Petronella Dunois

Petronella Dunois (1650–1695) was a Dutch art collector, known for her dollhouse in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

Petronella Dunois
Portrait by Nicolaes Maes
Born1650
The Hague
Died23 April 1695
Leiden
NationalityNetherlands

Life

Dunois lived with her sister Maria in Amsterdam after her parents died. Both sisters were rich and commissioned their own dollhouse, but only Petronella's has been preserved through the centuries. It is mentioned first in her dowry list in 1677.[1] In that year, Dunois married the Leiden regent Pieter van Groenendijck.[1] Besides the dollhouse, her list contained other costly items such as linens and stock options. In 1680 the couple's portraits were painted by the leading Hague portrait painter Nicolaes Maes. The dollhouse was preserved in the family, descending via the female line until the dollhouse was donated to the museum in 1934. In 1994 the museum was able to purchase the pendant wedding portraits of the former owners.[2]

  • The dollhouse is kept today in a dimly lit room to preserve the textiles
  • One of the miniatures in the dollhouse is a reproduction after Raphael's Madonna della seggiola

Provenance

According to the woman who donated the dollhouse in 1934, it was originally in the collection of the admiral Michiel de Ruyter. The Amsterdam historian Isabella van Eeghen tried to prove this in her 1953 article about the dollhouse, but this was later disproved by Fock, though the donor was indeed a descendant of De Ruyter.[3][1]

References
  1. Fock, C. W., Het Poppenhuis Van Petronella Dunois, Bulletin Van Het Rijksmuseum, vol. 16, no. 3, 1968, pp. 130–133
  2. SK-A-4888 painting record in the Rijksmuseum
  3. Isabella van Eeghen : Het Poppenhuis van Margaretha de Ruyter, huisvrouw van Ds Bernardus Somer, Amstelodamum 40 (1953)
  • BK-14656 object record for the dollhouse in the Rijksmuseum
  • Jet Pijzel-Dommisse : De 17de-eeuwse Poppenhuizen in het Rijksmuseum, 1994, Inmere BV Wormer i.s.m. Rijksmuseum-Stichting Amsterdam ISBN 90 6611 233 6
  • Jet Pijzel-Dommisse : Het Hollandse pronkpoppenhuis, 2000, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam en Waanders Uitgevers ISBN 90-400-9481-0


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