Portrait of Johanna Neeltje van Lookeren Campagne
| Dating | September 29, 1902 |
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| Material / technique | oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | ca. 100 x 85 cm |
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| Exhibitions | |
| Provenance | Van Lookeren Campagne Family, the Netherlands |
| Current residence | Michiel van Lookeren Campagne, Kingston, ACT, Australia |
| Signature | r.o. with paint: HENDRIK GOOVAERTS [underlined] 29/9 1902 |
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| Remarks | Neeltje van Lookeren Campagne has put her needlework aside for a moment and turns her gaze towards the light. The look in her eyes is sharp and vivid, despite her considerable age. Two months after this portrait was painted, Neeltje turned 80 years old. This was probably the reason for the painting; in the 19th century, it was not unusual to commemorate a special birthday with a portrait. When Neeltje was 53 years old, her husband, the Tiel pharmacist Willem van Lookeren Campagne, died. In this painting we see Neeltje still wearing the mourning clothes of a widow. Although there was a clear term for the mourning period in the 19th century, some widows continued to show the mourning with their clothing and jewelry through the rest of their lives. The painting is probably still in the original frame today (not shown here), a frame of the prestigious Conzen firm from Düsseldorf. When Henri Goovaerts painted this portrait, he had been living with his family in Düsseldorf for several years. That month he had just become a father to his second son. Between 1980 and 1992 the portrait of Neeltje could be found in the University of Twente in Enschede, the Netherlands, where it hung in the office of her great-grandson Carel van Lookeren Campagne, president of the Executive Board. Since then it has traveled with its current owner to Belgium, France, Switzerland and the US before ending up in Australia, far away from where it was once painted. |