Rijksmuseum

Object data

pen and grey and some black ink, with grey wash, over graphite or black chalk; framing line in black ink

height 176 mm × width 160 mm

Inscriptions

signed: lower left, in black ink: AVKABEL (the initials in ligature)
inscribed on verso, in pencil: lower left, in a nineteenth-century hand, Adriaan van der Kabel; below that, in an eighteenth- or early nineteenth-century hand, ƒ 460 -; centre, in a modern hand, geetst d HKobell; next to that, possibly in a nineteenth-century hand, qm [?]
stamped on verso: lower left, with the mark of Jacob de Vos Jbzn (L. 1450); next to that, with the mark of the museum (L. 2228)

Technical notes

watermark: countermark with letters PVL; similar to Heawood, no. 1782 (Amsterdam: 1686)

Provenance

…; collection Jacob de Vos Jbzn (1803-82), Amsterdam (L. 1450); his widow, Abrahamina Henrietta de Vos-Wurfbain (1808-83), Amsterdam; sale, Jacob de Vos Jbzn, Amsterdam (C.F. Roos et al.), 22 May 1883 sqq., no. 263, fl. 51, with one other drawing (inv. no. RP-T-1884-A-379), to the dealer J.H. Balfoort, Utrecht, for the Vereniging Rembrandt; from whom acquired by the museum (L. 2228), 1884

Object number: RP-T-1884-A-378

Credit line: Purchased with the support of the Vereniging Rembrandt

The artist

Adriaen van der Kabel (Rijswijk 1630/31 - Lyon 1705)

His estimated birthdate is based on his stated age of thirty-four on a drawn Self-portrait, dated 1664, in the Albertina, Vienna (inv. no. 9995).¹ His parents were Cornelis Jansz van der Kabel (van der Touw) (?-?) and Maertgen (Maritgen) Philipsdr (?-?). He had a younger brother, Engel (Ange) van der Kabel (1641-1695), who was active as a painter, apparently of fruit still lifes.²

Adriaen’s apprenticeship in The Hague under Jan van Goyen (1596-1656) around 1644-48 is supported by a drawing in the Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg (inv. no. 21987),³ thought to be a copy of about that date after a lost original by Van Goyen. Van der Kabel’s earliest dated work is a painted River Landscape with a Tower of 1648 in the style of Van Goyen, whose present whereabouts are unknown.⁴ After his apprenticeship, Van der Kabel stayed in The Hague, where he worked in the studio of the portrait painter Anthonie van Ravensteyn (c. 1580-1669). His last record in The Hague is from 23 August 1654.⁵ Apparently, Adriaen led a disorderly life – Weyerman called him a ‘loose cannon’ (‘losse kabouter’) – inclined to drinking and fighting, confirmed by numerous documentary references to incidents in which he was accused of such misconduct.

By 1655, Van der Kabel had left The Hague. He must have travelled to Italy via France, visiting Paris and staying in Lyon until c. 1658.⁶ He is documented in Rome only from 1662, but had arrived there already in 1660. On his way, he probably passed through Genoa, whose harbour is represented in a painting in the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London (inv. no. BHC0754). In Rome, he lived in the Strada della Croce. Like many fellow Dutchmen, he joined the Bentvueghels (the confraternity of Northern artists in Rome), his bent-name being ‘Geestigheid’ (‘Wit’). His younger brother Engel, who accompanied him to Rome, was nicknamed ‘Corydon’ (‘Pastoral shepherd?’). On 20 August 1665, while still in Rome, Adriaen was arrested for misuse of rapier, together with the Flemish artist Jan Baptist de Wael (1636-1697).⁷ On this occasion, he stated that he had been in Rome for about five years. While in Italy, he painted staffage for the landscape painter Viviano Codazzi (c. 1604-1670).

Van der Kabel left Italy together with his brother circa 1666. On 7 August 1667, he married Suzanne Bourgois (?-1677) in Lyon, where he remained for the rest of his career. Of their five children – all baptized as Catholics – only two reached adulthood, one of whom was Marcantoine (Antoine) van der Kabel (?-1708), who followed in his father’s footsteps as a painter. In Lyon, Van der Kabel joined the local painter’s guild, where he was recorded as Maître-garde in 1670, 1673 and 1686.⁸ Many of his circa sixty surviving paintings – depicting Italianate or Arcadian landscapes, harbour scenes, marines, as well as still-lifes, genre scenes and religious subjects – are preserved in French museums. In Lyon, he provided decorative paintings for the town houses of leading families, such as Pilata, De Pizey (c. 1691) and Neufville de Villeroy. Virtually all of his fifty-five etchings were published in Paris.

