Object data
pen and brown ink, with grey wash, over traces of black chalk; indented for transfer; framing lines in brown ink
height 200 mm × width 143 mm
Jan Hackaert
Mountain Path with a Laden Donkey
? Amsterdam, c. 1658
Inscriptions
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inscribed on verso: upper centre, in brown ink (partially trimmed), ƒ […]; upper left, in a nineteenth-century hand, in pencil (partially effaced), H 25; centre, in a nineteenth-century hand, in pencil, 1664; lower left, in an eighteenth-century hand, in brown ink, 1527; next to that, in an eighteenth-century hand, in pencil, ƒ vrmv:- [?]
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stamped on verso: lower centre, with the mark of the museum (L. 2228)
Technical notes
watermark: none
Condition
Slightly faded
Provenance
…; ? collection Baron Reinerus Albertus Ludovicus van Isendoorn à Blois (1786-1856), Kasteel De Cannenburgh, Vaassen;1 …; from the dealer J.H. Balfoort, Utrecht, fl. 10, to the museum (L. 2228), 1880
Object number: RP-T-1880-A-90
Copyright: Public domain
The artist
Jan Hackaert (Amsterdam 1628 - after 1685 Amsterdam)
He was baptized on 1 February 1628 in the Nieuwe Kerk Amsterdam as Joannes, son of Jan Hackaert (died 1652), a Calvinist merchant, originally from Antwerp, who settled in Amsterdam c. 1625. His mother was Catrina Antones [Antheunis] (?-?).2 There is no information as to his training as an artist. Maybe he was a dilettante. Since his works show the influence of Jan Both (1615-1652),3 it sometimes was assumed that he was Hackaert’s teacher, but there is no documentary proof for that.
In 1652, Hackaert’s father died. The following year, 25-year-old Hackaert travelled for the first time to Switzerland. His liber amicorum,4 documents a visit to Basel in July 1653 and Schaffhausen at the end of August of that year. A drawing of the Rhine Falls at Schaffhausen probably dates from that first trip.5 As there is an eleven-month-gap in the liber amicorum between 24 August 1653 (Schaffhausen) and 26 July 1654 (Zurich), it may be surmised that Hackaert returned to Amsterdam. Alternatively, a potential visit to Italy has been associated with this period. However, because such a sojourn cannot be documented by in situ sketches of Italian sites, it is instead likely that Hackaert developed his Italianate manner through second-hand sources of inspiration.
In May 1655, Hackaert was back in Zurich, travelling via Frauenfeld and probably via Konstanz in southern Germany. Two drawings of the bridge over the Neckar in Esslingen, south Germany, preserved in the Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen (inv. nos. KKSgb15887 and KKSgb15888),6 may have been done during this trip. Probably on 31 May 1665, Hackaert set out for a four-month-trip into the Alps, initially accompanied by the Zurich painter Conrad Meyer (1618-1689). He also travelled along the Rhine. Sketches from that journey are now in the Kunsthaus, Zurich (inv. no. O 13), and the Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg (inv. nos. 1915-537 to 1915-560 and 1915-571).7 Large topographical drawings by him, including some of the earliest examples of pure alpine landscape, are now in the Atlas Van der Hem in the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Vienna, assembled by Laurens van der Hem (1621-1678). The drawings may have been commissioned by Van der Hem or a member of his family or purchased directly from the artist between 1657 and 1661. Of these views, thirty-eight are known today, but the holdings originally must have been even larger, as they are numbered, up to sixty-two.
After visiting the Alps, Hackaert stayed eight months with the Zurich general and architect Johann Georg Werdmüller (1614-1677), for whom he drew a set of imaginary landscapes that are now in Zurich.8 He also taught Werdmüller’s son Hans Rudolf Werdmüller (1639-1668) to draw. Other artists he influenced were the sons of Conrad Meyer, Felix Meyer (1653-1713) and Johannes Meyer (1655-1712), as well as the Swiss landscape painter and engraver Johann Balthasar Bullinger (1713-1793). Thus, after first having drawn inspiration from his travel-companion Conrad Meyer, he later inspired Swiss painting far into the eighteenth century.
