Recognizing Artist and Subject: Bramine Hubrecht and her Sicilian Procession

In this contribution the author goes deeper into the life, the oeuvre and the network of the all but forgotten artist Bramine Hubrecht (1855-1913). At the centre is one of her paintings – four veiled young girls entirely dressed in white in a church interior. This work is now in Museum Catharijneconvent. The painting was previously attributed to Isaac Israels (1865-1934) on the basis of two false signatures. New information has meant that it can now be identified as a work by the painter Bramine Hubrecht. One of her sketchbooks in the Rijksmuseum and a watercolour in the Pulchri Cabinet, a unique artists’ initiative in The Hague, helped in unravelling the story. These two works, which show exactly the same girls, can beattributed to Hubrecht with absolute certainty. New biographical information has reinforced this new attribution and also sheds light on the meaning of the subject. These ‘brides’ prove to be part of the Processione dei Misteri del Venerdì Santo,which is still held every year on the evening of Good Friday in Taormina, the little village in Sicily where Hubrecht lived at the beginning of the twentieth century. The new attribution has also prompted research into Hubrecht’s life and works – research which has not been carried out until now.

S ince 2014, Museum Catharijneconvent in Utrecht has had a painting of four 'brides', attributed on the basis of the signature to Isaac Israels . It depicts four young girls, veiled and dressed entirely in white, in a church interior ( fig. 1). Each girl has a dark blue belt around her waist and a light blue, heartshaped portrait medallion on a blue cord around her neck. The smallest girl, at the front on the right, holds a crown of thorns; two of the others carry a lit candle. More churchgoers and a candlelit altar can be seen in the background. It was long suspected that Israels's signature and the accompanying date '1883' were false, but until now it had not been possible to link the painting to another artist. Based on new information, it can now be identified as a work by Bramine Hubrecht (1855Hubrecht ( -1913, which means that the work is now attributed to a woman, not a man. One of Hubrecht's sketchbooks in the Rijksmuseum and a unique artists' initiative in The Hague helped solve the puzzle. The new attribution prompted a new look at the life and work of this forgotten painter. The biographical information reinforces this attribution and sheds light on the portrayal of the 'brides'. A study of Hubrecht's works reveals just how well the painting fits into her oeuvre.

False Signature
The painting is signed and dated lower right 'Isaac Israels/ 1883'. However, the painting style, particularly the careful rendering of the details and the faces, bears no similarity to Isaac Israels's characteristic, much coarser impressio nist touch, not even to the finer style of early works in Israels's oeuvre, like the procession in the Old Catholic parish church in The Hague, which he painted several times in 1881 ( fig. 2). 1 This in itself had already led to the suspicion that the signature was false. Close study under ultraviolet light and observations made with a stereo-microscope confirmed this. 2 The signature was painted over the layer of varnish. The paint of the signature bridges the early craquelures in the original paint layer and therefore dates from much later than the composition.
At some point the canvas was put on to a smaller stretcher, the painted edges were folded over the new stretcher on all sides, but were preserved. 3 It was possible to trace the provenance of the painting back to 1977, when it already bore this signature and was the smaller size. 4 On the bottom edge of the original canvas, which ended up on the side of the stretcher when it was folded over, there is a second signature: 'isaac israels' (fig. 3). This signature is not as obviously false as the first one. It is under a layer of varnish and its craque- lure appears to follow that of the original paint layer. 5 It consequently does appear to be old, but nevertheless it is highly unlikely that the signature is Israels's. Even though his signatures vary somewhat, a characteristic feature is a clear gap between the forename and surname, which is not the case here. Furthermore, the letters of the signature incline to the left, while Israels's signatures stand upright or tilt to the right. This signature is moreover rather spasmodic; each of the three capital As, for example, is formed in a different way. This all indicates that the signature is not authentic.

