiden Collection

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konstschilders en schilderessen (Amsterdam, 1718–21; rev ed., The Hague, 1753; reprint,
Amsterdam, 1976), 3: 167.
16. Susanne Henriette Karau, Leben und Werk des Leidener Malers Jacob Toorenvliet(1640–1719) (PhD diss., Universität Berlin, 2002), 2: 29 n76; Geza Galavics, “Netherlandish
Baroque Painters and Graphic Artists in 17th-Century Central Europe,” in Baroque Art inCentral Europe: Crossroads (Exh. cat. Budapest, Történeti Múzeum) (Budapest, 1993), 94.
17. Portrait of Carel Quina (1622–1689), Knight of the Holy Sepulchre and Amsterdam-born
Explorer of Asia, 1669 (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam); Susanne Henriette Karau, “Leben und
Werk des Leidener Malers Jacob Toorenvliet (1640–1719)” (PhD diss., Universität Berlin,
2002), 1: 42–44.
18. For a transcript of this travel account and a critical commentary, see Carel Quina Door het
land van de Sultan. Carel Quina’s pelgrimage naar Jeruzalem (1668–1671), ed. Ingrid van
der Vlis (Zutphen, 2005).
19. Carel Quina, Door het land van de Sultan. Carel Quina’s pelgrimage naar Jeruzalem(1668–1671), ed. Ingrid van der Vlis (Zutphen, 2005), 79.
20. “Nadat ick van Jeruzalem gecomen was.” Ingrid van der Vlis, Door het land van de Sultan.
Carel Quina’s pelgrimage naar Jeruzalem (1668–1671) (Zutphen, 2005), 133. Van der Vlis
believes that this comment is probably a slip of the pen. She says this in part because she
assumes that Quina traveled back via Rome, given that he had himself portrayed byToorenvliet on his return trip (see note 26). However, now that it has become clear that
Toorenvliet was most likely in Vienna and not in Rome in 1669, Quina’s comment takes onan entirely different meaning. In fact, it was not an error, but an accurate rendering of facts.
21. “Wanneer hy nu zoo veer in de konst gevordert was dat hy braaf teekenen en een goetpourtret schilderen konde, vertrok hy van Leyden naar Rome, om zig voorts in de Konst teoefenen.” Arnold Houbraken, De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en
schilderessen (Amsterdam, 1718–21; rev. ed., The Hague, 1753; reprint, Amsterdam, 1976),
3: 164.
22. “Toen al veele pourtretten geschildert [had], daar hy roem door behaald heeft.” Arnold
Houbraken, De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen(Amsterdam, 1718–21; rev. ed., The Hague, 1753; reprint, Amsterdam, 1976), 3: 165.
23. Of the 111 dated paintings attributed to Toorenvliet, the earliest three are all portraits. It would
appear that after his training Toorenvliet first worked in this genre.
24. Perhaps it was not Houbraken who was mistaken, but the person preparing his manuscript for
printing. As is known, Houbraken’s widow edited the third volume of his Schouburg in 1721.
In this process the 0 may have been read erroneously as a 9. Anyone with some experienceof 17th-century handwriting knows how easily this mistake is made.
25. Michiel

