View of Abcoude, Seen from the North

Abcoude, c. 1646 - c. 1647

Object data

black chalk, with grey wash; framing line in black ink

height 159 mm × width 280 mm

Inscriptions

inscribed on verso: centre left, in a nineteenth-century hand, in pencil, Z 379; below that, in an early twentieth-century hand, in pencil, Abcoude, Roghman; lower left, in an early nineteenth-century hand, in graphite (partially trimmed), […] 9 N 5.; lower centre, in a nineteenth-century hand, in pencil, 31
stamped on verso: lower centre, with the mark of the museum (L. 2228)

Technical notes

watermark: none

Provenance

…; ? collection Hillebrant Bentes I (1591-1652), Amsterdam;¹ by descent to Hillebrant Bentes II (1677-1708), Amsterdam; his sale, Amsterdam, 16 October 1708;² …; collection Christiaan van Hoek (1643-1715), Amsterdam and ‘Ouderhoek’, near Loenen aan de Vecht, by 1711;³ his son, Anthony van Hoek (1674-1719), Amsterdam and ‘Ouderhoek’, near Loenen aan de Vecht;⁴ his cousin, Jan de Wolff (1680-1735), Amsterdam and ‘Ouderhoek’, near Loenen aan de Vecht;⁵ …; sale, Cornelis Ploos van Amstel (1726-98, Amsterdam), Amsterdam (P. van der Schley et al.), 3 March 1800 sqq., Album KK, nos. 1-6 (‘Inhoudende Teekeningen, alle gezigten van Huizen en kasteelen in de Sticht te Utrecht, meesterlijk naar het leven geteekend door Roeland Rogman, met zwart Kryt en O.I. Inkt’), with 240 other drawings, fl. 2,000.00 for all, to the dealer C.S. Roos, Amsterdam;⁶ sale, Jacob Cats (1741-99, Amsterdam) et al. [section ‘Letter P’, i.e. C.S. Roos], Amsterdam (P. van der Schley et al.), 16 April 1800 sqq., Album A, no. 21 (‘’t Slot te Abkoude’), fl. 6:10:, to ‘Helmond’;⁷ …; ? sale, Frederik Carel Theodoor, Baron van Isendoorn à Blois, Heer van Feluy and De Cannenburgh (1784-1865, Kasteel De Cannenburgh, Vaassen), Amsterdam (C.F. Roos and C.F. Roos, Jr), 19 August 1879, no. 137, fl. 30, to the dealer V. van Gogh, Amsterdam;⁸ …; sale, Jan Hendrik Cremer (1813-85, Brussels) et al., Amsterdam (F. Muller), 15 June 1886 sqq., no. 265; …; acquired by the museum (L. 2228), 1888⁹

Object number: RP-T-1888-A-1769

The artist

Roelant Roghman (Amsterdam 1627 - Amsterdam 1692)

He was the son of Hendrick Lambertsz Roghman (1602-1647/57) and Maria Saverij and was baptized on 25 March 1627 in Amsterdam’s Nieuwe Kerk. His father worked as an engraver,¹⁰ as did two of his five siblings: his sisters Geertruyt (1625-c. 1651/57) and Magdalena (1632¹¹-after 1669).¹² Through his mother, Roelant was a grandson of Jacob Savery I (1566-1603) and a great-nephew of Roelant Savery (1576-1639), after whom he was named. It is not known under whom he trained, but it is likely that he was influenced by the example of his grandfather and great-uncle. Although sometimes grouped with the pupils of Rembrandt (1606-1669), Roghman never actually studied with him. They were friends, however, and according to Houbraken, Rembrandt refused to accept Jan Griffier (1645/52-1718) as an apprentice because he was already studying with his friend Roghman.

Roghman was a prolific draughtsman, whose earliest dated works are two drawn views of tollhouses on the River IJ, both dated 1645, in the Van Eeghen collection, Stadsarchief, Amsterdam (inv. nos. 10055/28) and 10055/29).¹³ Among the works possibly made even earlier is a pen-and-wash drawing in the Kupferstich-Kabinett, Dresden (inv. nos. C 1798), clearly influenced by Roelant Savery.¹⁴

In 1646/47, Roghman embarked on his most ambitious project, the series of some 250 castle drawings, of which the Rijksmuseum owns 49 individual sheets. Besides travelling through the Dutch provinces to make castle drawings and topographical views, he also visited Brussels and the region around Cleves.¹⁵ A number of alpine landscapes – including one in Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam (inv. no. MB 221), dated 1654¹⁶ – suggest that he must have travelled to the Alps that year,¹⁷ presumably passing through France. A trip further south may be documented by a View of San Giacomo a Rialto in the Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin (KdZ 2617), traditionally attributed to the artist,¹⁸ and a signed drawing in the Klassik Stiftung Weimar, Sailing Boat at a Moorage (inv. no. KK 5329), could have well been made in Venice.¹⁹ In 1657, Roghman stayed in Augsburg, where he had a set of six etched alpine landscapes published by Melchior Küsel (1626-1684)²⁰ and contributed a drawing to an album amicorum (inv. no. RP-T-1898-A-3991). No later than 1658, he was back in Amsterdam, where he is documented during the 1660s. In 1672, his opinion was sought on the authenticity of a group of Italian paintings in a legal dispute between Gerrit Uylenburgh (c. 1625-1679) and Friedrich Wilhelm, Elector of Brandenburg (1620-1688).

