Two Studies of a Donkey, Seen from the Front and Behind

Abraham Begeyn (Leiden 1637 - Berlin 1697)

On 8 April 1636, his father, Jean Begyn (?-1677), a clothmaker (‘laekenbereijder’) from ‘Sincyn by Ryssel’ (probably Sainghin-en-Mélantois, near Lille), married Mary Bucket (or ‘Bucquet’; ?-1677), then resident of Leiden.² The wedding took place in the Dutch Reformed Church of Leiden, but considering their French roots, they were most likely Catholics, an assumption supported by the fact that Abraham was baptized on 16 August 1637 in Leiden’s Waalse Kerk (Walloon Church).³ Abraham had a younger brother, Jacob Begeyn (1643-?), about whom nothing is known, except for the date of his baptism, 6 April 1643.⁴

According to Houbraken, Abraham Begeyn was trained by Nicolaes Berchem (1621/22-1683).⁵ Schaar (1954) and other scholars consider this apprenticeship unlikely. Yet there is no doubt that Begeyn’s paintings and drawings of the mid-1650s to the mid-1660s were strongly influenced by Berchem, some being precise copies, such as Begeyn’s drawing of an Italian Landscape with Herdsmen, Cattle and Draughtsmen near a Fountain in the Special Collections, Universiteit Leiden (inv. no. PK-T-AW-81), which is based on Berchem’s drawing (1653) in the Teylers Museum, Haarlem (inv. no. Q 018).⁶ Likewise, Begeyn’s painted Sea Harbour (1659) in the Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Brussels (inv. no. 10), is a close variation of Berchem’s Sea Harbour with a Slave Market and an Elegant Couple, in a private collection.⁷

Another artist who had an impact on the young Begeyn was Otto Marseus van Schrieck (c. 1619-1678), whose influence is visible in Begeyn’s earliest dated painting, Mountain Landscape with Fishermen (1653) in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Bordeaux (inv. no. Bx E 279), made when he was only about sixteen.⁸ Van Schrieck stayed in Italy from 1648 to 1657, when he was possibly joined by the teenaged Begeyn.

In 1655, Begeyn enrolled in the Guild of St Luke in Leiden, but he started to pay his dues only in 1658.⁹ The same year, on 6 June, he posted banns for his marriage to Margaretha (Margriet) van Zijl (?-1677) in the Roman Catholic ‘Kerk aan de Bakkersteeg’ in Leiden;¹⁰ the wedding took place in Wassenaar on 22 June. In Leiden, the couple baptized six children: Johannes (1659), Pieternelle (1661), Maria (1662), Johannes (1664), Pieter (1665) and Geertruid (1666).¹¹ He continued as a guild member until 1667.

Some authors have posited a trip to Italy between 1667 and 1672, when he is recorded again in the Netherlands. That year he was invited by Gerrit Uylenburgh (c. 1625-1679) to testify as an expert on Italian paintings in the case against Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg (1640-1688). However, it is more likely that he was in Amsterdam rather than Italy during those years, for there are also records of three more children being baptized in Amsterdam between 1668 and 1671: Geertruijd (1668), Isaac (1670) and Abraham (1671).¹²

In 1673 Begeyn moved to London. There, together with his compatriots Willem van de Velde II (1633-1707) and Dirck van Bergen (c. 1645-after 1690), he took part in the redecoration of Ham House, Surrey (1673-75), its inventory of 1683 listing fourteen paintings by the artist. While in England, Begeyn apparently changed his name to Bega.¹³

In 1681, Begeyn was recorded as living on the Suijlinxstraet in The Hague, though he was not yet a dues-paying member of the local artists’ guild, the Confrerie Pictura. As a newly discovered document reveals, this may have been due to the fact that he and his family were then also living in Paris from 1679 to 1682.¹⁴ His presence in France is documented, among others, by a signed _View of Francheville _ of circa 1680 in the Albertina, Vienna (inv. no. 10258),¹⁵ and by a sale catalogue of 1797 that mentions a group of fifty drawn views of Paris.¹⁶

Begeyn seems to have returned to The Hague by 1683, when he paid his dues to the Confrerie.¹⁷ He remained a member for the following two years. In 1685, he is recorded as the teacher of the ‘son of Pieter Romburgh’ (‘den 29 Dec. 1685 van d’Heer Bega, wegens zijn disciple, den zoon van P.r Romburgh’).¹⁸ Three years later, he again moved.

