Een beroemd schrijverspaar

Bilderdijk and his second wife (1822) are depicted in these wax portraits. They were a famous literary couple in their day. Bilderdijk encouraged her to write; he thought of her as a cedar twig that had sprouted from his trunk. They would repeatedly publish collections of poetry together. White and red (Wit en rood) appeared in 1818. The title was a reference to Anacreon. When this Greek poet, in his grayness, went to a party for the youth, he made the statement that white lilies and blushing roses went well together. According to Bilderdijk, that comment also applied to him and his much younger wife:

Behold, then, my aged and faded grays with the brightly colored scenes of a more blooming day of life, or (will it be) thrown by one! Whether they stand out or merge in attitude or colors, they have flowed from one heart, for God-himself united ours together; and therefore, they belong together.

Schweickhardt was the sun in Bilderdijk's darkened life. Their marriage must have been happy, despite their many sorrows. Bilderdijk admired his wife. When she died in 1830, he was inconsolable. He stared blankly ahead for days. In a letter he wrote: ‘And now I lie deprived of her, who alone in my pity had comfort for me, and behold the only child languishing beside me, who should comfort me in this state of desolation.’