Gerrit de Graeff van Zuid-Polsbroek

Gerrit de Graeff (also Gerrit de Graeff van Zuid-Polsbroek) (27 February 1711 in Amsterdam – 10 November 1752) belonged to the patrician class of Amsterdam and held the feudal titles Free Lord of Zuid-Polsbroek as those of 21st Purmerland and Ilpendam. Known for his wealth and notorious for his stinginess, De Graeff was not particularly popular.

Family Gerrit was a member of the illustrious De Graeff family from the Dutch Golden Age. His parents where Johan de Graeff and Johanna Hooft. and herself a niece of Mattheus Lestevenon, heer of Strijen, mayor of Amsterdam and Lady Catharina Elisabeth Livingstone (1689-1717; niece of Major-General Sir Thomas Livingstone, 1st Viscount Teviot). The cousin of Elizabeth, Mattheus Lestevenon, was the Dutch ambassador to France.

From his first marriage De Graeff had one child, Joan de Graeff (1735-1754), his succeeder as Lord of Zuid-Polsbroek, who died at the age of 19. Geertruid Joanna de Graeff (1740–1801) was first married to Isaac Ernst des H.R. Rijksbaron de Petersen (1737–1783), Schout-bij-nacht, and in 1790 to Mr François Jacob van de Wall (1756–1834) Gerrit de Graeff (1741–1811) married in 1765 Christina van Herzeele (1748–1798) Elisabeth Jacoba de Graeff (1751–1802), married in 1768 Jan des H.R. Rijksbaron De Petersen (1745–1786), the younger brother of Isaac Ernst

Life In 1732 De Graeff finished his studies at the University of Leiden. In 1736 he became one of the chairmen of the Dutch East Indies Company (VOC). In 1739 he took place in the Amsterdam city government as a member of the vroedschap and Schepen. He acted also as captain of the schutterij. In 1742 his income was estimated at 20,000 to 22,000 guilders annually. From 1748 to 1752 De Graeff was one of the directors of the Company of Surinam and commissaris in Noorderkwartier. De Graeff must have known for sure that it was the portrait of his relative Andries de Graeff, but he could not afford to squander his family portraits. The transaction was probably tacit and the portrait anonymous. When Hendrik Pothoven made drawings after portraits from the De Graeff collection for prints by Jacobus Houbraken between 1749 and 1759, he drew Andries de Graeff's bust of Artus Quellinus, so the painting by Rembrandt was probably no longer in De Graeff's collection at the time.

Gerrit de Graeff died on november 12, 1752 at Ilpenstein. His burial chapel is located in the Reformed Church in Ilpendam. Jacob Bicker Raye wrote in his diary about De Graeff's death:

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