Attribution
The specific appearances of the girls in the Catharijneconvent painting made it possible to reattribute the work. Virtually identical girls were found in two works by Bramine Hubrecht. A simple sketch in one of Hubrecht's surviving sketchbooks in the Rijksmuseum is clearly a quick preliminary study for the oldest girl in the painting ( fig. 4)  < images, which can both be attributed to Hubrecht with certainty, were independently preserved and not previously linked together. They both correspond so directly to the girls in the Catharijneconvent painting that it can be convincingly attributed to Hubrecht on the basis of these similarities. 7 The interpretation of the scene, more on which later, confirms the attribution.
In terms of painting style, it is perhaps surprising that Isaac Israels's signature was added to this work; as far as context is concerned, however, it makes sense. Israels and Hubrecht were contemporaries. Their training was similar, first at the Akademie van Beeldende Kunsten in The Hague and then at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam, where they were both taught by August Allebé (1838Allebé ( -1927 8 and although Hubrecht was ten years older, their years of study at both academies just overlapped. They undoubtedly knew one another and found themselves in the same circles when they graduated. What is more, Bramine corresponded with Aleida Israels-Schaap, 9 Isaac's mother, and was a guest at the eightieth birthday party of Isaac's father, the painter Jozef Israëls. 10 Financial gain was undoubtedly the motive for the attempt to pass off this work as an Israels. Israels's name was more famous and, no less importantly, work by women was not as well regarded. 11 Moreover a man like Isaac Israels was a professional artist, an occupation forced upon him by his father, unlike Hubrecht who was not primarily working for the money. To better interpret the painting from Museum Catharijneconvent I shall examine the life and oeuvre of this forgotten painter -something not previously done. r e c o g n i z i n g a r t i s t a n d s u b j e c t : b r a m i n e h u b r e c h t a n d h e r s i c i l i a n p r o c e s s i o n Bramine Hubrecht's Youth and Training Abrahamina Arnolda Louisa Hubrecht was born in Rotterdam on 15 July 1855, the daughter of Paul François Hubrecht (1829Hubrecht ( -1902 and Maria Pruys van der Hoeven (1824-1901). 12 She came from a well-to-do, highly educated family ( fig. 6). Her father was a scion of one of the oldest patrician families in Leiden, where he had obtained his law degree. 13 He worked as an advocate in Rotterdam and then as an acting district judge. Bramine's mother was the daughter of Cornelis Pruys van der Hoeven (1792-1871), a well-known professor of medicine in Leiden and rector magnificus of the university. Bramine spent her early youth in Rotterdam, at four different addresses around the Oude Haven. 14 Four brothers and a sister followed, three of whom died young. 15 The family regularly had livein servants, sometimes several at a time. In 1869 Hubrecht's father was appointed Secretary-General of the Ministry of the Interior in The Hague, and the family moved there on 19 April 1869. He later became a member of the Council of State. It is not sur prising that Bramine and her younger sister Maria trained as artists. Paul François Hubrecht loved art and built up a small collection of paintings. 16 In 1874 he joined Pulchri Studio as an 'art-loving member'. 17 Nonetheless her background was different from that of Isaac Israels and, for example, her contemporary Thérèse Schwartze (1851-1918), who both came from families of artists. In their cases the trade was in their blood and the aim was to make a living from it.
