Colette van den Keere

Colette van den Keere (sometimes known as Colette Hondius after her marriage) (1568–1629) was a Dutch engraver who was the sister of engraver Pieter van den Keere. She married his master, the cartographer Jodocus Hondius in 1587 and she ran the family business for several years. She is credited with engraving a posthumous portrait of her husband.

Biography
Colette van den Keere was born in Ghent in The Netherlands around 1568, the daughter of foundry artist Hendrik van den Keere, also named Henry du Tour, and Elisabeth van Estelaer. Colette's family, Protestant refugees, temporarily settled in London, England, between 1584 and 1593 after which the family returned to Amsterdam to live permanently.

Colette van den Keere married Jodocus Hondius in London on 11 April 1587 and gave birth to eight children including two sons who also became cartographers, Jodocus Hondius the Younger and Hendrik Hondius the Younger. Some of her daughters married cartographers, including one who wed the engraver Johannes Janssonius who later joined the family business.

When Jodocus Hondius returned to Amsterdam in 1593, he set up an engraving workshop and a bookstore and created a business producing globes and the first large maps of the world. In 1604, he acquired the plates of Mercator's atlas and completed and reissued them in 1606, the atlas called from that moment Atlas Mercator-Hondius.

Jodocus Hondius died in 1612, so his widow, Colette took over his cartography work for several years, before transferring responsibility to their sons Jodocus Junior and Henrik around 1621. She is credited with engraving a portrait honoring her husband, a year after his death, which showed him accompanied by the Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator, the two eminent cartographers of the 16th and 17th centuries. The engraving was printed for the Mercator-Hondius atlas series from 1619 and published in Amsterdam by Henricus Hondius, around 1623.

Colette van den Keere was buried in Amsterdam on 31 December 1629.