Object data
pen and brown ink, with grey wash; additional grey wash in a different hand; framing line in brown ink
height 159 mm × width 204 mm
Barend Klotz
Geertruidenberg, 1672
pen and brown ink, with grey wash; additional grey wash in a different hand; framing line in brown ink
height 159 mm × width 204 mm
signed and dated: lower left, in brown ink, B. Klotz. fecit. de 11 / 3 (date expressed as a fraction, month over day) 1672
inscribed by the artist: upper centre, in brown ink, Geertruijdenberg
inscribed on verso, in graphite: lower centre, B. Clotz; above that, Fred M.
stamped on verso: lower centre, with the mark of the museum (L. 2228)
watermark: Arms of Amsterdam (fragment)
…; sale, J.F. Bangert (?-1878 or before, Amsterdam), Amsterdam (Roos…), 12 March 1878, no. 17 (‘B. Klotz. 1672. Vue de la ville de Geertruidenberg.’), fl. 6, to the dealer F. Muller, Amsterdam;1 from whom, to the museum (L. 2228), 1881
Object number: RP-T-00-736
Copyright: Public domain
Barend Klotz (? - ?)
Only one record, related to his position as a midshipman (adelborst) in the Dutch army, exists.2 The Klotz family may have come from the province of Limburg, where the surname was recorded in the seventeenth century.3 Barend was likely related to fellow draughtsman Valentijn Klotz (c. 1646-1721), who was probably a brother or cousin. Barend was part of the military company of Capt. Harderwijk (?-?), the leader of the naval department of the Dutch army, founded in Maastricht in 1668.4 In Maastricht, he likely met fellow draughtsman Josua de Grave (1643-1712). After being stationed in Bergen op Zoom (1671-early 1672), Barend and Valentijn Klotz and Josua de Grave accompanied the army during their campaigns in the southern Netherlands in 1672, 1674, 1675 and 1676.
Barend Klotz signed and dated his works only occasionally (e.g. inv. no. RP-T-00-736). Consequently, scholars seem to have been hesitant about attributing drawings to the artist. Furthermore, his style is very close to that of Valentijn Klotz and Josua de Grave. Based on the few inscriptions found on his sheets, Mosseveld and Van Ham were able to describe Barend Klotz’s handwriting and attribute a number of drawings of sites in Bergen op Zoom to the artist.5 Overall, his handwriting is neater than that of Valentijn, but not as consistent as that of Josua de Grave. His ‘w’, as well as his ‘p’ and ‘z’, are quite distinguishable; also noteworthy is his sparse use of capital letters.6 Barend used a very distinct old-fashioned ‘e’, adding an additional loop through the ‘o’. Further, he included the words ‘geteekent de’ [accompanied with a date and place] on several of his drawings. Based on this information, various drawings in the Rijksmuseum’s collection could be (tentatively) reattributed to the artist.
Carolyn Mensing, 2020
References
R. van Eijnden and A. van der Willigen, ‘Klotz, Valentijn’, in U. Thieme and F. Becker, Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, 37 vols., Leipzig 1907-50, XX (1927), pp. 549-50; R.J.G.M. van Hasselt, ‘Drie tekenaars van topografische prenten in Brabant en elders. Valentijn Klotz, Josua de Grave en Constantijn Huygens Jr.’, Jaarboek Oudheidkundige Kring ‘De Ghulden Roos’ 25 (1965), pp. 145-55; M.H. Breitbarth-van der Stok, ‘Josua de Grave, Valentinus Klotz en Bernardus Klotz’, Bulletin Koninklijke Nederlandse Oudheidkundige Bond 68 (1969), pp. 99-101; J.H. van Mosselveld and W.A. van Ham, Tekeningen van Bergen op Zoom. Topografische afbeeldingen van Bergen op Zoom en omgeving uit de zestiende tot en met de achttiende eeuw, exh. cat. Bergen op Zoom (Markiezenhof) 1973-74, pp. 15-18; G. Gordon, ‘Klotz, Valentijn’, in J. Turner (ed.), The Dictionary of Art, 34 vols., London/New York 1996, XVIII, pp. 140-41 ; P. Groenendijk, Beknopt biografisch lexicon van Zuid- en Noord-Nederlandse schilders, graveurs, glasschilders, tapijtwevers et cetera van ca. 1350 tot ca. 1720, Leiden 2008, p. 466