Roghman’s rare paintings feature mostly mountain scenes and were probably done after his trip to the Alps. Of his circa fifty etchings, mostly landscapes, one depicts the Breach of the St Anthony’s Dike,²¹ a famous incident in 1651 that was also recorded by Jan Asselijn (c. 1610-1652), for example in his painting in the Rijksmuseum (inv. no. SK-A-5030), Willem Schellinks (1627-1678) and Jacob Esselens (1626-1687).

Roghman apparently never married and from 1686 lived in Amsterdam’s Oudemannenhuis (Old Men’s Home). His last dated drawing is from 1657, but according to Houbraken, he continued to produce art well into his old age. He died on 3 January 1692 and was buried in the St Anthonis Kerkhof, Amsterdam.

Annemarie Stefes, 2018

References
A. Houbraken, De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen, 3 vols., Amsterdam 1718-21, I (1718), pp. 173-74; III (1721), p. 358; A. von Wurzbach, Niederländisches Künstlerlexikon, 3 vols., Vienna/Leipzig 1906-11, II (1910), p. 464; R. Juynboll, ‘Roelant Roghman’, in U. Thieme and F. Becker, Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler: Von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, 37 vols., Leipzig 1907-50, XXVIII (1934), p. 518, with earlier literature; W.T. Kloek, ‘Een berglandschap door Roelant Roghman’, Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 23 (1975), no. 2, pp. 100-01; F.W.H. Hollstein et al., Dutch and Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts, c. 1450-1700, 72 vols, Amsterdam and elsewhere 1947-2010, XX (1978), pp. 67-93; H. Gerson and B.W. Meijer (eds.), Ausbreitung und Nachwirkung der Holländischen Malerei des 17. Jahrhunderts, Amsterdam 1983 (rev. edn.; orig. edn. 1942), pp. 27, 49, 130, 186, 293, 307, 356, 403; W. Kloek and J.W. Niemeijer, De kasteeltekeningen van Roelant Roghman II, Alphen aan den Rijn 1990, pp. 1-14; W. Sumowski, Drawings of the Rembrandt School, 10 vols., New York 1979-92, X (1992), pp. 4989-5174; 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. 642

Entry

Abcoude was located at the bank the Angstel, south of the village of the same name in the province of Utrecht. The property was probably originally built in the thirteenth century by Zweder van Zuylen (c. 1240-c. 1287),²² who used its name for the first time in 1268 and who is also reported as the first owner of Duurstede (inv. no. RP-T-1891-A-2466). In the fourteenth century, the family was known under the name Van Abcoude, and in the fifteenth century, they adopted the name Van Gaesbeeck. In 1490, the castle was given to David of Burgundy (c. 1427-1496), Bishop of Utrecht. In 1529, it passed to the States of Utrecht. It escaped demolition by French troops in 1672, having been fortified in the interim. However, it fell into disrepair in the following decades and was in ruins by 1704. It was finally demolished only around 1860. Today, its remains are still visible at the Koppeldijk in the Slotpolder.

There are four known views of Abcoude by Roghman. In the present drawing, the artist gave a distant view with the castle partially hidden by trees. The other three are closer views: one from the east (inv. no. RP-T-1911-69), one from the west, in the Frits Lugt Collection, Fondation Custodia, Paris (inv. no. 5108),²³ and one from the north-east, in the John and Marine van Vlissingen Art Foundation.²⁴

The present drawing’s inscription is of a later date than those on the other versions. For that reason, it may be supposed that it is not no. 19 (‘[huys] Abkoude’), 208 or 209 (Abcoude 2) in the Bentes List, but rather one of the unidentified sites referred to under no. 247 (‘nog elff zonder Naam’).²⁵ Copies after the present sheet are in the Rijksprentenkabinet (inv. no. RP-T-1905-91); the Teylers Museum, Haarlem (inv. no. O++ 038));²⁶ and the Utrechts Archief, inscribed, Afbeeldinge van het Oude Slot Abcoude in het verschiet / van R:Rochman. A° 1646 (inv. no. 107272).

Annemarie Stefes, 2018

Literature

List Bentes, probably under no. 247 (‘nog elff zonder Naam’); L. Smids, Schatkamer der Nederlandsse Oudheden, Amsterdam 1711, p. 5; List De Haen (‘Abkoude. 3 in Amstelland’); H.W.M. van der Wyck and J.W. Niemeijer, De kasteeltekeningen van Roelant Roghman I, Alphen aan den Rijn 1989, no. 6; B. Olde Meierink, Kastelen en ridderhofsteden in Utrecht, Utrecht 1995, pp. 97, 99, 100; M.C. Plomp, The Dutch Drawings in the Teyler Museum, II: Artists Born Between 1575 and 1630, coll. cat. Haarlem 1997, p. 351, under no. 403; P. Schatborn, Rembrandt and his Circle: Drawings in the Frits Lugt Collection, coll. cat. Paris 2010, I, p. 352, n. 9

Citation

A. Stefes, 2018, 'Roelant Roghman, View of Abcoude, Seen from the North, Abcoude, c. 1646 - c. 1647', in J. Turner (ed.), Dutch Drawings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.59874

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