Talk:Hofje Codde en Van Beresteijn

Quote:- It is unclear why Claes van Beresteyn made this bequest in Haarlem, since his father Paulus Cornelisz van Beresteyn (1548-1625) was a mayor in Delft.

The largest influx of capital for the hofje came about when the regent's sold a Frans Hals painting to Mathilde Hannah Rothschild in 1882 and later three more Frans Hals paintings to the Louvre in 1885. The first painting was a portrait of a young girl, Emerantia van Beresteyn, the sister of Nicolaes van Beresteyn, the later founder of half of this hofje. The next two were twin marriage portraits from 1629 of Nicolaes' parents Catharina Both van der Eem and Paulus van Beresteyn (1588-1636). Finally, they sold a family portrait about 10 years after that, which was attributed to Frans Hals at the time, but has since been attributed to Pieter Soutman. The Rothschild painting caused a scandal in the Dutch papers and the Hofje was accused of selling National treasure for financial gain. -:Unquote

In the above abbreviated extracts from the article, the dates given for the father of Claes van Berestyn's father are different - which is the correct set?

In the lines describing the sale of paintings, a painting seems to have gone missing! One was sold to Hannah Rothschild (this is the one of Emerentia van Berestyn - it now hangs at Waddesdon Manor, Buckinghamshire, England) in 1882, then three to the Louvre in 1885 of which only two are described. What was the subject of this third painting?

John C Pettit (talk) 22:29, 16 May 2010 (UTC)
 * Hmm - good point about the dates! I have been over to that hofje a couple of times in an attempt to photograph the 19th century copies. As far as I know there are 5 paintings altogether in their possession:


 * Emerantia - now a copy (and I have as yet found no visual record of it amywhere in black&white or otherwise)
 * Paulus (whatever the dates) - also a copy
 * The twin pendent portrait to Paulus' own portrait, of his second wife Catharina - a copy
 * A family portrait of Paulus & Catharina with children - a copy
 * Hillegond Gerritsdr - no copy, but the original is now on loan to the Frans Hals museum

At some point there must also have been paintings of the primary regents, such as Claes Berensteyn and Spoorwater. There is a chance that these have either been lost or were loaned earlier to the Frans Hals museum. Jane (talk) 18:14, 17 May 2010 (UTC)