Lucia Wijbrants

Lucia Wijbrants or Wybrants (October 21, 1638 in Amsterdam – May 23, 1719 in Utrecht) was the daughter of Johannes Wijbrants, a silk merchant, whose ancestors had moved from Stavoren to Antwerp. After 1585 when Antwerp was occupied by the Spanish army, the family moved to Amsterdam and lived in a house in the Warmoesstraat, then a fashionable shopping street. They had eight more children: only Hendrick (1623–1669), Helena (1628–1721), and Johannes (1638 - ?) survived.

Lucia grew up at Keizersgracht 213. On December 9, 1664 she gave notice to her marriage with Jan J. Hinlopen; she was accompanied by her mother, Machteld Pater. On January 6, 1665 the couple married in the Nieuwe Kerk. Jan Vos wrote a poem for the happy occasion. On November 13, 1665 Lucia gave birth to a still born child, buried the next day. In 1666 Hinlopen commissioned a painting from Bartholomeus van der Helst of the 27-year-old Lucia, himself and three hunting dogs, but showing his deceased first wife and children in the background. In September 1666 Jan J. Hinlopen, rather stocky built, died at the age of forty. Lucia lived with her two stepchildren on Kloveniersburgwal, next to her brother-in-law Jacob J. Hinlopen.

Having a portrait of yourself became very popular in the Netherlands after 1660, and a portrait functioned as a sort of a personal web page. Lucia Wijbrants had herself painted in 1666 by Lodewijk van der Helst (1642–1684). This painting by the son of Bartholomeus van der Helst is now in the Museum of Fine Arts (Budapest). According to her will on June 27, 1716, she had her portrait painted by Gabriel Metsu. Metsu painted only a few portraits in his lifetime; the resemblance with the one from 1667, now in Minneapolis, and two other portraits of Lucia is striking. On the painting one can see a chandelier. It could be one of the two silver chandeliers given by Joan Huydecoper II and his wife to the parents of Sara Hinlopen on September 10, 1660, two months after her birth.

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