In 1672, better known as the ‘disaster year’ (rampjaar), Barend Klotz, Valentijn Klotz (c. 1646-1721) and Josua de Grave (1643-1712) followed the Dutch army under the command of the newly appointed Captain-General Prince Willem III of Orange Nassau (1650-1702) throughout Noord-Brabant. In that year, the army occupied the fortified city of Geertruidenberg in an attempt to fight off the French. Owing to its strategic location, Geertruidenberg was the scene of several battles and sieges throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In 1589, during the Eighty Years’ War (1568–1648), the Spanish bought the city from the English, but they lost it during the Siege of Geertruigenberg (1593) to Maurits, Prince of Orange (1567-1625). After 1672, the fortified city became an important link within the defence works that formed the ‘Zuiderwaterlinie’, designed by Menno van Coehoorn (1641-1704).7
In the present sheet, Klotz prominently featured the ramparts and walled enclosure of Geertruidenberg. Behind the ramparts, he depicted several houses centred around the Gothic Geertruidskerk, whose church tower was heavily damaged during the 1593 siege; it remained in this state until 1768, when it was finally rebuilt.8 In the Noordbrabants Museum, ’s-Hertogenboash, there are at least two other drawings of Geertruidenberg attributed to Barend Klotz: one of the ‘Korenmarkt’ (inv. no. 12183) and a more close-up view of the Geertruidskerk and its demolished tower (inv. no. 12217).
The present drawing is one of the few signed works by Barend Klotz. A drawing in the Special Collections of the University of Leiden (inv. no. P313_2N027), depicting the castle in Wouw, Noord-Brabant, has a similar signature with the additional words, geteeckent de 9 / 22 1671 in the lower right corner. On a drawing of De Huijbergsestraat, which in the 1970s was in the collection of C.J.F. Sootmans, Bergen op Zoom, Barend spelt out his full name, Barnardus Klotz . fe. 1671.9
The present drawing was made three days before a drawing of Nieuwenhoorn attributed to Barend Klotz, also in the Rijksmuseum’s collection (inv. no. RP-T-1899-A-4281). The towns are 66 kilometers apart, which seems quite a distance to cover by foot or horse in three days. Perhaps he traveled by tow barge, as both towns lay along the Haringvliet.
In the present drawing, the name of the site, ‘Geertruidenberg’, was written at upper centre in a very even, regular manner, using a modern ‘e’, possibly suggesting that the name was annotated by a hand other than the author of the view. The Leiden sheet, for instance, also has an inscription in the upper right corner, reading Aan het Casteel te Wouw, but these letters are more calligraphic and, as was customary for Barend Klotz, feature an old-fashioned ‘e’, which looks like an ‘o’ with a loop through its centre. The writing style of the inscription of the Leiden sheet compares well to other sheets assigned to Barend in the Rijksmuseum’s collection, such as inv. nos. RP-T-00-173 and RP-T-1899-A-4281. Therefore, the present signed sheet and the drawing in Leiden – regardless of the discrepancy with the handwriting of the site name here – form the stylistic basis upon which the attributions to Barend of other drawings in the Rijksmuseum’s collection are proposed.
Carolyn Mensing, 2020
F. Muller, De Nederlandsche geschiedenis in platen. Beredeneerde beschrijving van Nederlandsche historieplaten, zinneprenten en historische kaarten, 4 vols., Amsterdam 1863-82, I (1863), p. 283, no. 3457A; R.J.G.M. van Hasselt, ‘Drie tekenaars van topografische prenten in Brabant en elders. Valentijn Klotz, Josua de Grave en Constantijn Huygens Jr.’, Jaarboek Oudheidkundige Kring ‘De Ghulden Roos’ 25 (1965), pp. 145-92, no. 100
C. Mensing, 2020, 'Barend Klotz, View of Geertruidenberg, Noord-Brabant, Geertruidenberg, 1672-11-03', in J. Turner (ed.), Dutch Drawings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.54174
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