Portrait of Maria Arnoudina Gevaerts (1728-1793)

This previously unknown drawing is a preliminary study for Schouman's picture dated 1750 in the Municipal Museum, The Hague (L.J. Bol, Aart Schouman, Ingenious painter and draughtsman, Doornspijk, 1991, pp. 42-3, no. 29). Maria Arnoudina Gevaerts was a daughter of Paulus Gevaerts, mayor of Dordrecht, Schouman's home town. In 1749 she married Jacob van der Heim (1727-1799), which may have been the occasion for which the painting was commissioned. As Bol (loc.cit.) comments about the picture, 'the portrait of Mrs. Van der Heim, née Gevaerts is stately, elegant, courtly and very Hague-ish. The white satin gown with tight bodice and full skirt shimmers in the light coming in from the window at the right. The play of the hands is somewhat affected. Her left hand is arranging a shawl on her shoulders while the right hand, with gracefully curved, slender fingers, is balancing a woven basket full of fruit.'. In 1751 Schouman painted the portrait of Jacob van der Heim, son of the Grand Pensionary, secretary of the Admiralty of the Meuse and counsellor to Prince Willem V.