As an artist, Adriaen was influenced by such Dutch Italianates as Nicolaes Berchem (1621/22-1683) and Jacob van der Does (1623-1673), as well as by Italian and French masters, among others by Gaspard Dughet (1615-1675), Pier Francesco Mola (1612-1666) and Salvator Rosa (1615-1673). Eventually, his Dutch instincts diminished through the impact of the these southern artists. He hosted and employed many Dutch artists sojourning in Italy, including Johannes Glauber (1646-c. 1726) in 1673-74. The influence of his art is to be seen in the works of Jan Frans van Bloemen (1662-1749), Nicolas Guérard (?-1719), his only recorded pupil, and Adrien Manglard (1695-1760).

He died on 15 January 1705 and was buried on 16 January that year in Nôtre-Dame de la Platière, Lyon. His circumstances were modest; however, his estate included works by renowned painters Jean-Francois Millet (1642-1679), known as Francisque, and Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione (1609–1664), suggesting that he was also dealing with art.⁹

Annemarie Stefes, 2019

References
A. Houbraken, De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen, 3 vols., Amsterdam 1718-21, II (1719), pp. 235-36, 349, 354, III (1721), pp. 217-18, 341; J.C. Weyerman, De levens-beschryvingen der Nederlandsche konst-schilders en konst-schilderessen, 4 vols., The Hague/Dordrecht 1729-69, II (1729), pp. 277-78; J. Immerzeel, De levens en werken der Hollandsche en Vlaamsche kunstschilders, 3 vols., Amsterdam 1842-43, II (1843), p. 94; 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, I (1857), p. 199; A. von Wurzbach, Niederländisches Künstlerlexikon, 3 vols., Vienna/Leipzig 1906-11, I (1906), pp. 230-32; R. de Cazenove, Le Peintre Van der Kabel et ses contemporains, Paris/Lyon 1888; A. Bredius, ‘Het schildersregister van Jan Sysmus, stads-doctor van Amsterdam’, Oud Holland 12 (1894), pp. 164-65; C. Hofstede de Groot (ed.), Beschreibendes und kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke der hervorragenden holländischen Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts, 10 vols., Esslingen 1907-28, VIII (1923), p. 342; U. Thieme and F. Becker, Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler: Von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, 37 vols., Leipzig 1907-50, XIX (1926), pp. 403-05; H. Gerson, Ausbreitung und Nachwirkung der holländischen Malerei des 17. Jahrhunderts, Amsterdam 1942, pp. 58-59, 167, 170, 540; G.J. Hoogewerff, Nederlandsche kunstenaars te Rome, 1600-1725. Uittreksels uit de parochiale archieven, The Hague 1942, pp. 45, 120; F.W.H. Hollstein et al., Dutch and Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts, c. 1450-1700, 72 vols., Amsterdam and elsewhere 1947-2010, IV (1951), pp. 82-83; G.J. Hoogewerff, De Bentvueghels, The Hague 1952, p. 134; C. Kämmerer, Die klassisch-heroische Landschaft in der niederländischen Landschaftsmalerei, 1675-1750, Berlin 1975 (PhD diss., Freie Universität Berlin), p. 49; G. Dargent, ‘Origines et famille d’Adrien van der Cabel peintre du XVIIe siècle à Lyon’, in Le Rôle de Lyon dans les échanges artistiques: Séjours et passages d’artistes à Lyon, Lyon 1976, pp. 69-92; L. Salerno, Pittori di paesaggio del Seicento a Roma, 3 vols., Rome 1977-80, II (1978), pp. 810-15; W.L. Strauss (ed.), The Illustrated Bartsch, New York and elsewhere 1978-, V (1979), pp. 212-64; L. Salerno, I pittori di vedute in Italia, 1580-1830, Rome 1991, pp. 104-05; H.-U. Beck, Jan van Goyen (1596-1656): Ein Oeuvreverzeichnis, 4 vols., Amsterdam 1972-91, IV (1991), pp. 216-21; A. Beyer et al. (eds.), Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon: Die bildenden Künstler aller Zeiten und Völker, Munich 1992-, XV (1997), p. 445 (entry by M.T. Caracciolo Arizzoli); G. Chaumer, ‘Les Passages des artistes hollandais et flamands en Rhône-Alpes’, in J. Foucart (ed.), Flandre et Hollande au Siècle d’Or: Chefs d’oeuvre des musées de Rhône-Alpes, exh. cat. Lyon (Musée des Beaux-Arts)/Bourg-en-Bresse (Musée de Brou)/Roanne (Musée Joseph Déchelette) 1992, pp. 34-36; E. Buijsen (ed.), Haagse schilders in de Gouden Eeuw. Het Hoogsteder Lexicon van alle schilders werkzaam in Den Haag, 1600-1700, Zwolle 1998, p. 320; M.T. Caracciolo, ‘Adriaen van der Cabel et le mythe visual de l’Italie’, Gazette des Beaux-Arts 135 (2000), pp. 93-108; A. van der Willigen and F.G. Meijer, A Dictionary of Dutch and Flemish Still-life Painters Working in Oils, 1525-1725, Leiden 2003, p. 120; G. Bruyère, ‘Un Amateur lyonnais de Van der Cabel, le marchand drapier Basile Reboul,’ in V. Pomarède (ed.), Mélanges en hommage à Dominique Brachlianoff, s.l. 2003, pp. 36-45; P. Groenendijk, Beknopt biografisch lexicon van Zuid- en Noord-Nederlandse schilders, graveurs, glasschilders, tapijtwevers et cetera van ca. 1350 tot ca. 1720, Utrecht 2008, p. 453; S. Alsteens and H. Buijs, Paysages de France dessinés par Lambert Doomeret les artistes hollandais et flamands des XVIe et XVIIe siècles, Paris 2008, pp. 333-37; M. Salverda, Adriaen van der Cabel (Rijswijk 1631-1705 Lyon), schilder van ‘lantschappen en watergezichten’, Rijswijk 2009; B.W. Meijer, ‘Nederlandse tekeningen in Genua. Simon de Vlieger, Adriaen van der Cabel en Arnold Houbraken’, in C. Dumas (ed.), Liber amicorum Dorine van Sasse van Ysselt. Collegiale bijdragen over teken- en prentkunst, The Hague 2011, pp. 97-99

