Object data
leadpoint, with grey wash, on vellum; traces of framing line in grey wash (upper and lower border)
height 200 mm × width 163 mm
Jan Thopas
Portrait of an Elderly Woman, Seated with Astronomical Instruments
? Amsterdam, c. 1675 - c. 1680
Inscriptions
-
signed: centre right, in black ink, J: Tho pas. Fecit
Condition
Laid down; damages and small losses at left border
Provenance
…; from the dealer F. Muller, Amsterdam, fl. 149.83, to the museum, 1882
Object number: RP-T-1882-A-177
Copyright: Public domain
The artist
Johannes Thopas (Arnhem 1625 - probably Zaandam before 1695)
He grew up in Utrecht and Emmerich, where his mother’s second husband, Johannes Wijer (?-?), served as burgomaster. Thopas, who was born deaf, was probably self-taught. He does not feature in art-historical biographies from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. But from the early twentieth century, he was the ‘most prolific of the great plumbago (leadpoint) artists of the Rembrandt period’ and a ‘master of chiaroscuro’ who managed to make the ‘characters of his sitters leap out at us.’1 Because of his deafness, he lived with family members his entire life and needed the help of a guardian in all official matters. He started to draw portraits while still in Utrecht in the mid-1640s, the earliest known examples being the Portrait of a Man and the Portrait of a Woman, each dated 1646, in the Frits Lugt Collection, Fondation Custodia, Paris (inv. nos. 1971-PM 4 and 1971-PM 5).2 His approach to portraiture followed the example set by Utrecht painters such as Jan van Bijlert (1597/98-1671).3 From circa 1656-57 to 1662, Thopas lived in Amsterdam. In the course of the 1660s, he moved to Haarlem, where he entered the Guild of St Luke in 1668. In 1672, he must have moved to Assendelft, and he probably spent the last years of his life in Zaandam, where his sister (and then caretaker) Jacoba Thopas (?-before 1695) drew up her will in 1688.
Despite the sheltered life Thopas led, as an artist he was sought after by the rich and influential. His oeuvre consists of more than sixty portrait drawings on vellum, including some commissioned by members of highly respected Dutch families. His last dated drawings is a pair from 1684, the Portrait of a Man and the Portrait of a Woman in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London (inv. nos. P.26-1952 and P.27-1952).4 There is only one known painting by the artist, Girl on her Deathbed in the Mauritshuis, The Hague (inv. no. 1159).5
Annemarie Stefes, 2018
References
W. Mills, ‘Dutch Plumbagos: The Clements Collection’, The Connoisseur 37 (1913), pp. 153-60 (esp. p. 155); R.E.O. Ekkart, Deaf, Dumb & Brilliant: Johannes Thopas, Master Draughtsman, exh. cat. Aachen (Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum)/Amsterdam (Museum Het Rembrandthuis) 2014, pp. 15-23
Entry
Soon after Johannes Thopas moved to Amsterdam circa 1656-57, he broadened his repertoire with a new type of portrait, depicting the sitter three-quarter length against a backdrop that shows part of an interior.6 As in the present sheet, a vista offered by an opening in the wall is often part of the setting, literally providing ‘background information’ on the sitter.
