Another Heemskerk's "Quaker Meeting"

ANOTHER HEEMSKERK57 ANOTHER HEEMSKERK'S "QUAKER MEETING" By William I. Hull SINCE the article on Egbert van Heemskerk's "Quaker Meeting " appeared in the last issue of the Bulletin (vol. 27 (1938), pp. 17-32), an opportunity came to the Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College—by means of the Lucy Biddle Lewis Fund of that Library, and through the courtesy of John L. Nickalls, Librarian of Friends House, London—to purchase another reproduction of this historic Quaker picture. This is an oil painting, 26" ? 20", and it resembles several of the nineteen imitations, engravings, and caricatures which were reproduced for the article mentioned above. Most of all it resembles the Bowles engraving, but it is not so fine a work of art as the original of that engraving must have been. In fact, this imitation of the original, like so many of the others, has obvious evidences of caricature. (See frontispiece.) The Bowles engraving has one more figure (a man in the gallery) than the thirty-six in this painting; but otherwise the figures and their locations are the same. One improvement of the newly acquired painting over the engraving is a much finer view of the buildings which appear through the window—a view which strengthens my belief that the interior is that of Benjamin Furly's house in Rotterdam, and not of the Bull and Mouth meeting house in London. The colors, which are red, brown, dark blue, and white, are subdued, but harmonious and fresh. Two of the men in the picture have quite bald heads—unlike the Bowles engraving, which shows only one, but very similar to the caricature owned by Charles F. Jenkins. The face of the woman preaching—who may be an interpreter—is not turned towards the alleged portrait of Fox, as in the Bowles engraving; but the supposititious portraits of Fox, Furly, Penn, Barclay, and other Quaker leaders on their organizing visit to Holland in 1677, are quite similar. The painting is attributed to Heemskerk himself, but there is no certainty as to this; nor is there proof of its age. It was bought from a Russian exile in London, Commander Boris Averkieff , C. M. G., who is now a dealer in art. He says that it hung 58 BULLETIN OF FRIENDS' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION ever since he knew it in a barber's shop in London, the proprietor of which told him that it had hung in the same place during the years before the World War, and that his father (the former proprietor of the shop) had received it from a client, either as a gift, or in payment of a debt. The canvas on which it is painted shows signs of age on its back, and at some time it became necessary to reline it—a process which caused the loss of the man's picture noted above. There are small cracks on its face which also indicate, when examined under a microscope, evident signs of age; but how close it is to 1700 A. D.—Heemskerk's approximate date—is not apparent. WHITTIER'S PHILADELPHIA FRIENDS IN 1838 By Thomas Franklin Currier 1 IT IS a pleasure to serve this evening somewhat as a connecting link between Pennsylvania and Massachusetts on the occasion of this hundred-year anniversary of the exciting events that centered about the burning of Pennsylvania Hall on May 17, 1838, and it is appropriate because one of our Bay State citizens shared, that night, in the danger that threatened outspoken advocates of the rights of the slave. It is not necessary to explain that I refer to John Greenleaf Whittier, whose office as editor of the Pennsylvania Freeman was located in the burning building and who disguised himself in order that he might mingle freely with the mob and perchance rescue some of his most valuable papers from destruction. A centennial celebration possesses a human element that is not present when we commemorate events that date much farther back than one hundred years. Of one hundred years ago it is possible for a few of us to say that our fathers and mothers were then boys and girls, and those here who are fortunate...