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Helena van Heuvel
Nicolaes Maes (Dutch, 1634–1693)
about 1680–83
Medium/Technique
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
44.3 x 34.3 cm (17 7/16 x 13 1/2 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Steven B. Belkin
Accession Number1989.165
OUT ON LOAN
CollectionsEurope
ClassificationsPaintings
Helena van Heuvel came from a family of Amsterdam merchants. In 1664, she married Leonard Winninx, who had made his fortune as an official of the Dutch East India Company. That same year, they bought a substantial house on the Singel—a prestigious Amsterdam canal—for 42,000 guilders—140 times the annual salary of a skilled craftsman. Their estate inventory lists sixty paintings as well as Indian diamonds, pearls, gemstones, and textiles, worth some 34,000 guilders.
Here, Van Heuvel wears silks, pearls, and jewelry that advertise her wealth and ties to Asian trade. Yet what remains outside the painting’s frame is the coerced labor in mines and on plantations that accompanied the production of these commodities.
Here, Van Heuvel wears silks, pearls, and jewelry that advertise her wealth and ties to Asian trade. Yet what remains outside the painting’s frame is the coerced labor in mines and on plantations that accompanied the production of these commodities.
Inscriptionssigned lower right: Maes
ProvenancePossibly Leonard Winninx (b. 1616 - d. 1691), and Helena van Heuvel (b. 1638 - d. 1698), Amsterdam (original commission) [see note 1]. 1890, Sir George Donaldson (b. 1845 - d. 1925), London [see note 2]. Jules Porgès (b. 1839 - d. 1921), Paris; by descent within the family to Michel Porgès (b. 1908 - d. 1999), New York; by descent to his son, Charles-Edmond Porgès, Berkeley, CA. 1978, Denenberg Fine Art, Boston. 1979, private collection [see note 3]. November 24, 1981, anonymous sale (consigned by a gallery), Christie's, New York, lot 97, unsold. 1981, Mr. and Mrs. Steven B. Belkin, Weston, MA; 1989, gift of Mr. and Mrs. Steven B. Belkin to the MFA. (Accession Date: May 22, 1989)
NOTES:
[1] An unattributed portrait of Helena van Heuvel appears in the posthumous inventory of her husband, Leonard Winninx, in 1693 (June 17, 1693, p. 4, no. 13b.). The identification of the MFA painting is based upon an old inscription on the reverse. [2] E. W. Moes, "Iconographia Batava" (Amsterdam: Frederik Muller, 1897), vol. 1, p. 418, no. 3479. Donaldson was an art dealer. [3] It was lent from a private collection to the exhibition "17th Century Dutch Painting: Raising the Curtain on New England Private Collections" (Worcester Art Museum, 1979), cat. no. 14.
NOTES:
[1] An unattributed portrait of Helena van Heuvel appears in the posthumous inventory of her husband, Leonard Winninx, in 1693 (June 17, 1693, p. 4, no. 13b.). The identification of the MFA painting is based upon an old inscription on the reverse. [2] E. W. Moes, "Iconographia Batava" (Amsterdam: Frederik Muller, 1897), vol. 1, p. 418, no. 3479. Donaldson was an art dealer. [3] It was lent from a private collection to the exhibition "17th Century Dutch Painting: Raising the Curtain on New England Private Collections" (Worcester Art Museum, 1979), cat. no. 14.