Coastal Landscape with a Round Tower

c. 1600 - c. 1630

Object data

pen and black ink, with black, red and white chalk, on blue paper

height 179 mm × width 292 mm

Inscriptions

inscribed: lower left, by Gerard ter Borch I, in brown ink, de Stomme Fecit
stamped on verso of mount: lower centre, with the mark of the museum (L. 2166)

Technical notes

watermark: none

Condition

Vertical crease to the right of centre that is so sharp that the paper is damaged at various places, also several small tears and thin spots; laid down with Japanese paper

Provenance

…; collection Gerard ter Borch I (1582/83-1661), Zwolle; by descent to Lambertus Theodorus Zebinden (1809-86), Zwolle;¹ sale, Gerard ter Borch the Elder, Amsterdam (F. Muller), 15 June 1886 sqq., no. 309, with 616 other drawings and 153 prints, to the Vereniging Rembrandt;² from whom purchased, en bloc, fl. 3522.50, by the museum (L. 2166), 1887

Object number: RP-T-1887-A-1148

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 1585.³ 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

Like Studies of a Man and a Woman Standing on the Bank of a Frozen River, with a Town in the Distance (inv. no. RP-T-1887-A-1147), at lower left this drawing bears an attribution to Hendrick Avercamp in the handwriting of Gerard ter Borch I (1582/83-1661), Stomme Fecit (‘Made by the Mute’), but in neither case is this a reliable certificate of authenticity. Clara Welcker did not question it, though, and even regarded this imaginary landscape as evidence supporting her theory that Avercamp once made a journey to the Mediterranean. It was Albertus Welcker who first attributed it to Gerard van der Horst (1581/82-1629), not entirely without reason. The round tower with its crenellated battlement (top) seems to have been one of the artist’s favourite motifs. To take just one example, it appears in a print by Jan van de Velde II (1593-1641) after a design by Gerard van der Horst (e.g. inv. no. RP-P-1898-A-20492).⁷ Compositionally, the present drawing is related to a signed sheet by Van der Horst in the Special Collections of the Library of the University of Leiden (inv. no. PK-T-AW-536).⁸ There is, however, room for doubt. Most of the drawings that were fairly certainly executed by Van der Horst are in a meticulous style that imitates engraving – one that is very different to this much freer, rather rough manner. The attribution must therefore remain tentative.

Marijn Schapelhouman 1998

Literature

C.J. Welcker, Hendrick Avercamp (1585-1634), bijgenaamd ‘De Stomme van Campen’ en Barent Avercamp (1612-1679). ‘Schilders tot Campen’, Zwolle 1933, cat. T 15, pl. XXXVII (as Avercamp); A. Welcker, ‘Gerryt (Gerard) van der Horst of Gerhard Horst’, Oud-Holland 68 (1953), pp. 39 (fig. II), 41; 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 15 (as Hendrick Avercamp); E. Schaar, Niederländische Handzeichnungen, 1500-1800 aus dem Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf, exh. cat. Düsseldorf (Städtische Kunsthalle) 1968, p. 9, under no. 2 (as Hendrick Avercamp); C. van Hasselt, Landschaptekeningen van Hollandse meesters uit de XVIIe eeuw uit de particuliere verzameling bewaard in het Institut Néerlandais te Parijs, 2 vols., exh. cat. Brussels (Koninklijke Bibliotheek Albert I)/Rotterdam (Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen)/Paris (Institut Néerlandais)/Berne (Kunstmuseum) 1968-69, pp. 2-3, under no. 2 (n. 2; as Van der Horst); A. McNeil Kettering, Drawings from the Ter Borch Studio Estate, 2 vols., coll. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksprentenkabinet) 1988, II, p. 772, no. 3 (as Hendrick Avercamp); 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. 210 (as attributed to Van der Horst); P. Roelofs et al., Hendrick Avercamp: Master of the Ice Scene, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum)/Washington (DC) (National Gallery of Art), 2009-10, pp. 92, 94 (fig. 118, as Hendrick Avercamp or Gerard van der Horst), 95¬

Citation

M. Schapelhouman, 1998, 'Hendrick Avercamp, Coastal Landscape with a Round Tower, c. 1600 - 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.27162

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