Bust of a Soldier, Pawn from a Chess-Set

Entry

Thanks to written sources and auction catalogues we know that the celebrated Rotterdam painter Adriaen van der Werff (1659-1722) occasionally tried his hand at carving and modelling in his spare time.² For many years, this curious boxwood chess pawn, decorated with a skilfully carved caricature of a soldier, was the only tangible proof of his prowess. The garb of this jocular soldier, who is showing his teeth as he grins, consists of a helmet, cuirass and a scarf draped loosely over his shoulders. Several real metal pins have been hammered into the helmet. The catch of the hook securing the breastplate to the shoulder band of the cuirass is also made from metal, while the hook itself is meticulously carved from wood. The lower edge of the bust is concealed by a decorative palm leaf. The light colour of the wood indicates that this is a chess piece from the white side. The maker’s name is inscribed in old handwriting on the: Adriaen van der Werff fecit.

The soldier’s comical expression is somewhat reminiscent of that of the figures in two of Van der Werff’s early works: Drummer Boy (whereabouts unknown) and Night Scene with Children (Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Munich).³ Tronies of this type do not occur in the artist’s later, more serious work. A group of caricature busts in terracotta and bronze associated with the Antwerp-Leiden sculptor Pieter Xaveri (c. 1647-1673) (cf. BK-1959-50-A; -B) might have been a source of inspiration for Van der Werff’s little carving.

The pawn was said to belong to an unfinished chess set.⁴ The earliest provenance of the piece can be traced back to 3 November 1766, when the Rotterdam collector Jan Snellen purchased it for 3 guilders and 16 stuivers at the auction of the estate of his fellow citizen, the poet Michiel Oudaan (also Oudaen). The concomitant catalogue describes it as ‘A Bust of a Fool, carved from Boxwood, by A vander Werf’.⁵

Contrary to what was assumed prior to the rediscovery of that early provenance,⁶ it is highly unlikely that the pawn belonged in the ‘Chess set with excellent Figures carved from boxwood and ebony, by Sir A. van der Werf’ auctioned in 1827.⁷ This set had always been in the possession of the artist’s family, and logically complete, since no mention was made of missing pieces in the sales catalogue. Consequently, Van der Werff will have carved two chess sets (at least), one of which he did not finish.

Adriaen van der Werff’s friend, Johan van Gool, the artist’s biographer, mentioned in his book the Nieuwe Schouburg (1750-51) that the painter had injured one of his fingers so badly when carving chess pieces dat die alyd styf gebleven is (that it always remained stiff).⁸ The injury may have occurred when he was carving the chess set of which the Amsterdam pawn was a piece. It would explain why the artist never finished the set.⁹

The Art Gallery of Ontario (Thomson Collection) has three other chess pawns with caricatures of soldiers made by Adriaen van der Werff. Ken Thomson bought one of them in 1964 from the London dealer Hermann Baer, who described it as ‘most certainly by Hubert Gerhard’.¹⁰ The other two were acquired in 1994 at a sale in London.¹¹ When purchased, all three pawns came with similar, nineteenth-century, fluted pillars. Although these are obviously not authentic, they do indicate that all three once belonged to the same collection and in all probability to the same chess set. In view of their greater height, this must have been a different set than the current pawn. It was presumably the one described above: the set sold in 1827 by Van der Werff’s descendants.

Bieke van der Mark, 2025