After being involved in the decorations for the funeral on 12 September 1688 of Elector Frederick William of Brandenburg, Begeyn was installed as court painter in Berlin by the latter’s son, Frederick III (1657-1713), later Frederick I, King of Prussia, on 22 October 1688, receiving an annuity of 500 thaler.¹⁹ Besides designing tapestries illustrating the life and deeds of Frederick William,²⁰ Begeyn was commissioned by the Elector to travel through Prussian territory to record landscapes, castles and cities, among others Halberstadt, Minden, Bielefeld, Wesel and Cleve . In the late 1690s, he made designs for two series of topographical prints from these travels, engraved by Abraham Bloteling (1640-1690) and Gerard Valck (1652-1726).²¹ The fourteen designs for one of the series were still together at the 1937 sale of the A.W.M. Mensing (1866-1936).²² In 1697, Begeyn died after falling from a scaffold where he was working.

Annemarie Stefes, 2019

References
A. Houbraken, De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen, 3 vols., Amsterdam 1718-21, II (1719), p. 38; J. van Gool, De nieuwe schouburg der Nederlantsche kunstschilders en schilderessen, 2 vols., The Hague 1750-51, I (1750), pp. 100-02; J.C. Weyerman, De levens-beschryvingen der Nederlandsche konst-schilders en konst-schilderessen, 4 vols., The Hague/Dordrecht 1729-69, IV (1769), p. 58; P. Terwesten, Register off aanteekeninge zo van de Deekens, Hoofdluiden en Secretarissen der Kunst-Confrerie Kamer van Pictura, The Hague 1776 (unpublished manuscript, Archive of Confrerie Pictura, Haags Gemeentearchief), pp. 43-44; F.D.O. Obreen, Archief voor Nederlandsche kunstgeschiedenis, 7 vols., Rotterdam 1877-90, IV (1882), pp. 116, 211, V (1882-83), pp. 136, 152, 216, VI (1890), p. 344; U. Thieme and F. Becker, Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler: Von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, 37 vols., Leipzig 1907-50, III (1909), p. 188 (entry by E.W. Moes); A. Bredius (ed.), Künstler-Inventare: Urkunden zur Geschichte der holländischen Kunst des XVIten, XVIIten und XVIIIten Jahrhunderts, 8 vols., The Hague 1915-22, I (1915), p. 2, II (1916), pp. 428, 634, III (1917), p. 1028, IV (1917), p. 1307, VI (1919), pp. 1968, 2125; F.W.H. Hollstein et al., Dutch and Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts, c. 1450-1700, 72 vols., Amsterdam and elsewhere 1947-2010, I (1947), pp. 234-42; E. Schaar, ‘Berchem und Begeijn’, Oud Holland 69 (1954), no. 4, pp. 241-45; A. Beyer et al. (eds.), Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon: Die bildenden Künstler aller Zeiten und Völker, Munich 1992-, VIII (1994), p. 273; J. Turner (ed.), The Dictionary of Art, 34 vols., London/New York 1996, III, pp. 500-01; E. Buijsen (ed.), Haagse schilders in de Gouden Eeuw. Het Hoogsteder Lexicon van alle schilders werkzaam in Den Haag, 1600-1700, Zwolle 1998, pp. 285-86; 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. 91; S. Alsteens and H. Buijs, Paysages de France dessinés par Lambert Doomer et les artistes hollandais et flamands des XVIe et XVIIe siècles, Paris 2008, pp. 339-40