Sketches of Figures on the Ice / recto: Winter Scene on the Frozen Canal near the Kalverhekkenpoort, Kampen

before 1607

Object data

graphite; recto: pen and brown ink, with transparent and opaque watercolour, over traces of graphite or black chalk; traces of framing line in brown ink (left border)

height 133 mm × width 203 mm

Inscriptions

monogrammed on recto, in black ink: lower centre, HA; lower right, HA
inscribed on verso: lower left, in an eighteenth-century hand, in dark brown ink, 2 13; upper centre, in a nineteenth-century hand, in pencil, f 30; centre, in a seventeenth- or eighteenth-century hand, in brown ink, S (or 5) 10018; below that, in pencil, 6; lower centre, in a nineteenth-century or later hand, in pencil, H. Averkamp; lower right, in a nineteenth-century hand, in pencil, 8; below that, in a nineteenth-century hand, in pencil, Averkamp/ de stomme van kampen; below that, in black chalk, A-T.
stamped on verso: lower centre, with the mark of the museum (L. 2228)

Technical notes

watermark: none

Condition

Thin spots along the edges

Provenance

…; sale, Benoît Coster (?-before 1875, Arnhem and Amsterdam), Amsterdam (C.F. Roos et al.), 18 March 1875 sqq., no. 2 (‘H. Avercamp. Vue d'une rivière près d'une ville, étoffé de patineurs et autres figures’), fl. 135, to the dealer ‘Van Gogh’;¹ from whom acquired by the museum (L. 2228), 1879²

Object number: RP-T-1879-A-1(V)

Credit line: Transferred from the Ministerie van Binnenlandse Zaken

The artist

Hendrick Avercamp (Amsterdam 1585 – Kampen 1634)

The eldest son of the apothecary Barent Hendricksz Avercamp (1557-1602) and Beatrix Peters Vekemans (c. 1563-1633), he was baptized in the Oude Kerk in Amsterdam on 27 January 1585.³ In 1586 his father became the town apothecary of Kampen, and the family moved there. Hendrick has long been assumed to have been deaf and mute from birth, since he was commonly known as ‘de Stom’ or ‘de Stomme’ (‘the Mute’). Because one of the buyers at the 1607 studio sale of Pieter Isaacsz (1568-1625) in Amsterdam is mentioned as ‘de stom tot Pieter Isacqs’ (‘the mute at Pieter Isaacz’s’),⁴ it is thought that Avercamp was sent to Amsterdam to live and study with the history and portrait painter Pieter Isaacsz, who returned to his native Denmark in that year. By January 1613, but probably earlier, Avercamp must have returned to Kampen, where he remained for the rest of his life. Shortly before his mother died, she expressed in her will her concern about her unmarried eldest son, Hendrick, who she called ‘stom en miserable’ (‘mute and wretched’).⁵ Hendrick was buried on 15 May 1634 in the Bovenkerk (or St Nicolaaskerk) in Kampen.⁶

Avercamp painted and drew mainly winter scenes, which in the seventeenth century were called ‘wintertjes’. His early paintings, executed in 1608 and 1609, show the influence of Flemish landscape painters, such as Hans Bol (1534-1593), Gillis van Coninxloo (1544-1607) and David Vinckboons I (1576-1631/33), and a strong interest in narrative details in the tradition of Pieter Bruegel I (c. 1528-1569). The Flemish influence became less noticeable in his later works, with the horizon lines being lower and the perspective more natural. Although best known for his winter landscape paintings, he also drew and painted some summer and river landscapes.

Hendrick Avercamp was a prolific draughtsman, who worked mostly in pen, chalk and watercolour, creating figure studies that were recycled repeatedly in his paintings, as well as fully worked-out drawings as detailed as his paintings. The latter works were probably intended for sale. Paintings by artists such as Arent Arentsz (1585/86-1631), Adam van Breen (c. 1585-after 1642), Antonie Verstralen (c. 1594-1641) and Hendrick’s nephew Barent Avercamp (1612/13-1679) strongly resemble his work, but it is unclear whether those artists were taught by him or simply imitated his work.

Jan-Piet Filedt Kok, 2007

REFERENCES
E. Bénézit, ‘Hendrick Avercamp’, in U. Thieme and F. Becker, Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, 37 vols., Leipzig 1907-50, II (1908), pp. 276-77; C.J. Welcker, Hendrick Avercamp (1585-1634), bijgenaamd ‘De Stomme van Campen’ en Barent Avercamp (1612-1679). ‘Schilders tot Campen’, Zwolle 1933, pp. 33-71; C.J. Welcker and D.J. Hensbroek-van der Poel, Hendrick Avercamp (1585-1634), bijgenaamd ‘De Stomme van Campen’ en Barent Avercamp (1612-1679). ‘Schilders tot Campen’, Doornspijk 1979, pp. 33-71; A. Blankert, Hendrick Avercamp (1585-1634), Barent Avercamp (1612-1679): Frozen Silence: Paintings from Museums and Private Collections, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Waterman Gallery)/Zwolle (Provinciehuis Overijssel) 1982-83, pp. 15-36; D.J. Hensbroek-van der Poel, ‘Hendrick Avercamp’, in Saur Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon: Die bildenden Künstler aller Zeiten und Völker, 94 vols., Munich 1992-, V (1992), pp. 728-29; D.J. Hensbroek-van der Poel, ‘Avercamp Family’, in J. Turner (ed.), The Dictionary of Art, 34 vols., London/New York 1996, II, pp. 854-55; J. Bikker, ‘Hendrick Avercamp: “The Mute of Kampen”, in P. Roelofs et al., Hendrick Avercamp: Master of the Ice Scene, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum)/Washington (DC) (National Gallery of Art) 2009-10, pp. 11-21