Entry

This drawing is a signed autograph replica of a version of nearly the same format (179 x 161 mm), monogrammed and dated 1655, which is preserved in the Klassik Stiftung Weimar (inv. no. 5125).¹⁰ The two sheets presumably date from roughly the same period.

By 1655 – the date of the superior Weimar version – Van der Kabel had left The Hague for his journey to France and Italy. Both drawn versions could have been carried out while he was on the road, perhaps recording an actual site. The steps leading to the sunlit doorway next to a ruined wall also occur in a painting of circa 1650-53 by Adam Pijnacker (1620/21-1673) in the State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg (inv. no. 1094),¹¹ which is traditionally entitled The Tower of Cecilia Metella on the basis of the round tower seen through the doorway. What could be the same doorway from the opposite viewpoint features in another painting by Pijnacker, in the St Louis Art Museum (inv. no. 150:1982),¹² as well as in a drawing by Jan Baptist Weenix (1621-1660/61) in Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam (inv. no. MB 323).¹³ Van der Kabel’s drawings do not correspond exactly with any of the models by Pijnacker and Weenix (both of whom were back in Holland by 1655), which makes it likely that he visited the place himself, presumably a site somewhere in France where Van der Kabel stayed until 1658. According to Salverda, Van der Kabel pursued his career on the basis of the motto ‘follow the money’,¹⁴ so it comes as no surprise that he made a practice of making ricordi, recycling and varying his compositions. Another example is the museum’s inv. no. RP-T-1884-A-379 and its ‘twin’, formerly in the Unicorno collection.

According to an inscription on the verso of the present drawing, the drawing was etched by ‘H Kobell’. So far such a print has not been identified.

Annemarie Stefes, 2019

Citation

A. Stefes, 2019, 'Adriaen van der Kabel, View of Ancient Ruins with a Draughtsman, his Companion and a Dog, France, c. 1655', in J. Turner (ed.), Dutch Drawings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200120143

(accessed 12 December 2025 21:10:21).