Catharina Hooft

At the age of sixteen she married Cornelis de Graeff, nineteen years her senior and the most powerful regent and mayor of Amsterdam.

[1] Together with her husband, she expresses her prominent social position as one of the country's first ladies in two life-size pendant portraits, painted in princely fashion, in black with golden, by the Amsterdam painter Nicolaes Eliasz Pickenoy.

[1] The 1660 painting The Arrival of Cornelis de Graeff and Members of His Family at Soestdijk, His Country Estate by Jacob van Ruisdael and Thomas de Keyser shows Catharina Hooft sitting in a carriage with her husband upon their arrival at Soestdijk.

[7] Opposite the De Graeffs' house Soestdijk lived the powerful anti-Orangist Bicker family, consisting of Catharina’s brother-in-law and sister-in-law and their four daughters.

One of whom, Wendela Bicker, married Catharina Hooft’s nephew, Grand Pensionary Jan de Witt.

[1] In 1678 Catharina Hooft inherited the high Lordship of Purmerland and Ilpendam from her cousin Maria Overlander van Purmerland (daughter of her maternal uncle Volkert Overlander and widow of Frans Banning Cocq),[10] which she owned half with her son Jacob,[11] who was also Maria's full nephew.

Catharina as a child, by Frans Hals . In her hand she holds a silver rattle with bells, a status symbol.
Overview of the personal family relationships of the Amsterdam oligarchy between the regent -dynasties Boelens Loen , De Graeff , Bicker (van Swieten) , Witsen and Johan de Witt in the Dutch Golden Age
The 18-year-old Catharina Hooft, second wife of Cornelis de Graeff, by Nicolaes Eliasz. Pickenoy in the Gemäldegalerie Berlin
Coat of arms of the family of Catharina Hooft (coat of arms donator was her father Pieter Jansz Hooft