Bramine had her first drawing lessons at the Akademie van Beeldende Kunsten, which was based at the Prinsessegracht in The Hague. This was one of the few art colleges that admitted female students at that time, from 1872 onwards, although on separate courses. 18 Almost immediately afterwards, Bramine started a course that began in April 1874. 19 She was eighteen and living in Javastraat. Her education extended beyond art because in that period she was also awarded diplomas of competency as an auxiliary teacher of English and French. 20 At the academy she took 'basic course' A: 'elementary education, in drawing examples, objects according to a modified Dupuis system, 21 and plaster casts'. 22 She attended this six month course, exclusively in drawing, a number of times in the years that followed until 1878, along with two summer courses. 23 Hubrecht continued her training at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten (National Academy of Fine Arts) in Amsterdam,24 which was created in 1870 as the successor to the Koninklijke Akademie (Royal Academy); from then on women were also allowed to study there. 25 A strict admission procedure ensured that the level remained high and the training  exclusive. Hubrecht studied at the academy on two separate occasions and so took the entrance exam twice. 26 The first time was in 1878, when she took drawing classes, with as her final assessment: 'aptitude and diligence excellent; perspective and ornament styles: satisfactory; aesthetics: faithfully attended'. Bramine's senior lectur er, the drawing professor August Allebé, became the director in 1879 and firmly placed the 'new' academy on the map. One of the innovations he introduced were the loges, places where older students could work independently. 27 After her second entrance examination in 1884 Bramine went back as a loge student for two years. This was at the insistence of Allebé, who had continued to teach her in the intervening years. 28 That he personally committed himself to his students is also evident from the surviving correspondence with Hubrecht between 1879 and 1887. 29 They wrote about all kinds of things, from lessons, varnishes and tips in connection with Hubrecht's visit to Paris, to letters which prove that Allebé 'mediated' for her: he showed her work to other people and tried to get it exhibited. Allebé was instrumental in directing her career.

Oeuvre
Bramine Hubrecht lived and worked in The Hague for most of her life. Her known oeuvre consists of some thirtyfive paintings, around forty separate drawings and watercolours, ten prints, a collection of illustrations, and six well-filled sketchbooks in which she had used pencil, charcoal, wash and pastel as well as watercolours (fig. 7) and the compositions had been more or less finished. 30 Her choice of subject was traditional. 31 She mainly made portraits and domestic scenes: views of interiors, with women reading, doing handiwork or making music and children playing (figs. 8,9). It is clear from surviving diary entries for the 1874-79 period that all these subjects were from her immediate surroundings. Female artists at that time typically depicted these subjects. Bramine also played the piano and spent a lot of time reading, writing letters and sewing and with closely related children. 32 Hubrecht married twice. Her first husband was Franciscus Cornelis Donders (1818-1889); on his death she married Alphonse Marie A.J. Grandmont (1837-1909) -more about them later. Many of her artworks are signed or monogrammed and sometimes dated. Her work can be roughly dated by the way she signed, as in both cases she adopted her husband's surname after she married. As a young artist she used her maiden name; in 1888 and 1889 the surname Donders-Hubrecht, from 1892 Grandmont-Hubrecht, or the monogram BGHt r e c o g n i z i n g a r t i s t a n d s u b j e c t : b r a m i n e h u b r e c h t a n d h e r s i c i l i a n p r o c e s s i o n  She worked from around 1880 until her death in 1913. It is clear from the number of exhibitions she took part in that she was quite active. A letter, which can be dated to some time between 1900 and 1909, states that she thought that an output of two portraits a year was too few. 33 This means that her oeuvre must have been much bigger than we know now. 34 Her productivity cannot, though, be compared with the far larger oeuvres of many of her contemporaries, such as that of her friend, the society painter Thérèse Schwartze. 35 The great difference can be explained by the fact that Schwartze, unlike Hubrecht, had to make a living from her work.