On 25 August 1657, Hackaert is last documented in Zurich. From there, he might have taken the opportunity to travel to the Tyrol, since the Atlas van der Hem in Vienna includes three Tyrolean views by the artist (inv. nos. 13:68, 13:73 and 13:75).9 In 1658, he was back in Amsterdam, living on the Keizersgracht.
Hackaert’s oeuvre consists of a large corpus of drawings, including Italianate scenes in the succession of Jan Both and impressive Alpine views. His earliest dated drawing, now in the British Museum, London (inv. no. 1836,0811.311), is from 1653. As a painter, he mainly produced Italianate landscapes. Hofstede de Groot knew four dated paintings (1657, 1665, 1668 and 1674); Wijnman and Solar also mention a painting of 1685. Curiously, Hackaert’s painted oeuvre of circa 200 works is for the most part not linked with his topographical drawings. For figural staffage, Hackaert collaborated with the painters Adriaen van de Velde (16136-1672), Nicolaes Berchem (1621/22-1683) and Johannes Lingelbach (1622-1674).
There are seven known etchings by Hackaert, six of them belonging to a series that was published in Amsterdam with Clement de Jonghe (1624/25-1677). His last documentary mention is in 1667. As his name does not turn up in wedding registers, one may assume that he remained unmarried.
Annemarie Stefes, 2019
References
A. Houbraken, De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen, 3 vols., Amsterdam 1718-21, III (1721), pp. 46-48; J.C. Weyerman, De levens-beschryvingen der Nederlandsche konst-schilders en konst-schilderessen, 4 vols., The Hague/Dordrecht 1729-69, II (1729), pp. 375-76; J. Immerzeel, De levens en werken der Hollandsche en Vlaamsche kunstschilders, 3 vols., Amsterdam 1842-43, II (1843), p. 6; C. Kramm, De levens en werken der Hollandsche en Vlaamsche kunstschilders, beeldhouwers, graveurs en bouwmeesters van den vroegsten tot op onzen tijd, 7 vols., Amsterdam 1857-64, III (1859), pp. 622-23; A. von Wurzbach, Niederländisches Künstlerlexikon, 3 vols., Vienna/Leipzig 1906-11, I (1906), pp. 627-28; U. Thieme and F. Becker, Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler: Von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, 37 vols., Leipzig 1907-50, XV (1922), pp. 407-09 (entry by G.J. Hoogewerff); C. Hofstede de Groot (ed.), Beschreibendes und kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke der hervorragenden holländischen Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts, 10 vols., Esslingen 1907-28, IX (1926), pp. 1-47; S. Stelling-Michaud, ‘Die Via Mala im Jahre 1655, wie sie Jan Hackaert sah und zeichnete’, Anzeiger für schweizerische Altertumskunde: Neue Folge 38 (1936), pp. 261-73; S. Stelling-Michaud, Unbekannte Schweizer Landschaften aus dem XVII. Jahrhundert: Zeichnungen und Schilderungen von Jan Hackaert und anderen holländischen Malern, Zurich/Leipzig 1937; P.C. Molhuysen et al. (eds.), Nieuw Nederlandsch Biografisch Woordenboek, 10 vols., Leiden 1911-37, X (1937), p. 314 (entry by H.F. Wijnman); H. Gerson, Ausbreitung und Nachwirkung der holländischen Malerei des 17. Jahrhunderts, Amsterdam 1942, pp. 172, 354-57, 359; F.W.H. Hollstein et al., Dutch and Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts, c. 1450-1700, 72 vols., Amsterdam and elsewhere 1947-2010, VIII (1953), pp. 182-84; L.J. Bol, Holländische Maler des 17. Jahrhunderts nahe den großen Meistern: Landschaften und Stilleben, Braunschweig 1969, pp. 269-70; M. Pfister, ‘Trasimenischer See oder Zürichsee? Zu einem Gemälde