Lot 63: Hendrik Pothoven Amsterdam 1725 - 1807 , A portrait said to be of Jacob Henri Vernède (born 1754), seated half -length, wearing a black coat with a white collar, holding a book; A portrait said to be of his wife, Petronella Jeanne du Peyrou (born

a pair, the former: signed and dated upper left: H Pothoven f/ A o 1782. , the latter signed and dated centre left: HP (in ligature) othoven/ A o 1782. both oil on panel Quantity: 2

measurements note each: approx. 28.2 by 21.6 cm.

Anonymous sale, Christie's, Laren, 10 April 1978, lot 429;
With J. Hoogsteder, The Hague, by 1979.

Both paintings bear a label on the reverse most likely incorrectly identifying the sitters as Jean Scipion Vernède (born 1714) and Anna Jacoba van den Heuvel (1731). The labels were probably written by a great grandson, because another label on the reverse of the male portrait reads: mon bisaïeul, H.Vernède, 4 okt 1883.
The female portrait also bears a label identifying the woman as Petronella Jeanne du Peyrou, which is most likely the correct identification. Jean Scipion died in 1779, three years before Pothoven painted the portraits. Jean Scipion's son, Jacob Henri, married Petronella Jeanne du Peyrou in 1781, and would have been 27 by the time Pothoven portrayed him and his wife. The entanglement of identities could have appeared, because Moes mentions a portrait of Jean Scipion Vernède by Hendrik Pothoven. However this portrait is dated 1768.υ1 1.See E.W. Moes, Iconographia Batava, Amsterdam 1905, vol. II, no. 8410.