Petronella Dunois (1650–1695) was a Dutch art collector, known for her

dollhouse A dollhouse or doll's house is a toy home made in miniature. Since the early 20th century dollhouses have primarily been the domain of children, but their collection and crafting is also a hobby for many adults. English-speakers in North America ...

in the

Rijksmuseum The Rijksmuseum () is the national museum of the Netherlands dedicated to Dutch arts and history and is located in Amsterdam. The museum is located at the Museum Square in the borough of Amsterdam South, close to the Van Gogh Museum, the St ...

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

Life

Dunois lived with her sister Maria in Amsterdam after her parents died. Both sisters were rich and commissioned their own dollhouse, but only Petronella's has been preserved through the centuries. It is mentioned first in her dowry list in 1677.Fock, C. W.,
Het Poppenhuis Van Petronella Dunois
', Bulletin Van Het Rijksmuseum, vol. 16, no. 3, 1968, pp. 130–133 In that year, Dunois married the Leiden regent Pieter van Groenendijck. Besides the dollhouse, her list contained other costly items such as linens and stock options. In 1680 the couple's portraits were painted by the leading Hague portrait painter

Nicolaes Maes Nicolaes Maes (January 1634December 1693 (buried 24 December 1693)) was a Dutch painter known for his genre scenes, portraits, religious compositions and the occasional still life. A pupil of Rembrandt in Amsterdam, he returned to work in his n ...

. The dollhouse was preserved in the family, descending via the female line until the dollhouse was donated to the museum in 1934. In 1994 the museum was able to purchase the pendant wedding portraits of the former owners.

Gallery

File:Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (8663426942).jpg, The dollhouse is kept today in a dimly lit room to preserve the textiles File:Schilderij met voorstelling van de Madonna della sedia naar Rafaël Rijksmuseum BK-14656-309.jpeg, One of the miniatures in the dollhouse is a reproduction after Raphael's '' Madonna della seggiola''

Provenance

According to the woman who donated the dollhouse in 1934, it was originally in the collection of the admiral

Michiel de Ruyter Michiel Adriaenszoon de Ruyter (; 24 March 1607 – 29 April 1676) was a Dutch admiral. Widely celebrated and regarded as one of the most skilled admirals in history, De Ruyter is arguably most famous for his achievements with the Dutch N ...

. The Amsterdam historian Isabella van Eeghen tried to prove this in her 1953 article about the dollhouse, but this was later disproved by Fock, though the donor was indeed a descendant of De Ruyter.Isabella van Eeghen : ''Het Poppenhuis van Margaretha de Ruyter, huisvrouw van Ds Bernardus Somer'', Amstelodamum 40 (1953)

References

BK-14656
object record for the dollhouse in the Rijksmuseum *Jet Pijzel-Dommisse : ''De 17de-eeuwse Poppenhuizen in het Rijksmuseum'', 1994, Inmere BV Wormer i.s.m. Rijksmuseum-Stichting Amsterdam * Jet Pijzel-Dommisse : ''Het Hollandse pronkpoppenhuis'', 2000, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam en Waanders Uitgevers 1650 births 1695 deaths Art collectors from Amsterdam Women collectors Art collectors from The Hague {{Netherlands-bio-stub