Founding large charities and community building in the Dutch Republic, c. 1600–1800

Looijesteijn, Henk; Leeuwen, Marco H. D. van

doi:10.1080/03585522.2013.872176

Cited by 5 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…Indeed, quite often these charities were used as "safety valves for the lower middle class by allowing elderly people of modest means to enjoy their remaining years with a decent quality of life", not having to fear that their lives would outlive their means. 37 He also found that, while the majority of the residents were older than fifty, there was even a small percentage of children living in almshouses. In addition, some of the older residents had younger relatives living in to take care of them.…”

Section: A Palace For the Poor?mentioning

confidence: 97%

Pieter de Hooch’s window shutter with the Habsburg Emperor Charles V (1661)

Hartog¹

2022

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This article deals with Pieter de Hooch’s enigmatic painting Woman holding a basket with beans in a garden of 1661 (Kunstmuseum, Basel), and, more specifically, with the identity of the man depicted on the window shutter of the building in the foreground of the painting. The author argues that this portrait, which was hidden behind a layer of paint for a long time and only uncovered sometime between 1913-1927, represents the Emperor Charles V, whose portrait still decorates many buildings in the Netherlands. It is also argued that the building in the background of the painting can be typified as a ‘hofje’ or almshouse, and that its architecture resembles that of the Leiden Eva van Hoogeveenshofje, built by the architect Arent van ‘s-Gravesande in the 1650s. This suggests that De Hooch did not only paint locations in Delft and Amsterdam, but also in Leiden. The Dutch Republic’s seventeenth-century ‘hofjes’ were renowned, eliciting praise from foreign visitors, not only because of the way the Dutch Calvinist elite took care of the needy but also because of their superb architecture that enhanced the beauty of the Republic’s cities. Interestingly, De Hooch painted a servant girl in the garden of the almshouse, which at first may seem incongruous with an institution intended for the poor. However, as will be shown, residents of almshouses in the seventeenth-century Dutch Republic were not as poor as is generally thought. Some were even quite well-off and did indeed keep servants. In fact, some contemporaries even likened the Dutch almshouses to palaces. The portrait of the emperor on the window shutter may thus have criticised this type of ‘poor relief’ and could well have been intended to bring out the resemblance between the ‘hofje’ and an emperor’s palace. The word ‘hofje ‘ after all means ‘small court’. As such an overt criticism is unique in De Hooch’s oeuvre, it may have been the artist himself who blotted the emperor’s portrait out, thus changing the image into a straightforward genre scene. It was precisely this type of scene that was to bring De Hooch some success following his move to Amsterdam in 1660.

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Section: A Palace For the Poor?mentioning

confidence: 97%

Pieter de Hooch’s window shutter with the Habsburg Emperor Charles V (1661)

Hartog¹

2022

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“…All these organizations, including the municipal ones, were financed through gifts from the community, either through inter vivos gifts or testamentary dispositions (van Leeuwen, 2012; van Nederveen Meerkerk & Teeuwen, 2013). Most gifts were small and anonymous, deposited in church collection boxes, but some could be lavish and public, such as the conspicuous charity involved in establishing an almshouse (Looijesteijn, 2012; Looijesteijn & van Leeuwen, 2014). As Dutch charities tended to be frugal, spending less than they received, many charities built up sizable endowments.…”

Section: Philanthropy In the Dutch Golden Agementioning

confidence: 99%

How Charitable Were the Elites of the Dutch Golden Age?

Leeuwen

Wiepking

Looijesteijn

2023

Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly

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We study the charitable behavior of the wealthiest individuals in a very affluent and unequal society, that of the Dutch during their “Golden Age” (late 16th to the 17th centuries). Did these wealthy elites share their prosperity with those less fortunate? Using rare data from printed sources and wills located in archives, we study their inter vivos giving as well as their charitable bequests. Our study shows that the elites were surprisingly uncharitable: Only 15% made documented life-time gifts, and their bequests were valued around 1% of their wealth. Charity was embedded in the whole social fabric save the frugal top. Our results show that burghers made more documented life-time gifts than those belonging to the nobility and regent classes. In addition, those belonging to a religious minority as well as those without children gave more. We conclude our article with implications and limitations of elite philanthropy for society.

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“…Goose and Looijesteijn, ‘Almshouses’, p. 1054; Looijesteijn and van Leeuwen, ‘Founding large charities’, p. 22.…”

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confidence: 99%

‘Because family and friends got easily weary of taking care’: a new perspective on the specialization in the elderly care sector in early modern Holland

Boele

Moor

2017

The Economic History Review

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This article investigates the causes of the remarkable growth in and specialization of elderly care institutions in the Netherlands during the early modern period, and relates these developments to a number of major changes in the household formation process, which had both a direct and an indirect impact on the need for elderly care in general and on the relationships between the elderly and next of kin (partners, children, and other family members). Some specific features of the specialization in care, such as the care provisions for couples, point towards an underlying change in these relationships, which may have resulted from a combination of factors such as neolocality, high marriage ages for both men and women, and, related to this, the small spousal age gap and large numbers of singles. In the typical nuclear household society of early modern Holland, even when children lived close enough and were financially capable to provide help, parents often still relied on extra‐familial elderly care provisions. This article also argues that this practice was embedded in a persistent moral culture accentuating independence, agency, self‐help, investment in the younger generation, and community, instead of putting family responsibilities first.

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Founding large charities and community building in the Dutch Republic, c. 1600–1800

Cited by 5 publications

References 18 publications

Pieter de Hooch’s window shutter with the Habsburg Emperor Charles V (1661)

Pieter de Hooch’s window shutter with the Habsburg Emperor Charles V (1661)

How Charitable Were the Elites of the Dutch Golden Age?

‘Because family and friends got easily weary of taking care’: a new perspective on the specialization in the elderly care sector in early modern Holland

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