Frans Hals 1644 Portrait of Joseph Coymans

Joseph Coymans (1591 – ca 1653), was a Dutch businessman in Haarlem, known best today for his portrait painted by Frans Hals, and its pendant, '' Portrait of Dorothea Berck''. The former resides at the

Wadsworth Atheneum The Wadsworth Atheneum is an art museum in Hartford, Connecticut. The Wadsworth is noted for its collections of European Baroque art, ancient Egyptian and Classical bronzes, French and American Impressionist paintings, Hudson River School lands ...

in Hartford, the latter at the

Baltimore Museum of Art The Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) in Baltimore, Maryland, United States, is an art museum that was founded in 1914. The BMA's collection of 95,000 objects encompasses more than 1,000 works by Henri Matisse anchored by the Cone Collection of ...

. A portrait of the couple's son Willem is held by the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

Biography

He was born in Hamburg as the son of Johannes Sr., and brother of Balthasar and Johannes Coymans, wealthy businessmen in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

who commissioned a

canal house A canal house ( nl, grachtenpand) is a (usually old) house overlooking a canal. These houses are often slim, high and deep. Canal houses usually had a basement and a loft and attic where trade goods could be stored. A special beam or pulley in ...

there called the Coymanshuis, built by the Haarlem architect

Jacob van Campen Jacob van Campen (2 February 1596 - 13 September 1657) was a Dutch artist and architect of the Golden Age. Life He was born into a wealthy family at Haarlem, and spent his youth in his home town. Being of noble birth and with time on his hand ...

. He married Dorothea Berck in 1616, the daughter of a wealthy wine trader in Dordrecht. The couple had five children who each married various wealthy members of the Haarlem or Amsterdam regency: Balthasar, Wilhelmina, Aernout, Josephus the Younger, Erkenraad, and

Isabella Isabella may refer to: People and fictional characters * Isabella (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters * Isabella (surname), including a list of people Places United States * Isabella, Alabama, an unincorpor ...

. In 1632 Joseph lived in Haarlem on the Smedestraat, where he rented the largest house in the street from Anna Vogel, the wealthy wife of the

WIC The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) is an American federal assistance program of the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) for healthcare and nutritio ...

businessman Aelbert Dirckz Bas. His neighbors there were the lawyer Paulus van Beresteyn and the notary Henrick van Gellinckhuysen. Coymans ran a business as a trader in the linen market and owned some bleacheries in Bloemendaal. The Coymans' son Balthasar (named after his uncle) later lived in the Zijlstraat, and the widowed Dorothea moved in with them before she died in 1678, where the inventory of her possessions (1684) was conducted, including a long list of paintings.

Coymans hofje

Dorothea purchased a

hofje {{inline refs needed, date=May 2012 A hofje (diminutive of 'hof', 'court') is a Dutch word for a courtyard with almshouses around it. Hofjes have existed since the Middle Ages. A hofje provided housing for elderly people (mostly women). ...

between the Grote Houtstraat and the Klein Heiligland in 1655 that was later purchased by Pieter Teyler for his

Teylers Hofje The Teylershofje is a hofje in Haarlem, Netherlands with 24 houses. History of the foundation The current hofje was built in 1787 from the legacy of Pieter Teyler van der Hulst, just like the Teylers Museum close to it. Pieter Teyler van de ...

.'' Vrouwe- en Antonie Gasthuys : successeur op het Klein Heiligland van het Bogaerts, Coymans', Kolders, Teylers hofje'', by A.D. Bloemsma, pp. 144-150, Haerlem : jaarboek 1961, ISSN 0927-0728 File:Frans Hals 1644 Portrait of Joseph Coymans.jpg, Joseph stands facing his wife with the light coming from the left File:Frans Hals - Dorothea Berck 1644.jpg, Dorothea faces her husband and the light The pendant portraits of Joseph and Dorothea were painted by Frans Hals in 1644, when their daughter Isabella was married. He died in Haarlem.

References

Collections of Paintings in Haarlem: 1572-1745
by Pieter Biesboer (editor Carol Togneri), Getty Trust Publications, Los Angeles, 2001, on

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Coymans, Joseph 1591 births 1670s deaths People from Haarlem Frans Hals Businesspeople from the Dutch Republic