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HENDRICK VAN BUIJTEN

Hendrick van Buijten was baptized 20-5-1632 at Delft and burried 2-6-1701 at the 'Oude Kerk' in te same city. His father was a shoemaker. The house and shop of the family stood at the 'Kerkstraat' next to the 'Nieuwe Kerk'. At the backside it bordered the canal named the 'Voldersgracht'. Looking out of the windows at the backside the panorama included the inn named 'De Vliegende Vos' of Vermeer, where in the same year as Hendrick a boy was born, baptized Joannes. The inn 'Mechelen' at the marketplace, where the Vermeers lived since 1641, stood a few steps away. Hendrick had a younger brother, Adriaen, and an older sister Emmerentia, who both raised a family. Adriaen, a shoemaker, died in 1686. Emmerentia, widow since 1653 of Gillis de Bergh, a sail-maker, survived her brothers. She was 92 years old when she died in 1722. One of her sons was Adriaen de Bergh, a 'chirurgijn' portrayed together with other colleagues by Cornelis de Man. Hendrick's father died in 1648. He was 16 years old at that time. Two years later his mother died. When the Orphans Court made up in 1653 the balance of Hendrick's inheritance and expenditure on him, the result of the balance was minus twenty-one guilders and two pennies. Meanwhile he was however trained as a baker by Grietje Abels who owned a bakery named the 'Spaerpoth', behind the 'Nieuwe Kerk' She got 30 guilders for a year provisions and 'leeren backen' (learning to bake). After that Hendrick had lived for some time with his sister Emmerentia. At the 'Voldersgracht' stood a house further then Vermeer's inn the bakery of Jan Assuarisz Asson. in 1659 Hendrick married to Machteld Asson, Jan's daughter. The residential address in the marriage registration and later in the registration of deaths concerning the 4 children they got, and also the death of his wife Machteld in 1666, mentioned the address Voldergracht'. After baker Asson's death the house and bakery, together with a house in the 'Choorstraat, were inherited by Machteld's sister Kerstina, married to Jan Cornelisz Boot.This couple rented before a house from an uncle. As the new owners they settled at the 'Voldersgracht'. Boot was a cooper. A warehouse behind the bakery he used as his workshop. The new ownership implied an financial arrangement with Hendrick. The details are not known. Hendrick bought a house at the canal 'Koornmarkt' from the family Van Beest. He lived there according to the 'Wijngeld 1679', an incidental personal tax. The house was kept until 1683.In that year he remarried tot Adriana Waelpoth, a booksellers daughter. A specific address in the following period is not known. In 1690 a daughter of Jan Boot married to Michiel van den Ende, who got the front-hall as a silversmith's atelier. It meant the end of the bakery. Hendrick bought next a house at the canal 'Oude Delft'. According the inventory made after his death in 1701 3 paintings of Vermeer were hanging in this house. A large one in the front-room, 2 'stuckjens (small paintings)in a room next to the front-room.

The French diplomat Baltasar de Monconys wrote in his travel-journal anno 1663 that he visited delft and saw a painting of Vermeer, bought by a baker for 600 livres, (about 510 guilders). He wasn't impressed by the painting, which showed a single figure. For the baker, Van Buijten, a young husband, starting a family, is was a large sum. Vermeer had painted in that period a 'Woman, pregnant, reading a letter. It was a small piece, that could be called a 'stuckje'. The purchase can have been after Van Buijten's first child, maybe the second one. It was 17 years later that Hendrick acquired two more paintings of Vermeer. His savings as a widower were raised with the inheritance of his wife and another inheritance of 3667 guilders from a certain Adriaen Maertensz van Rossem, one of his former guardians. Hendrick had delivered bread at Vermeer, whose financial situation was troublesome. For about three years he hadn't pressed Vermeer to pay, nor had he stopped delivering. Just when Vermeer had died, Hendrick made some weeks later an arrangement with the widow. For a claim of 617 guilders and 6 pennies he got two paintings, a large one, showing a young woman writing a letter, with a maid behind her, and a small piece showing a young woman holding an instrument, described in the inventory of 1701 as a citer, probably to distinguish the instrument not being a guitar. In the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Arts (N.Y.) is a small painting of a young lady with an instrument, identified as a lute, painted around of just after the visit monsr. de Monconys. Hendrick could have seen the making of that piece. The deal included the right of repurchase, but in that case the widow had to pay a second of 109 guilders. After deliberations at home the widow let drop the clause of repurchase, and Van Buijten did so with his second claim. After Hendrick's death Adriana Waelpot didn't stay living in the house at the 'Oude Delft'. She also didn't take the painting with her. They were sold by auction in 1702. A list of the buyers is not known.

Sources at the Stadsarchief Delft: Digitalized registers of baptisme, marriages and burrials House Kerkstraat 7; arch. 1, inv,nr, 4013 fol. 166, inv.nr. 4018 fol. 172v House and bakery Asson, Voldergracht 23; arch. 1, inv.nr. 2249 fol. 115, in. nr. 2263 fol. 674 House Choorstraat 32; Waarbrief 5D fol. 147v House Jan Boot Voldergracht 23; Waarbrief 5K fol. 111 House Van Buijten, Koornmarkt 40; waarbrief 5C fol. 115 House Van Buijten, Oude Delft 62; Waarbrief 5F fol. 262v, Waarbrief 5N fol. 158v Van Buijtens inheritance of his parents; arch. Weeskamer 72, inv.nr. 4490 Van Buijtens inheritance from Van Rossem; Not. D. van Rees, arch. 161, inv.nr. 2144, 1-4-1669 Contract Van Buijten and Vermeer's widow; Not. G. van Assendelft, arch 161, inv.nr. 2132, 27-1-1676 Van Buijten's last will and inventory, arch Weeskamer 72, inv.nr. 11805

Painting: woman pregnant, reading a letter; Collection Rijks Museum Amsterdam Painting: A young woman reading a letter, wit a maid behind her; Collection Nat. Gallery of Ireland, Dublin Painting: A young woman with a lute; Collection Metropolitan Museum of Arts, N.Y. Tweewegen (talk) 14:30, 13 October 2021 (UTC)