Painted Portraits
Hubrecht's painted oeuvre consists mainly of portraits -three-quarter length portraits and busts. They are often of acquaintances: family members or colleagues of her father or her brother Ambrosius Arnold Willem Hubrecht (1853-1937, professor of mathematics and physics in Utrecht. 36 Bramine painted a number of official portraits of professors which were hung on the walls of the University of Utrecht: stern busts in which the sitters, in their gowns and usually sporting their decorations, were placed against a dark backg round and look straight at the viewer. Her other painted portraits often have a similar structure. The fact that Hubrecht came from a well-todo family and moved in prominent artistic circles can be seen from the list of names of those she portrayed outside of her family. On 4 October 1888 in The Hague Bramine married the much older, famous professor of medicine and physiology in Utrecht, Franciscus Cornelis Donders. The marriage was reported in detail in various newspapers, where the fact that there was an almost forty year difference in their ages did not remain unnoticed and unjudged. 37 Bramine's father also had initial misgivings about the marriage, but in the end he was the one who officiated at their wedding. 38 Donders died less than six months after the wedding. Although they had separate estates, Bramine nonetheless inherited a considerable sum that almost doubled her personal property. 39 She painted his portrait at least five times. 40 The story has it that the love between Hubrecht and Donders blossomed while he was sitting for the more than life-sized, three-quarter length portrait of 1888 ( fig. 10), which can be considered her masterpiece and will be discussed in more depth later. 41 However, Hubrecht painted that work, down to the smallest details, from a photograph ( fig. 11). This seems to cast doubts on the romantic tale, although there probably were additional sittings.
Hubrecht often painted straight from photographs -certainly the portrait of Donders writing at his desk in 1888-89, 42 the posthumous portrait of Donders of 1890, 43 the portrait of Pierre Henri Ritter 44 and probably one of the two portraits of her brother Ambrosius Hubrecht. 45 We do not know if the portrait of r e c o g n i z i n g a r t i s t a n d s u b j e c t : b r a m i n e h u b r e c h t a n d h e r s i c i l i a n p r o c e s s i o n  John Ricus Couperus, a former neighbour of Hubrecht's, 46 was also based on a photograph. A surviving letter from Couperus to Hubrecht from the late 1890s may show that Bramine actually did work with sittings and in any event proves that she involved the clients who were her friends in the painting process. Couperus wrote to her: 'I always think with profound enjoyment of the pleasant hours we spent together at your painter's easel.' 47

Works on Paper
During her career Bramine Hubrecht made only a small number of prints, which, like the drawings she made, often have children in an interior as their subject or are portraits. Her 'Baker en Kinderrijmen', a collection of rhymes with accompanying prints, was published in 1884. 48 Bramine made her best known etching after the previously mentioned three-quarter length portrait of Donders ( fig. 10). 49 Two prints from her time as a student are still in the Rijksakademie: a girl writing and a farmer in a barn ( fig. 12). 50 A note on one of her later etchings in the Rijksmuseum's collection proves that Allebé was not always particularly enthusiastic about her etchings: 'Etching like this is nothing but scraping and scratching/ anything that could be a reason to etch is absent'. 51 And yet when she was there as a loge student, he gave her a good report: 'outstandingly diligent, aptitude good (also in etch ing)'. 52 Hubrecht worked in different techniques on paper but watercolours were obviously her favourite. In her sketchbooks she frequently worked up a drawing with watercolours and a number of watercolours in their own right have also survived (figs. 8,9). Hubrecht often also worked up draw ings in pastel into finished works. One of her selfportraits is a good example of this ( fig. 13). It is easy to see the similarity in style to work by Thérèse Schwartze here. 53 Schwartze made a number of bust portraits like this in pastel, in which the sitter is positioned in the same way; the emphasis clearly focuses on the face -which is both lighter in colour as well as being far more detailed -and where the background is filled in an identical way with hatching lines. Hubrecht's style chimes with that of her contempo raries, like Schwartze, who with her 'classic' por traits presented herself as a society painter.

Recognition
From 1884 onwards, Hubrecht was a member of the Pulchri Studio painters' society in The Hague. 54 Two years later, as soon as she finished her training in Amsterdam, she became a member of the Arti et Amicitiae artists' society there. 55 Honorary membership of the Société Royale Belge des aquarellistes, a Belgian artists' collective, followed in 1885. 56 Artists' societies like these frequently staged exhibitions of their members' work, and between 1880 and 1900 Bramine often took part in them. Her work was also shown in exhibitions abroad, in Antwerp, Brussels, Paris, Berlin, Munich and Rome and even in St Louis and Chicago in the United States. By no means always do we know which works of art Hubrecht exhibited, as the surviving exhibition catalogues and reviews often describe the works in very general terms -as 'portrait of a child', for example -and almost never have illustrations.
