Boghe, Margaretha

Biography

Wife of Joris Vezeleer, Margaretha and her husband were sitters for portraits by Joos van Cleve. Vezeleer was a prominant goldsmith in Antwerp, and head of a small family company with relatives stationed in Paris, Lyon, and Bordeaux. Very little is known about Margaretha other than her marriage in 1518 to Vezeleer and the fact that she survived her husband by some four years. The couple had three daughters and a son. The eldest daughter, Elizabeth, married Jacob Hoefnagel, a merchant, and had twelve children, including the well-known Antwerp painter Joris Hoefnagel (1524-1600). Elizabeth's youngest daughter, Suzanna, married Christian Huygens in Amsterdam and was the mother of the Dutch stateman and poet Constantijn Huygens (1596-1687). The estate inventory made after Margaretha's death lists portraits of the couple which very probably correspond to those in the NGA collecion today (1969.9.1 and 1969.9.2). The inventory gives conflicting death dates for Margaretha: 2 November 1574 and 21 January 1575. Their tombs in Antwerp are no longer extant, although the inscriptions on them have been recorded.

Bibliography

1974

Kerkhove, A. van den. "Joris Vezeleer, Een Antwerps Koopman-Ondernemer van de XVIde Eeuw." Annalen, 63 Congres Sint-Niklaas-Waas 1974: 326.

1986

National Gallery of Art. Early Netherlandish Painting. Systematic Catalogue, vol. 4. (Washington, 1986): 57-62, repro. 59.

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