von Jan Hackaert im Rijksmuseum Amsterdam’, Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 20 (1972), pp. 177-81; B. Weber, ‘Der Zürichsee von Jan Hackaert’, Zeitschrift für Schweizerische Archäologie und Kunstgeschichte 31 (1974), pp. 230-41; G. Solar, Alpenreise 1655: Conrad Meyer und Jan Hackaert, exh. cat. Zurich (Helmhaus) 1979; G. Solar, Jan Hackaert: Die Schweizer Ansichten, 1653-1656: Zeichnungen eines niederländischen Malers als frühe Bilddokumente der Alpenlandschaft, Zurich 1981, pp. 9-82; B. Weber, Graubünden in alten Ansichten: Landschaftsporträts reisender Künstler vom 16. bis zum frühen 19. Jahrhundert: mit einem Verzeichnis topographischer Ansichten in der Druckgrafik von den Anfängen bis zu 1880, Chur 1984, pp. 25, 62; G. Solar, ‘Gemälde Jan Hackaerts in der Schweiz und in Liechtenstein’, Zeitschrift für Schweizerische Archäologie und Kunstgeschichte 44 (1987), pp. 187-216; P. Schatborn, with J. Verberne, Drawn to Warmth: 17th-century Dutch Artists in Italy, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 2001, p. 98; E. de Groot, De Atlas Blaeu-Van der Hem. De verzamelde wereld van een 17de-eeuwse liefhebber, ’t Goy-Houten 2001 (PhD diss., Katholieke Universiteit Nijmegen), pp. 171, 178-80, 232-39; E. de Groot, The World of a Seventeenth-century Collector: The Atlas Blaeu-Van der Hem, ’t Goy-Houten 2006, pp. 178, 234-44; P. Groenendijk, Beknopt biografisch lexicon van Zuid- en Noord-Nederlandse schilders, graveurs, glasschilders, tapijtwevers et cetera van ca. 1350 tot ca. 1720, Utrecht 2008, pp. 374-75; A. Beyer et al. (eds.), Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon: Die bildenden Künstler aller Zeiten und Völker, Munich 1992-, LXVII (2010), pp. 141-42 (entry by L. Pijl)
Entry
As mentioned in the museum’s inventory book, the present drawing was etched by Baron Reinerus Albertus Ludovicus van Isendoorn à Blois (1786-1856). To transfer the subject onto the prepared copper plate, the contours were indented with a stylus. This process is partially responsible for the somewhat severe appearance of the drawing, making the pen lines appear overly concise. However, this impression also results from the fact that the passages of wash, originally creating more nuances between pen lines and the tone of the paper support, has suffered from fading. The pen was probably the dominant technique used by the artist from the beginning, its nonchalant handling reminiscent of such drawings as the Hamburger Kunsthalle’s Watermill (inv. no. 22006), probably an early work from the 1650s. The rendering of the massive mountains in the present sheet also points to a date in the 1650s, probably after Hackaert’s return from Switzerland. The loose, broken outlines used for defining the distant elements, for instance, relates to Hackaert’s Swiss Landscape with Wooden Bridge, in the Frits Lugt Collection, Fondation Custodia, Paris (inv. no. 1795).10
In the mirror-image etching dated 1829 (e.g. inv. no. RP-P-1880-A-3913), Baron van Isendoorn à Blois transformed this linear style into a more tonal one. Perhaps for this reason, the inscription ‘J. Hackert delineavit’ was until recently interpreted as indicating the later watercolourist Johann Gottlieb Hackert (1744-1773).
Annemarie Stefes, 2019
Citation
A. Stefes, 2019, 'Jan Hackaert, Mountain Path with a Laden Donkey, Amsterdam, c. 1658', in J. Turner (ed.), (under construction) Drawings 2, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200140161
(accessed 12 December 2025 15:23:53).