Portrait of Mimi Bia

Person depicted Mimi Bia (1809-1889)
Role Juffrouw Serklaas (Hendrik Jan Schimmel)
Artist Hendrik A. Sangster (1825-1901)
Medium Oil on canvas
Year 1866

The actor Maria (Mimi) Francisca Bia is shown as Juffrouw Serklaas, from the play Hendrik Jan Schimmel wrote about a seventeenth-century woman who played a considerable diplomatic role in the Rijnland water authority. Mimi Bia performed at the Stadsschouwburg throughout her career and married two of its directors. Her position allowed her to keep other actors away from the leading roles, in an era not known for the quality of its theatre.