Her participation in exhibitions proves that her work sits in the tradi tion of professional artists of that time. By putting work into exhibitions like these, an artist gained international recognition, and they also provided an opportunity to sell their work. In Hubrecht's case, however, not everything that she sent was actually intended for sale. For instance, she showed the large portrait of Franciscus Cornelis Donders at an exhibition in Munich in 1888, but it was the property of the sitter and remained as such. 57 She evidently saw the German exhibit ion primarily as a way to advertise her art, and rightly so, because she won a gold medal in the second class for it in Munich. Hubrecht later inherited the painting, with the instruction that the work was ultimately destined for the Rijksmuseum, where it arrived in 1910.
Hubrecht won more prizes. 58 She had already received an honourable mention at an exhibition in Antwerp in 1881. In 1893 she won another gold medal at the World's Columbian Exposition, a world's fair held in Chicago, for two watercolours, entitled r e c o g n i z i n g a r t i s t a n d s u b j e c t : b r a m i n e h u b r e c h t a n d h e r s i c i l i a n p r o c e s s i o n A Tired Nurse and Worn Out. 59 She was one of the many Dutch artists there invited to take part by the painter Hendrik Willem Mesdag (1831-1915) of The Hague, who had been tasked with putting the Dutch exhibition together.
Hubrecht also used her network in her quest for international recognition. Artist Lawrence Alma Tadema (1836-1912) had settled in London permanently in 1870. He tried to get her work into exhibitions there, as he did for other Dutch artists. 60  that Hubrecht's work was promoted in this way shows that she did acquire some recognition internationally, although her work never sold particularly well abroad.

From The Hague to Taormina
On 21 April 1892 Bramine married again in The Hague; her second hus band was Alphonse Marie A.J. Grandmont, a doctor of law, philosophy and literature. 62 He was the son of Nicola Maria Catharina Donders (b. 1804), the oldest sister of Bramine's first husband. Alphonse and Bramine had undoubtedly known one another for a long time. 63 Alphonse Grandmont and his first wife were named in Franciscus Cornelis Donders's will. 64 The Grandmont-Hubrechts lived in The Hague, at first with Bramine's parents at 84 Javastraat and later on their own at 63 Koninginnegracht and 10 Prinsengracht. 65 Shortly after 1900, Bramine and Alphonse abandoned city life and moved to the picturesque town of Taormina in Sicily, home to a lively artists' colony. 66 They had probably already spent long periods there before this. Immediately after their wedding, Bramine authorized her father to deal with all her financial affairs in the Netherlands. 67 Alphonse Grandmont and his first wife had lived in Taormina and he probably still owned the house there. 68 Bramine and Alphonse appear to have been actively involved in the local community. Alphonse gave many private literature lessons, which were the subject of several of Bramine's paintings ( fig. 14). He also helped the British lacemaker Mabel Hill (1866-1940) set up her needlework school, one of the places Bramine often sketched. 69 In 1911 Bramine was awarded a decoration in recognition of her help in the aftermath of an earthquake in Messina, a town near Taormina. 70 The couple lived in a house called Rocca Bella, but they also had a smal ler house in Taormina, called Fontana Vecchia. 