Entry

The building to the right of centre on the recto has variously been described as one of two city gates of Kampen, the Venepoort or the Hagenpoort. Van Mierlo, however, convincingly demonstrated that it is the Kalverhekkenpoort, which was demolished in the second half of the seventeenth century.⁷ The gate consisted of a semi-roundel with a polygonal turret and spire at one corner. The top of the arch over the passage through the roundel is glimpsed just above the rampart in Avercamp’s drawing. On the far right is the stubby church tower of the Buitenkerk (‘Outer Church’), dedicated to Onze-Lieve-Vrouw. The two upper storeys of the tower, built between 1453 and 1481, collapsed in 1607, and twenty years later (1627) the remains were surrounded by a balustrade. Since nothing of that sort can be seen in this drawing, it must date from before then. The tower of the Buitenkerk also features in the far distance of a drawing by Avercamp formerly in the Woodner Family Collection, now in the National Gallery of Art, Washington (DC) (inv. no. 2006.11.3).⁸ Since the balustrade appears to be under construction in that sheet, it can be dated fairly securely in or shortly before 1627.

The turret of the Kalverhekkenpoort can also be seen in the distance in one of Avercamp’s few purely topographical drawings, in the British Royal Collection in the Print Room at Windsor Castle (inv. no. 906507).⁹

The verso features the kind of quick figure sketches from life that Avercamp would have made to incorporate in his various drawn and painted compositions.

Marijn Schapelhouman, 1998

Literature

E.W. Moes, Oude teekeningen van de Hollandsche en Vlaamsche school in het Rijksprentenkabinet te Amsterdam, 2 vols., coll. cat. Amsterdam 1905-06, fig. 1; H.P. Bremmer et al. (eds.), Beeldende kunst, 28 vols., Utrecht 1913-42, IV (1916-17), no. 14 (repr.); Hollandsche winters. Teekeningen uit de zeventiende eeuw, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksprentenkabinet) 1917, no. 8; C.J. Welcker, Hendrick Avercamp (1585-1634), bijgenaamd ‘De Stomme van Campen’ en Barent Avercamp (1612-1679). ‘Schilders tot Campen’, Zwolle 1933, no. T 20; Hollandsche teekenkunst in de Gouden Eeuw, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksprentenkabinet) 1935, no. 25; H.E. van Gelder, Holland by Dutch Artists in Paintings, Drawings, Woodcuts, Engravings and Etchings, Amsterdam 1959, fig. 17b; Mahonri Sharp Young, ‘Letter from the U.S.A.: Buddhas and Burghers’, Apollo 96 (1972), no. 130, p. 559, fig. 8; P. Schatborn and K.G. Boon, Dutch Genre Drawings of the Seventeenth Century: A Loan Exhibition from Dutch Museums, Foundations and Private Collections, exh. cat. New York (Pierpont Morgan Library)/Boston (Museum of Fine Arts)/Chicago (Art Institute of Chicago) 1972-73, no. 3; P. Schatborn, Hollandse genre-tekeningen uit de zeventiende eeuw, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksprentenkabinet) 1973, no. 3; C. van Hasselt (ed.), Dessins flamands et hollandais du dix-septième siècle: Collections Musées de Belgique, Musée Boymans-van Beuningen Rotterdam, Institut Néerlandais Paris, exh. cat. Paris (Institut Néerlandais) 1974, p. 6, under no. 3 (n. 2); C.J. Welcker and D.J. Hensbroek-van der Poel, Hendrick Avercamp (1585-1634), bijgenaamd ‘De Stomme van Campen’ en Barent Avercamp (1612-1679). ‘Schilders tot Campen’, Doornspijk 1979, no. T 20; M. Schapelhouman and P. Schatborn, Land & water. Hollandse tekeningen uit de 17de eeuw in het Rijksprentenkabinet/Land & Water: Dutch Drawings from the 17th Century in the Rijksmuseum Print Room, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksprentenkabinet) 1987, no. 11; Th. M. van Mierlo, ‘De Avercamps en hun betekenis voor de topografische kennis over Kampen’, Ilsselakadentie 12 (1989), p. 10 (fig. 5); M. Morgan Grasselli (ed.), The Touch of the Artist: Master Drawings from the Woodner Collections, exh. cat. Washington (DC) (National Gallery of Art), 1995-96, p. 250, under no. 67; M. Schapelhouman and P. Schatborn, Dutch Drawings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam: Artists Born between 1580 and 1600, 2 vols., coll. cat. Amsterdam 1998, no. 14; P. Roelofs et al., Hendrick Avercamp: Master of the Ice Scene, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum)/Washington (DC) (National Gallery of Art), 2009-10, pp. 88 (fig. 111), 142 (fig. 169)

Citation

M. Schapelhouman, 1998, 'Hendrick Avercamp, Sketches of Figures on the Ice / recto: Winter Scene on the Frozen Canal near the Kalverhekkenpoort, Kampen, before 1607 - 1607', in J. Turner (ed.), Dutch Drawings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.27136

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