Winter Scene on the Ice, with a Hunter Showing an Otter

c. 1625 - c. 1630

Object data

pen and black and grey ink, with transparent and opaque watercolour, over traces of graphite or black chalk; framing line in black

height 201 mm × width 335 mm

Inscriptions

monogrammed: lower left (on a post), in brown ink, HA (in ligature)
inscribed on verso of mount, in a nineteenth-century hand, in graphite: lower left, H. Averkamp; centre, 7
stamped on verso of mount: at lower left and lower right (twice), with the mark of the Vereniging Rembrandt (L. 2135); lower centre, with the mark of the museum (L. 2228)

Technical notes

watermark: none visible through lining

Condition

Various repaired losses at lower left; laid down

Provenance

…; sale, Jacob de Vos Jbzn (1803-78, Amsterdam), Amsterdam (C.F. Roos et al.), 22 May 1883 sqq., no. 3 (‘H. Averkamp. Récréations sur la glace. [...] Aquarelle capitale. - Hauteur 20, largeur 33.5 cent.’), fl. 400, to the Vereniging Rembrandt (L. 2135); from whom, fl. 450, to the museum (L. 2228), 1883

Object number: RP-T-1883-A-240

Credit line: Purchased with the support of the Vereniging Rembrandt

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 1585.¹ 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’),² 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’).³ Hendrick was buried on 15 May 1634 in the Bovenkerk (or St Nicolaaskerk) in Kampen.⁴

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

In the second half of the 1620s, Avercamp seems to have concentrated increasingly on highly finished, coloured drawings in transparent and opaque watercolour, which could be pasted onto panel and given black frames for hanging on walls as a cheaper alternative to oil paintings. Almost all of them have since lost their frames, with the exception of a Winter Scene, formerly in the collection of Maida and George Abrams and now in the Harvart Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Cambridge (MA) (inv. no. 2014.409), which has what is thought to be its original frame.⁵

Avercamp composed his large scenes, many of them containing dozens of figures, with the aid of a large stock of studies. Some figures appear in several drawings, occasionally with minor variations in the pose, or in a costume of a different colour, or even in dress that has been updated to reflect the fashions of the day.

The man seen from behind in the right foreground is also found in a winter scene, formerly in the Woodner Collection, now in the National Gallery of Art, Washington (DC) (inv. no. 2006.11.3).⁶ There, however, he is dressed in red and has extended his right arm in a pointing gesture. The young couple looking out at the viewer from the right of the drawing also reappear in the ex-Woodner sheet, but the man has been given a more mature appearance with the addition of a moustache and goatee. The same couple feature in a drawing in the Frits Lugt Collection, Fondation Custodia, Paris (inv. no. 5461).⁷

The initial sketch in graphite or black chalk deviates considerably from the finished version in some places. The boy binding on his skate in the centre foreground was originally placed further back, with his head facing the other way. He had a different kind of hat, more like the one worn by the boy standing next to the man playing kolf with his back to the viewer.

There are considerable losses in the sheet, notably in and around the group of three men at lower left, later made good and retouched. This restoration may date from the eighteenth century, when the sheet was also backed.

Hendrik Spilman (1721-1784) made a soft-ground etching after this drawing. It is slightly larger and reverses the composition (e.g. inv. no. RP-P-1960-308).⁸ On closer examination, it turns out that the ‘points of similarity’ that Welcker saw between the Rijksprentenkabinet drawing and an etching by Simon Fokke (1712-1784) after Avercamp entitled De Haarlemer Meer Ao 1625 (e.g. inv. no. RP-P-1905-402) are not that numerous. The running dog is found in both, and the hunter with his gun over his shoulder is also seen in the etching in a slightly different pose. There, however, he is holding up a duck, not an otter.

Marijn Schapelhouman, 1998

Literature

M.D. Henkel, Le Dessin hollandais des origines au XVIIe siècle, Paris 1931, p. 113 and pl. XXXIV; C.J. Welcker, Hendrick Avercamp (1585-1634), bijgenaamd ‘De Stomme van Campen’ en Barent Avercamp (1612-1679). ‘Schilders tot Campen’, Zwolle 1933, no. T 11; Hollandsche teekenkunst in de Gouden Eeuw, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksprentenkabinet) 1935, no. 24; E. Goldschmidt and F. Schmidt-Degener, Catalogue de l’exposition de Jérôme Bosch à Rembrandt: Dessins hollandais du XVIe au XVIIe siècle, exh. cat. Brussels (Palais des Beaux-Arts) 1937-38, no. 43, pl. XXIX; M.F. Hennus, ‘Hendrick Avercamp als tekenaar’, Maandblad voor beeldende kunsten 25 (1949), no. 2, p. 1 (repr.); K.G. Boon, ‘De tekenkunst in de zeventiende eeuw’, in H.E. van Gelder and J. Duverger (eds.), Kunstgeschiedenis der Nederlanden, 3 vols., Utrecht 1954-56, II (1955), p. 136 (fig. 1); I.Q. van Regteren Altena, Dutch Drawings: Masterpieces of Five Centuries, exh. cat. Washington (DC) (National Gallery of Art)/New York (Pierpont Morgan Library)/Minneapolis (Institute of Art)/Boston (Museum of Fine Arts)/Cleveland (Museum of Art) 1958-59, no. 42; J. Bolten, Dutch Drawings from the Collection of Dr C. Hofstede de Groot, Utrecht 1967, p. 40, under no. 1 (n. 8); 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 (nn. 2 and 5); 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 11; M. Schapelhouman, Het beste bewaard. Een Amsterdamse verzameling en het ontstaan van de Vereniging Rembrandt, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksprentenkabinet) 1983, no. 2; M. Morgan Grasselli (ed.), The Touch of the Artist: Master Drawings from the Woodner Collections, exh. cat. Washington (DC) (National Gallery of Art), 1995-1996, p. 250, under no. 67 (n. 7); 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. 15; P. Murray, Figure and Ground: Rembrandt to Mondriaan, exh. cat. Cork (Crawford Municipal Art Gallery), 2005, p. 30; P. Roelofs et al., Hendrick Avercamp: Master of the Ice Scene, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum)/Washington (DC) (National Gallery of Art), 2009-10, pp. 85-87 (figs. 108-10)

Citation

M. Schapelhouman, 1998, 'Hendrick Avercamp, Winter Scene on the Ice, with a Hunter Showing an Otter, c. 1625 - c. 1630', in J. Turner (ed.), Dutch Drawings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.27139

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