71 Maria Hubrecht had inherited this house and given it to Francesco ('Ciccio') Cacópardo -a family servant who had worked for both Ambrosius Hubrecht in Utrecht and his son Jan Bastiaan Hubrecht (1883Hubrecht ( -1978 in Cambridge. In the early nineteentwenties, Cacópardo rented the house to the well-known British author D.H. Lawrence (1885-1930), whose portrait was drawn by Maria Hubrecht during that time. 72 Bramine and Alphonse were laid to rest in the chapel next door to the smaller house until 1956, when Arend Hubrecht (1924Hubrecht ( -2008, Ambrosius's grandson, gave permission to have them transferred to the local cemetery. While she was in Sicily, Bramine Hubrecht was just as involved with the Dutch art world as she had been before. The couple regularly returned to the Netherlands for longish periods, when they stayed in Het Witte Huis in Doorn, 73 a large detached chaletstyle house that had been built in 1901 for Bramine's parents, to a design by Pierre Cuypers and his son Joseph Cuypers (1861-1949). 74 Pierre Cuypers had known the family for a long time. He was portrayed by Bramine on many occasions in and around 1880. 75 Bramine's father was closely involved in the plan to award a commemorative medal to Cuypers upon the completion of the Rijksmuseum in 1885. 76 Het Witte Huis was a true family home, although the owners never lived there. 77 Bramine's sister Maria did not marry and lived there until her death in 1950. In 1913-14 her brother Ambrosius had a summer house built for his family on the same site. 78 The country estate remained in the family until Ambrosius's son Jan Bastiaan died in 1978. 79 From 1907 until her death in 1913, Bramine spent each summer, from June until the end of September, in Doorn. In the middle of Het Witte Huis there was a large, light workshop where she was able to work. Bramine r e c o g n i z i n g a r t i s t a n d s u b j e c t : b r a m i n e h u b r e c h t a n d h e r s i c i l i a n p r o c e s s i o n Fig. 14 80 From the Pulchri Cabinet described below it is also evident that Hubrecht was kept up-to-date with what was going on and was still invol ved in the art scene in The Hague while she was in Taormina.

Sketchbooks
In 1976 the Rijksmuseum acquired a large collection of drawings and sketchbooks from Hubrecht's descendants. 81 Many of the drawings were work from her time in Sicily, among them the large sheet of the mountain landscape near Taormina in chalk and wash ( fig. 15). She sketched and drew using many different techniques, including pen and ink, pencil, charcoal, chalk, pastel and watercolour. Two of the six sketchbooks probably date from her time as a student, two are full of drawings made during trips or possibly en route to Sicily and the other two can be linked to Taormina with certainty. Several sources reveal that Bramine frequently travelled in Europe: a surviving travel journal, with descriptions of places of interest in such cities as Munich and Florence, dating from 1876-77, 82 two letters from August Allebé about a visit to Paris in 1887, 83 a sketch of a London shop window, with lettering, and various non-Dutch landscapes in her sketchbooks, which show hilly landscapes with Southern European villages and mountains and chalets in the Alps.
Bramine died in England in Holmbury St Mary, a village in the county of Surrey, in 1913. She was visiting her cousin Elisabeth ('Bessy') des Amorie van der Hoeven (1875-1958) who, along with her older sister Abrahamina ('Mientje'), had grown up with their uncle and aunt, Bramine's parents, after the death of their mother Hermina Paulina Hubrecht (1843-1883). 84 Bramine must have sketched these cousins, fifteen and twenty years her junior, on many occasions during their childhood. Bramine had painted and etched Bessy playing the violin and Mientje, who later became a professional pianist, was undoubtedly the young girl Bramine portrayed at the piano.
