Biography

David van der Plas became famous as a portrait painter, and his most illustrious patron was Cornelis Tromp

Cornelis Tromp

Sir Cornelis Maartenszoon Tromp, 1st Baronet was a Dutch naval officer. He was the son of Lieutenant Admiral Maarten Tromp. He became Lieutenant Admiral General in the Dutch Navy and briefly Admiral General in the Danish Navy...

. In 1684 he married Cornelia van der Gon of Haarlem

Haarlem

Haarlem is a municipality and a city in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of North Holland, the northern half of Holland, which at one time was the most powerful of the seven provinces of the Dutch Republic...

, the daughter of the castellan

Castellan

A castellan was the governor or captain of a castle. The word stems from the Latin Castellanus, derived from castellum "castle". Also known as a constable.-Duties:...

 (kastelein) of the Oude Doelen, the meeting quarters of the Haarlem schutterij

Schutterij

Schutterij refers to a voluntary city guard or citizen militia in the medieval and early modern Netherlands, intended to protect the town or city from attack and act in case of revolt or fire. Their training grounds were often on open spaces within the city, near the city walls, but, when the...

(the building currently houses the Stadsbibliotheek Haarlem

Stadsbibliotheek Haarlem

The Stadsbibliotheek Haarlem is a collective namefor all public libraries in the Haarlem area of theNetherlands. The first public library of Haarlem opened in 1921 at thecloisters of the Haarlem City Hall where the academic...

). David van der Plas' brother-in-law was the painter Govert van der Leeuw

Govert van der Leeuw

Gabriel, or Govert van der Leeuw , was a Dutch Golden Age landscape painter.-Biography:He was the brother of Pieter van der Leeuw, and they learned to paint from their father, the painter Bastiaan Govertsz van der Leeuw , who had been a pupil of Jacob Gerritsz Cuyp. As a young man he traveled to...

 and his pupil was Jacob Appel

Jacob Appel (painter)

Jacob Appel was a Dutch painter active in the 1700s. He was born in Amsterdam in 1680. After studying under Timotheus de Graaf in the years 1690-1692, he was instructed in landscape painting by David Van der Plaas. According to Descamps, he at first imitated the works of Tempesta, but later...

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His wife Cornelia van der Gon was the rich heiress of the Amsterdam architect Adriaan Dortsman (ca. 1636-1682), who designed the round Lutheran church

Ronde Lutherse Kerk (Amsterdam)

The Ronde Lutherse Kerk or Koepelkerk is a former Lutheran church in Amsterdam, located at the Singel. The church can be easily seen from the Singel by its copper dome.-History:...

 on the Singel

Singel (Amsterdam)

The Singel is a canal in Amsterdam which encircled the city in the Middle Ages. It served as a moat around the city until 1585, when Amsterdam expanded beyond the Singel. The canal runs from the IJ bay, near Central Station, to the Muntplein square, where it meets the Amstel river...

. The marriage was childless, and Cornelia spent her time on her doll houses, which Dortsman had helped design and which Van der Plas helped decorate. The landscape painter Jan Wijnants

Jan Wijnants

Jan Jansz Wijnants was a Dutch Golden Age painter.-Biography:He was born in Haarlem, the son of a Catholic art dealer also named Jan Wijnants...

 also painted miniatures for these doll houses. Cornelia died in 1701, and after the death of Van der Plas, the doll houses were sold at auction to Sara Rothé

Sara Rothé

Sara Rothé was an 18th century art collector from the Northern Netherlands, known today as the former owner of two dollhouses now on display in the Frans Hals Museum and the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag.-Biography:...

, who used them to decorate her own doll houses. One of these doll houses can be seen in the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag

Gemeentemuseum Den Haag

The Municipal Museum is an art museum, located in The Hague, Netherlands.The museum was built by the Dutch architect H.P. Berlage. It is renowned for its large Mondrian collection, the largest in the world...

, and the other one can be seen in the Frans Hals Museum

Frans Hals Museum

The Frans Hals Museum is a hofje and municipal museum in Haarlem, Netherlands. The museum was founded in 1862 in the newly renovated former cloister located in the back of the Haarlem city hall known as the Prinsenhof...

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