RoscamAbbing,Deschilder&schrijver

Samuelvan

Hoogstraten,© 2020 The Leiden Collection

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1627–1678 (Leiden, 1993), 48–49; Robert Schillemans, “Gabriel Bucelinus and ‘The namesof the most distinguished European painters,’” Hoogsteder-Naumann Mercury 6 (1987):
25–37. See also the biography of Samuel van Hoogstraten in this catalogue.
26. Abraham Bredius, Künstler-Inventare: Urkunden zur Geschichte der holländischen Kunst des
XVIten, XVIIten und XVIIIten Jahrhunderts (The Hague, 1916), 2: 541–48.
27. The Carrying of the Cross, 1664 (Museum Catharijneconvent, Utrecht); Paul Dirkse,“Nicolaes Roosendael (1634/5–86). Historieschilder voor katholiek Amsterdam,” in Begijnen,
pastoors en predikanten. Religie en kunst in de Gouden Eeuw (Leiden, 2001), 199–200.
28. Moreover, Roosendael’s The Carrying of the Cross includes motifs that seem directly derived
from Barocci’s Descent from the Cross in the Cathedral of Perugia. Paul Dirkse, “Nicolaes
Roosendael (1634/5–86). Historieschilder voor katholiek Amsterdam,” in Begijnen, pastoors
en predikanten. Religie en kunst in de Gouden Eeuw (Leiden, 2001), 200. In 1670 heinherited 25,000 guilders, 7,000 guilders of which he used to buy land on the Herengracht,
subject to the obligation of building a house on it. In 1673 he donated stones for the buildingof a Catholic church. R. Schillemans, “Zeventiende- en vroegachttiende-eeuwse
wisselaltaarstukken in de Amsterdamse Begijnhofkerk,” De Zeventiende Eeuw 15 (1999):
211. That he led a life of affluence is furthermore evidenced by his wife’s estate, which in
1686 included a sizeable collection of paintings. All in all, a journey to Rome in 1670 seems
highly unlikely, given that the available information indicates that he was building up a life forhimself in Amsterdam in just these years. Abraham Bredius, Künstler-Inventare: Urkunden
zur Geschichte der holländischen Kunst des XVIten, XVIIten und XVIIIten Jahrhunderts (The
Hague, 1916), 2: 541–48.
29. It is also possible that the two men began their journey in the Netherlands. Dirkse, forinstance, refers to a “Ter Borch-achtig” (Ter Borch-like) family portrait, which once bore
Roosendael’s signature and the year 1668, neither of which are now visible. Dirkse maintains
the attribution, but dates the portrait to 1658 on the basis of the sitter’s clothing. If he iscorrect Roosendael must have been in the Republic in that year. The Rijksmuseum, thepresent owner of the work, forwards Caspar Netscher as its possible maker and maintains adating between 1649 and 1684. The work is Family Scene, 1649–84 (Rijksmuseum,
Amsterdam).
30. Stadsarchief Amsterdam, Baptismal Register. 358/1 (RK Kerk de Duif).
31. A sojourn of several years is also indicated by the hundred paintings by Toorenvliet that Von
Frimmel found in Austrian—mostly private—collections. Theodor von Frimmel, “Jacob
Toorenvliet als Wiener Maler und die Verteilung seiner Arbeiten in Österreichischer
Galerien,” in Von Alter und Neuer Kunst (Vienna, 1922), 1: 69–81. See also see Eric Jan
Sluijter, Marlies Enklaar, and Paul Niewenhuizen, eds., Leidse fijnschilders: Van Gerrit Dou
tot Frans van Mieris de Jonge 1630–1760 (Exh. cat. Leiden, Museum de Lakenhal, 1988),
239n12.
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32. According to Karau, Susanna Verhulst was baptized in the Nieuwe Kerk in Amsterdam on 31
December 1662. Her parents were Markus Kleynhens and Maria Verhulst, Stadsarchief
Amsterdam, Baptismal Register, 44/26 NK; Susanne Henriette Karau, “Leben und Werk desLeidener Malers Jacob Toorenvliet (1640–1719)” (PhD diss., Universität Berlin, 2002), 1: 87.
However, this cannot be correct, because eight days after this baptism “Maria Verhulst with
her newborn in a coffin, the wife of Markus Kleyn outside of the gate of the Heyliche Wech on
the Leertouwerspad opposite the Geele Bock in a separate grave in the nave at no. 33,
survived by two children.” (Maria Verhulst met haer kraemkintie in een kist de vrou vanMarkus Kleynhens buyten de Heylige Wechspoort op’t leertouwers pat tegen over de Geele
Bock in een eygen graft in de middelkerck in No 33 bleven na 2 kinderen). The couple had
earlier had two children named Susanna, but as it was not customary to give the same nameto more than one child in a single family, these two must have died before Susanna (the third)
was born. The children who survived Maria Verhulst are Ghertie (b. 1651) and Jacobus (b.
1656). On the basis of known data, this Maria Verhulst cannot have been the mother ofToorenvliet’s second wife. Susanna Verhulst’s name only occurs twice in the Leiden
archives. In 1702 she witnessed the marriage before the aldermen of her daughter Lidia tothe agent Johannes van Ruyschenberg. A 1706 burial deed states that she, the wife of Jacob
Toorenvliet, is buried in Oegstgeest. Exactly who Susanna Verhulst was, and where andwhen the couple married, remain a mystery; no marriage certificate has been found either in
Amsterdam or Leiden.
33. This emerges from a letter dated 16 April 1680 from Jacobus van der Stoffe, regent of the
Leiden Weeshuis, to the Burgerweeshuis in Amsterdam, in which he requests his Amsterdam
colleague provide Jacob van der Sluys (ca. 1660–1732) with lodging for one to two years sothat he can follow his teacher Jacob Toorenvliet, with whom he was already training inLeiden, to Amsterdam. Egbert Pelinck, “Hoe een Leidse weesjongen tot kunstschilder
bestemd werd,” Jaarboekje over geschiedenis en oudheidkunde van Leiden en omstreken 40(1948): 199–203.
34. This conversion cannot be determined until we know more about his wife’s religious
background.
35. For the founding of the Leiden drawing academy and the artistic climate in Leiden in the lastquarter of the 17th century, see Piet Bakker, “Crisis? Welke crisis? Kanttekeningen bij het
economische verval van de schilderkunst in Leiden na 1660,” De Zeventiende Eeuw 27, no. 2(2011): 232–69.
36. See the biography of Willem van Mieris (esp. note 2) in this catalogue.
37. “T is egter smartig, als men ziet dat anderen die minder konst beziten, als het spreekwoort
zeit, door de waerelt rollen, daar zij er door kruipen moeten.” Arnold Houbraken, De grooteschouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen (Amsterdam, 1718–21; rev.
ed., The Hague, 1753; reprint, Amsterdam, 1976), 3: 167. For Toorenvliet and the market for© 2020 The Leiden CollectionPowered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

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his work, see Eric Jan Sluijter, Marlies Enklaar, and Paul Niewenhuizen, eds. Leidse
fijnschilders: Van Gerrit Dou tot Frans van Mieris de Jonge 1630–1760 (Exh. cat. Leiden,
Museum de Lakenhal, 1988), 42.
38. For the reference to the tax assessment register, see Susanne Henriette Karau, “Leben und
Werk des Leidener Malers Jacob Toorenvliet (1640–1719)” (PhD diss., Universität Berlin,
2002), 1: 89. However, Karau does not link the comment “Jacob Toorenvliet, onmagtigh”(Jacob Toorenvliet, unable) to dire circumstances, while this most certainly does refer to his
penury. It should be noted that the tax was imposed on a person’s income and not theircapital. Toorenvliet’s reasons for living with his brother were thus practical as well as
financial.
39. Susanne Henriette Karau, “Leben und Werk des Leidener Malers Jacob Toorenvliet(1640–1719)” (PhD diss., Universität Berlin, 2002), 1: 89; Susanne Henriette Karau,“Brüderliche

Bande.

Jacob

Toorenvliet

malt

das

schouburghderFamilienporträt

seinesBruders

Dirck,” Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch 67 (2006).

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