Petronella Dunois

Petronella Dunois (1650–1695) was a Dutch art collector, known for her dollhouse in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

Life Dunois lived with her sister Maria in Amsterdam after her parents died. Both sisters were rich and commissioned their own dollhouse, but only Petronella's has been preserved through the centuries. It is mentioned first in her dowry list in 1677. In that year, Dunois married the Leiden regent Pieter van Groenendijck.

Gallery

Provenance According to the woman who donated the dollhouse in 1934, it was originally in the collection of the admiral Michiel de Ruyter. The Amsterdam historian Isabella van Eeghen tried to prove this in her 1953 article about the dollhouse, but this was later disproved by Fock, though the donor was indeed a descendant of De Ruyter.