Regentesses of the Old Men's Almshouse [SEP] creator
Regentesses of the Old Men's Almshouse
The Regentesses of the Old Men's Almshouse Haarlem is a regents' group portrait of four regentesses and their servant painted by Frans Hals for the Oude Mannenhuis in Haarlem, the Netherlands. It forms a pendant with the "Regents of the Old Men's Almshouse".
Background.
The regentesses portrayed were (left to right) Adriaentje Schouten, Marijtje Willemsdr (also recorded as regentess of Het Dolhuys), Anna van Damme (first married Abraham de Ridder, then in 1650
. The commissions proved lucrative, particularly since the regents only served for a few years, to be replaced with a new set of regents that were equally eager to be painted.
In some institutions the regentesses were all female, and so the portraits were of all-female groups, or there were mixed-gender regents who were painted separately, as in Hals' two portraits of the "Regents" and "Regentesses of the Old Men's Almshouse". Occasionally the painting depicted not just the regents but also others