It seems that Hubrecht focused on what she saw around her, both during her travels and in Sicily, even more than she did in the Netherlands. She appears to have primarily recorded nature, landscapes, views of towns and villages, street scenes and special occasions outside the Netherlands in sketchbooks and drawings. She did not generally work up these subjects r e c o g n i z i n g a r t i s t a n d s u b j e c t : b r a m i n e h u b r e c h t a n d h e r s i c i l i a n p r o c e s s i o n into paintings. The earliest surviving sketchbook mainly contains swiftly sketched heads and young childrenpure exercises and entirely different from the drawings in the later books. 85 This oldest album can be dated on the basis of the last page of the sketchbook, which features a preliminary study for an etching she made at the Rijksakademie in 1878 ( fig. 12). 86 Another sketchbook that can also be dated early on grounds of style probably comes from her Amsterdam period. 87 There are three finished, identifiable street scenes and a number of sketches of animals, probably made at Artis Zoo. Two later sketchbooks have portraits of Alphonse Grandmont, so must date from the period between their marriage in 1892 and his death in 1909. 88 There are all sorts of sketches in it, including the London shop window and views of hilly landscapes and mountains. These sketchbooks must have accompanied her on her travels, although whether they also date from the Sicilian period is unclear. The last albums, though, certainly do. One of them contains the preliminary study for the mountain landscape near Taormina ( fig. 16), as well as sketches which, according to the inscriptions, were made during a performance of La Cenerentola, an opera by the Italian composer Gioachino Rossini  (1792-1868). 89 In the sixth book there is a quick sketch of the girl who is unmistakably the oldest bride in the middle of the paint ing in Museum  Catharijneconvent (fig. 4). 90 There are also drawings of Grandmont, which means that this book, too, can be dated to between 1892 and 1909. As we shall discover, the girl in the sketch came from Taormina.

Pulchri Cabinet
The second work that can be linked to the painting is a signed watercolour Bramine made for the Pulchri Cabinet ( fig. 5), now part of the Royal Collections in The Hague. On 9 November 1900 at the annual general meeting of the Pulchri Studio artists' society, shallow cabinet containing 112 watercolours and drawings and four sculptures. Enclosed was a catalo gue with the names of the participating artists. All the members who were artists were informed about the project by letter and were asked to make a watercolour or drawing and for a financial contribution towards the cost of making the cabinet. 92 Hubrecht confirmed her participation from Taormina on 18 December 1900, noting that her correspondence address was 10 Prinsengracht in The Hague. She sent in a watercolour and contributed five guilders. Her watercolour was placed top centre behind the second set of doors ( fig. 17). The dress and the crown of thorns tell us that the girl she portrayed belongs to the same group as the girls in the painting. Hubrecht's monogram 'Br G. Ht.' can be identified lower right. She clearly made this watercolour specifically for the occasion for it fits precisely in the large symmetrical passe-partout. This means it dates from around the turn of the year 1900-01. It is highly likely that the painting was made in the same period.

The Good Friday Procession
It was long thought, in view of the church interior and the dresses worn by the 'brides', that this was a picture of four girls during their first Communion. 93 The different ages of the girls, however, caused the previous owner to doubt this interpretation. Museum Catharijneconvent listed the work in its catalogue as 'Four Brides with Candles and a Crown of Thorns in a Church Interior'. But it is, in fact, a procession, the Processione dei Misteri del Venerdì Santo. Still held every year in Taormina on the evening of Good Friday, it has changed little in recent years. 94 The 'funeral procession' celebrates the entombment of Christ who died on the Cross and at the same time his martyrdom. Traditionally, the entire town is darkened and the procession is the only source of light. More than six hundred women dressed in black carrying candles accompany it. A group of sixteen statues from nearby churches, depicting Christ's Passion and the different episodes of the Stations of the Cross, are traditionally carried on litters by the men. Girls entirely dressed in white, the 'brides' of Christ, lead the procession and display twenty-four symbols of Christ's martyrdom, including the crown of thorns. The tradition remains virtually unchanged: today's girls are almost identical to Hubrecht's 'brides' (fig. 18). The weeping Madonna from the Chiesa del Varò is the only statue that is always carried by women. It is the image of this specific statue of the Virgin ( fig. 19) that is depicted on the heart-shaped medallions the girls wear during the ceremony to this day and it is the same medallion that is depicted in the painting and in the watercolour. This costume is so specific that we can say with certainty that the girls painted by Hubrecht do indeed come from Taormina in Sicily. 95 Bramine Hubrecht herself was brought up as a member of the Dutch Reformed Church. 96 From entries in her diary from the 1874-79 period it is obvious that she rarely went to church and saw herself as 'semi-religious'. 97 Nevertheless, the fact that she worked up this very Catholic scene into a painting in oils is not really remarkable. She married Alphonse Grandmont, who was a Catholic, and together they moved to the conservative and Catholic island of Sicily. 98 The procession was part of local tradition and for that reason, and because it involved children, it is one of the sub jects that Hubrecht enjoyed depicting.