The glimpse of the Amsterdam Town Hall in the background of this portrait suggests that this still unidentified elderly woman probably lived at Herengracht, no. 186, 188 or 190.7 Although for stylistic reasons, the drawing was dated by Ekkart to the second half of the 1670s – by which time the artist was living in Assendelft rather than Amsterdam – the presumption that the drawing was made in Amsterdam implies that he still had Amsterdam clients.8
Clearly interested in science, the sitter is portrayed seated at a table in front of an open book, whose geometrical illustration implies some sort of mathematical content. In her right hand, she is holding a pair of compasses, as if caught in the midst of her studies. Beyond the book on the table is an armillary sphere, an astronomer’s instrument. A cabinet of books, partly revealed by a drawn-back curtain, further characterizes her as a woman of learning. The most unusual feature, however, is her costume. She is wearing a ‘Japonse rok’, a kind of housecoat imported to the Netherlands by members of the VOC, who had received them as gifts from the Japanese shogun. Made from fine silk and padded with silk wadding, the dressing gowns were particularly popular in paintings depicting well-to-do men, artists and scholars who wore them as working garments or informal housecoats.9 From circa 1680, the garment became also popular with women and children.10
Unfortunately, the sitter’s identity remains unknown. She might have been a mathematician or the widow of a scientist continuing his research. Based on information given by the topographical reference, potential candidates include Cornelia Merchijs (?-1694), the wife of Joannes Rijckaert (1609-1679) who lived at Herengracht 188 as a widow from 1679 until her death, and whose her sister-in-law, Maria Florianus (1600-1678), is likely the sitter in a drawing by Thopas in the Stadsarchief, Amsterdam (inv. no. 010097000323).11 The resident of Herengracht 190 at the time was Maria Wtenbogaert (1643-1680), daughter of the Remonstrant preacher Johannes Wtenbogaert (1557-1644), who was portrayed by Rembrandt (1606-1669) in a picture in the Rijksmuseum (inv. no. SK-A-4885); she was outlived by her husband Cornelis van Gheel (1637-1681).12 Unfortunately, neither female candidate can be specifically associated with scholarly activities.13
Annemarie Stefes, 2018
Literature
W.W. Robinson, Bruegel to Rembrandt: Dutch and Flemish Drawings from the Maida and George Abrams Collection, exh. cat. London (British Museum)/Paris (Institut Néerlandais)/Cambridge (MA) (Fogg Art Museum) 2002-03, p. 216, under no. 95; R.E.O. Ekkart, Deaf, Dumb & Brilliant: Johannes Thopas, Master Draughtsman, exh. cat. Aachen (Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum)/Amsterdam (Museum Het Rembrandthuis) 2014, pp. 62, 127, no. 30; Old Master & British Drawings including French Masterworks from the Dormeuil Collection, sale, London (Sotheby’s), 3 July 2013, under no. 115
Citation
A. Stefes, 2018, 'Jan Thopas, Portrait of an Elderly Woman, Seated with Astronomical Instruments, Amsterdam, c. 1675 - c. 1680', in J. Turner (ed.), Dutch Drawings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.60834
(accessed 17 April 2025 10:42:56).Footnotes
- 1 W. Mills, ‘Dutch Plumbagos: The Clements Collection’, The Connoisseur 37 (1913), pp. 153-60 (esp. p. 155).
- 2 R.E.O. Ekkart, Deaf, Dumb & Brilliant: Johannes Thopas, Master Draughtsman, exh. cat. Aachen (Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum)/Amsterdam (Museum Het Rembrandthuis) 2014, nos. 1-2.
- 3 Ibid., p. 43.
- 4 J. Shoaf Turner and C. White, Dutch & Flemish Drawings in the Victoria and Albert Museum, 2 vols., coll. cat. London 2014, I, nos. 205-06; R.E.O. Ekkart, Deaf, Dumb & Brilliant: Johannes Thopas, Master Draughtsman, exh. cat. Aachen (Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum)/Amsterdam (Museum Het Rembrandthuis) 2014, nos. 65-66.
- 5 Ibid., no. 67.
- 6 Ibid., p. 55.
- 7 Information from Peter L. Goutbeek; quoted in ibid., p. 127.
- 8 Ibid., pp. 62 and 127.
- 9 M. de Winkel, Fashion and Fancy: Dress and Meaning in Rembrandt’s Paintings, Amsterdam 2006, p. 158.
- 10 Cf. C. van Rappard-Boon (ed.), Imitation and Inspiration: Japanese Influence on Dutch Art from 1650 to the Present, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum)/Tokyo (Suntory Museum of Art) 1991-92, p. 91; K.H. Corrigan, J. van Campen and F. Diercks (eds.), Asia in Amsterdam: The Culture of Luxury in the Golden Age, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum)/Salem (MA) (Peabody Essex Museum) 2015-16, p. 195.
- 11 R.E.O. Ekkart, Deaf, Dumb & Brilliant: Johannes Thopas, Master Draughtsman, exh. cat. Aachen (Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum)/Amsterdam (Museum Het Rembrandthuis) 2014, no. 22; cf. I.H. van Eeghen et al., Vier eeuwen Herengracht, Amsterdam 1976, p. 462; and E. Van Houten, Geschied-boukundige beschrijvingen behorende bij het Grachtenboek van Caspar Philips Jacobszoon, Amsterdam 1962, p. 92.
- 12 I.H. van Eeghen et al., Vier eeuwen Herengracht, Amsterdam 1976, p. 463.
- 13 Neither, for instance, is mentioned in T. van Loosbroek (ed.), Geleerde vrouwen, Nijmegen 1988 or in J.A. van Manen, Facets of Seventeenth-century Mathematics in the Netherlands, Utrecht 1987.