Joachim Rendorp

He was a scion of an originally German, Lutheran family of wealthy brewers, that despite the discrimination against non-members of the Dutch Reformed Church had been admitted to the Amsterdam Regenten class in the 1640s.

[1][2] Though his brewery was an important income source, Rendorp was mainly a rentier who had a lot of time on his hands, which he spent on government and the arts.

As most Amsterdam regenten he was a member of the Dutch States Party, the natural opponents of the Orangists in the years since the majority of the stadtholder William V, Prince of Orange in 1766 (though through his writings one could discern some ideological affinity with the latter).

[3] Rendorp was elected an Amsterdam burgemeester for the first time (of many) in 1781 (after already having been a schepen since 1756, and a commissaris voor kleine zaken (petty magistrate) since 1757).

This caused an eruption of rage by the stadtholder, and Rendorp's lack of moral courage in the face of this conflict lost him much popular support.

As the emperor made the same proposal to the French envoy, de la Vauguyon, who soon put a stop to the peace feelers, this attempt at private diplomacy came to nothing.

When he was again elected burgemeester in 1786 he tried to keep that faction at bay, as he thought that the Patriot Revolt had gone far enough, and the aims of the States Party had already been realized by the decline in the stadtholder's powers.

He had a large collection of paintings by Gabriël Metsu, Emanuel de Witte, Nicolaes Pieterszoon Berchem, and Jan van Huysum of whom he owned ten flower Still lifes.