Stylistically the painting of the brides in the procession fits perfectly in Hubrecht's oeuvre. She clearly worked in an impressionist style, particularly in the period around 1900. She rendered faces and details accurately, but used a coarser touch for things like fabrics. She delighted in using chiaroscuro effects in her paintings, clearly seen in the daylight entering the room in the painting in which Alphonse Grandmont is instructing the Italian ladies ( fig. 14) and in the girl dressed in white, reading, who stands out against the brown interior in one of Hubrecht's watercolours ( fig. 9). This also applies to the background of the painting of the brides, where all sorts of things are happening in the dark. Bramine injected atmosphere into her scenes through those contrasts of light and dark and the often warm brown hues.  < r e c o g n i z i n g a r t i s t a n d s u b j e c t : b r a m i n e h u b r e c h t a n d h e r s i c i l i a n p r o c e s s i o n

Conclusion
The striking similarities between the girls in the painting in Museum Catharijneconvent and those in the Rijksmuseum sketchbook and the Pulchri Cabinet, in conjunction with the corresponding biographical circumstances, make the attribution of this work to Bramine Hubrecht indisputable. Stylistically and in terms of subject, the painting fits seamlessly into Hubrecht's oeuvre. During her Italian period, she sketched many scenes that she saw around her, although she did not often work up those rough sketches and drawings into paintings. The heart-shaped portrait medallions bearing the image of the Virgin in the Good Friday procession in Taormina in Sicily, a unique tradition which to this very day still takes place annually, support this attribution and finally explain the scene. The painting must have been made shortly after 1900, in the period around the construction of the Pulchri Cabinet, the tribute on the occasion of the marriage of Queen Wilhelmina and Prince Henry (1901), at the time of Hubrecht's marriage to Alphonse Grandmont (1892-1909) and during her stay in Sicily (1900-11). How Isaac Israels's signatures came to be on the canvas remains a mystery. These false signatures on her work make it all the clearer that Bramine Hubrecht was part of the nineteenthcentury -usually male dominatedart scene; nevertheless, as a married woman she succeeded in her own way in generating appreciation and she also sought international recognition.
Investigating Hubrecht's life, oeuvre and network has not only led to the attribution and interpretation of the painting in Museum Catharijneconvent -which now has the new title Sicilian 'Brides' in a Church Interior -it has also resulted in a number of more accurate datings of other works by Hubrecht. And it gives new insights into the world of female artists in the nineteenth century, who did not need to use their brushes to make a living.
In this contribution the author goes deeper into the life, the oeuvre and the network of the all but forgotten artist Bramine Hubrecht (1855Hubrecht ( -1913. At the centre is one of her paintings -four veiled young girls entirely dressed in white in a church interior. This work is now in Museum Catharijneconvent. The painting was previously attributed to Isaac Israels (1865-1934) on the basis of two false signatures. New information has meant that it can now be identified as a work by the painter Bramine Hubrecht. One of her sketchbooks in the Rijksmuseum and a watercolour in the Pulchri Cabinet, a unique artists' initiative in The Hague, helped in unravelling the story. These two works, which show exactly the same girls, can be attributed to Hubrecht with absolute certainty. New biographical information has reinforced this new attribution and also sheds light on the meaning of the subject. These 'brides' prove to be part of the Processione dei Misteri del Venerdì Santo, which is still held every year on the evening of Good Friday in Taormina, the little village in Sicily where Hubrecht lived at the beginning of the twentieth century.
The new attribution has also prompted research into Hubrecht's life and works -research which has not been carried out until now. ab s tr ac t