Henriëtte Ronner-Knip

Henriëtte Ronner-Knip (; 31 May 1821 – 28 February 1909) was a Dutch-Belgian artist chiefly in the Romantic style who is best known for her still life animal paintings; especially cats.

Biography She was born in Amsterdam into a family of artists and received her first lessons from her father, Joseph August Knip, who also gave lessons to her aunt (his youngest sister), Henriëtte Geertruida Knip. His father, Nicolaas (1741–1808), was an artist as well. Some sources indicate that her mother was Pauline Rifer de Courcelles, a painter of birds, who was her father's first wife but, at the time of her birth, they were apparently separated and he was living with his mistress, Cornelia van Leeuwen (1790–1848), who is also credited with being Henriëtte's mother.

The family moved often as her father found work giving lessons. But, by 1823, her father was already blind in one eye. The following year, he and Rifer de Courcelles were finally divorced and he married Leeuwen. After he became totally blind in 1832, the family continued to move about, staying for a short time in The Hague, then Beek and 's-Hertogenbosch before settling in Berlicum in 1840. By this time, she was essentially in charge of the family's finances and legal obligations, and had begun painting seriously by 1835. She was a participant in the Exhibition of Living Masters in 1838.

In her later years, she had a house with a large garden, where she kept hunting dogs, cats and a parrot that she used as models. After observing them in her studio, she would make paper sculptures in the desired poses and set them together with props, such as furniture and fabrics. She occasionally collaborated with the genre artist, David Col.

In 1887, she was awarded the Order of Leopold and, in 1901, became a member of the Order of Orange-Nassau. Her son Alfred and daughters Alice and also became artists. She often exhibited with them.

She died on 28 February 1909 in Ixelles.

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