Petronella Oortman (; 1656–1716) was a Dutch woman whose elaborate
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 ...
is part of the permanent collection of the
Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.
Petronella Oortman should not be confused with her close namesake
Petronella Oortmans-de la Court (1624–1707), who as it happens was also the owner of a noted dollhouse now in the collection of the
Centraal Museum
The Centraal Museum is the main museum in Utrecht, Netherlands, founded in 1838. The museum has a wide-ranging collection, mainly of works produced locally. The collection of the paintings by the Northern Mannerist Joachim Wtewael is by a lon ...
, Utrecht.
Biography
![Dollhouse of Petronella Ortman by Jacob Appel](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7b/Dollhouse_of_Petronella_Ortman_by_Jacob_Appel.jpg)
Oortman grew up as one of seven children near the
Singel canal, the daughter of a gun-maker. Oortman was a wealthy widow by the time (in 1686) she married silk merchant Johannes Brandt, with whom she lived on
Warmoesstraat
Warmoesstraat ('Chard Street') is one of the oldest streets in Amsterdam, running parallel to Damrak from Nieuwebrugsteeg to Dam Square. Its origins are in the 13th century. In the 16th and 17th century it was the shopping street. During the Dut ...
in Amsterdam.
Like other rich women in Amsterdam, she had a dollhouse built for her that she
curated between 1686 and 1710, decorating it with expensive materials and
miniatures.
At that time gentlemen often possessed "
cabinets of curiosities" to hold collections of various objects they had acquired in their lives and travels: indeed such a cabinet can be seen in the small reception room (which also doubled as a funeral parlour) at the bottom right of the dollhouse.
In the Amsterdam of the
Dutch Golden Age
The Dutch Golden Age ( nl, Gouden Eeuw ) was a period in the history of the Netherlands, roughly spanning the era from 1588 (the birth of the Dutch Republic) to 1672 (the Rampjaar, "Disaster Year"), in which Dutch trade, science, and Dutch art, ...
, their wealthy wives similarly created dollhouses as status symbols. The exact location of Oortman's house on Warmoesstraat is no longer known, and opinions differ as to how exact a copy the dollhouse would have been, but it would have represented Oortman's dreams and aspirations. Visitors to the household would be shown all the dollhouse's features in sessions that often lasted the entire evening.
After Oortman's death, the dollhouse passed to her daughter Hendrina and thence to Hendrina's brother Jan after 1743. According to Hendrina, her mother lavished some 30,000
guilders
Guilder is the English translation of the Dutch and German ''gulden'', originally shortened from Middle High German ''guldin pfenninc'' "gold penny". This was the term that became current in the southern and western parts of the Holy Roman Empir ...
on the dollhouse, an enormous sum certainly sufficient to buy 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 ...
of the time. However, an inventory of Jan's estimated its value at just 700 guilders. By way of comparison, Petronella de la Court's dollhouse, for which 1,600 pieces of furniture and paintings and 28 fine dolls were commissioned, was sold in 1744 for 1,200 guilders.
Already celebrated in the 18th century, Oortman's dollhouse was bought by the state in 1821 and purchased by the
Rijksmuseum in 1875.
A painting of the dollhouse was made in 1710 by
Jacob Appel.
The dollhouse
The dollhouse contains nine rooms. The current state of the rooms is still very much like it was depicted in Appel's painting, though of the wax dolls''—''"dressed to perfection"''—''only the child in the nursery is left. Also missing are the doll clothes, which were still visible in a photograph from the 1950s.
Willem Frederiksz van Royen painted a mural in the game room, and
Johannes Voorhout
Johannes Voorhout (11 November 1647 – 25 August 1717) was a Dutch painter of history paintings, portraits and genre scenes.[Peter the Great
Peter I ( – ), most commonly known as Peter the Great,) or Pyotr Alekséyevich ( rus, Пётр Алексе́евич, p=ˈpʲɵtr ɐlʲɪˈksʲejɪvʲɪtɕ, , group=pron was a Russian monarch who ruled the Tsardom of Russia from t ...]
attempted to buy such a dollhouse. Harry Donga suggests that Oortman's was the dollhouse manufactured on the order of for
Peter the Great
Peter I ( – ), most commonly known as Peter the Great,) or Pyotr Alekséyevich ( rus, Пётр Алексе́евич, p=ˈpʲɵtr ɐlʲɪˈksʲejɪvʲɪtɕ, , group=pron was a Russian monarch who ruled the Tsardom of Russia from t ...
; the Russian emperor stayed with the Van Brants family for a few days during his second visit to the Netherlands but left, allegedly after Van Brants and the emperor had a falling-out over the 30,000-guilder price demanded by Van Brants.
The dollhouse was the inspiration for the 2014 novel ''
The Miniaturist'' by
Jessie Burton
Jessica Kathryn Burton (born 17 August 1982)Inside back cover of 2015 Picador UK paperback edition of ''The Miniaturist'' is an English author and actress. , she has published four novels, ''The Miniaturist'', ''The Muse'', ''The Confession'', ...
.
References
Notes
Bibliography
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External links
Petronella Oortman's entry at the Netherlands Institute for Art History (RKD)Dolls’ house of Petronella Oortman 1686 -1710- a room by room description (in Dutch)
Petronella de la Court's dollhouse at the Centraal Museum, Utrecht
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oortmans, Petronella
1656 births
1716 deaths
Art collectors from Amsterdam
Dollhouses