Maria Thins (c. 1593 – 27 December 1680) was the mother-in-law of

Johannes Vermeer Johannes Vermeer ( , , see below; also known as Jan Vermeer; October 1632 – 15 December 1675) was a Dutch Baroque Period painter who specialized in domestic interior scenes of middle-class life. During his lifetime, he was a moderately suc ...

and a member of the Gouda Thins family.

Life

Maria was born in Gouda. In 1622 she married Reynier Bolnes, a prominent and prosperous brickmaker. In 1635 the marriage deteriorated; her sister found her crying in bed after her husband had beaten her. The couple moved to another house, where

Wouter Crabeth Wouter Pietersz. Crabeth II (1594 – c. 18 June 1644) was a Dutch Golden Age painter. Biography Wouter Crabeth was born in Gouda in 1594, the son of the writer and politician Pieter Woutersz. Crabeth. He was named after his grandfather Wouter ...

had lived. There Bolnes had his dinner in the front room, together with his son, while he refused to talk to her and slept in a room upstairs. At one time her daughter Cornelia was locked up by her father and in 1641 Maria Thins decided to move to

Delft Delft () is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. It is located between Rotterdam, to the southeast, and The Hague, to the northwest. Together with them, it is part of both the Rotterdam–The Hague metropolitan ...

, where her brother lived. Her husband refused to divorce her, but in 1649 she received a considerable sum of money from him. Her daughter Cornelia died in 1643. In 1653 her daughter Catharina married

Schipluiden Schipluiden is a village in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. It is the seat of the council of the municipality of Midden-Delfland. The village was founded relatively late in the 15th century and evolved around the Kee ...

but it is not exactly known when the couple moved in at her rather spacious house on Oude Langendijk. Vermeer had his

atelier An atelier () is the private workshop or studio of a professional artist in the fine or decorative arts or an architect, where a principal master and a number of assistants, students, and apprentices can work together producing fine art o ...

on the front side of the second floor. The Procuress

Maria Thins apparently played an important role in their life. She was a devotee of the Jesuit order in the nearby Catholic Church, and this seems to have influenced Johannes and Catharina too. Their third son was called Ignatius, after the founder of the Jesuit Order. It is not known if the children were baptized in the Catholic Church, because baptismal records from that period are no longer extant. In 1664 her son Willem, a jobless bachelor, was locked up in an institution after an argument with his mother, and for attacking his pregnant sister with a stick. In 1665 Maria Thins was entrusted with her son's property. She was not required by law to limit his share to the legal minimum, but she mentioned that he had been calling her names since his youth. In 1672 Maria Thins got into financial difficulties: her land near

Schoonhoven Schoonhoven () is a city and former municipality in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. Since 2015 it has been a part of the municipality of Krimpenerwaard, before it had been an independent municipality. The former municipa ...

was flooded to prevent the French army crossing the

Dutch Water Line The Dutch Waterline ( nl, Hollandsche Waterlinie, modern spelling: ''Hollandse Waterlinie'') was a series of water-based defences conceived by Maurice of Nassau in the early 17th century, and realised by his half brother Frederick Henry. Combin ...

. In 1675 Vermeer went on several business trips for his mother-in-law, first to Gouda, when her husband had died, and then to Amsterdam. There Vermeer borrowed money by fraudulently using her name.J.M. Montias, p. 210–212. Shortly thereafter Vermeer suffered what was referred to as a "

frenzy ''Frenzy'' is a 1972 British thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. It is the penultimate feature film of his extensive career. The screenplay by Anthony Shaffer was based on the 1966 novel '' Goodbye Piccadilly, Farewell Leicester Squa ...

", in the words of his wife, from which he died. She attributed this to stress caused by all their financial difficulties. After Vermeer's death, Maria Thins stated that she used her income to help support the struggling painter and his growing family. For her help she received ''

The Art of Painting ''The Art of Painting'' (Dutch: ''Allegorie op de schilderkunst''), also known as ''The Allegory of Painting'', or ''Painter in his Studio'', is a 17th-century oil on canvas painting by Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer. It is owned by the Aust ...

'', one of the finest, most mysterious and famous paintings in the history of Western Art. In 1676 she lived in

the Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a list of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's ad ...

but moved back to Delft where, upon her death, she was buried in the Protestant Old Church on 27 December 1680, next to Vermeer and her son Willem. The burial record states that she died as the widow of Rijnier Bolnes. Her daughter Catharina moved to

Breda Breda () is a city and municipality in the southern part of the Netherlands, located in the province of North Brabant. The name derived from ''brede Aa'' ('wide Aa' or 'broad Aa') and refers to the confluence of the rivers Mark and Aa. Breda ...

. Catharina Bollenes (Bolnes) received "Holy Oil", according to the records of the Roman Catholic parish of St Joseph, before being buried on 30 December 1687.

References

External links

* http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-17942747.html * http://www.vermeerscamera.co.uk/reply4.htm * http://www.bergerfoundation.ch/ {{DEFAULTSORT:Thins, Maria Johannes Vermeer People from Delft People from Gouda, South Holland 1680 deaths 1590s births Dutch Roman Catholics