Object data
pen and brown ink, with grey wash, some point of brush with black ink, over black chalk; framing line in dark brown ink
height 98 mm × width 158 mm
Jan van Aken
Mountain Landscape with a Dead Conifer
? Amsterdam, c. 1640 - c. 1660
Inscriptions
Technical notes
watermark: none
Condition
Losses, tear and abrasion (all restored) in upper left corner
Provenance
…; collection William Pitcairn Knowles (1820-94), Rotterdam and Wiesbaden (L. 2643); his sale, Amsterdam (F. Muller), 25 June 1895 sqq., no. 6, with two other drawings, fl. 5, to the dealer F. Muller for the Vereniging Rembrandt;1 from whom, to the museum (L. 2228), 1897
Object number: RP-T-1897-A-3394
Copyright: Public domain
The artist
Jan van Aken (? Amsterdam c. 1614 – Amsterdam 1661)
According to a tradition of unknown origin, he was born in 1614 in Amsterdam. Houbraken described him as a ‘een Paardeschilder, maar in ’t klein’ (‘painter of horses, on a small scale’).2 His oeuvre consists of more than forty drawings and twenty-one landscape etchings, including a series of horses after Pieter van Laer (1599-1642)3 and four Rhine landscapes after sketches by Herman Saftleven (c. 1609-1685), one of which is dated 1648.4 The nature of Van Aken’s relation to both artists remains unexplored.
Among the examples of dated drawings include two from 1652: Valley with Ruined Bridge in the Special Collections, Universiteit Leiden (inv. no. PK-T-AW-3), and Rocky Landscape with Figures on a Road by a Stream in The British Museum, London (inv. no. 1836,0811.1).5 Only a handful of paintings can be securely associated with the artist, for instance a pair from the early 1650s, Dune Landscape with Travellers and Gypsies (1650) in a private collection,6 and Mountainous River Landscape (165(?)) in the Muzeum Narodowe w Warszawie, Warsaw (inv. no. M.Ob.437 MNW), previously published as signed and dated 1650.7
What is generally assumed to be this artist, a certain ‘Jan van Aken’, brother-in-law of a Lammert van den Velden, living at the corner of the Nieuwbrugsteeg, was buried in the Oudezijds Kapel on 25 March 1661.
Annemarie Stefes, 2019
References
A. Houbraken, De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen, 3 vols., Amsterdam 1718-21, III (1721), p. 183; R. van Eijnden and A. van der Willigen, Geschiedenis der vaderlandsche schilderkunst, 4 vols., Haarlem 1816-40, I (1816), pp. 214-15; F.D.O. Obreen, Archief voor Nederlandsche kunstgeschiedenis, 7 vols., Rotterdam 1877-90, V (1882-83), p. 203; A.D. de Vries, ‘Biografische aanteekeningen betreffende voornamelijk Amsterdamsche schilders, plaatsnijders, enz. en hunne verwanten (I)’, Oud-Holland 3 (1885), p. 58; A. von Wurzbach, Niederländisches Künstlerlexikon, 3 vols., Vienna/Leipzig 1906-11, I (1906), p. 8; U. Thieme and F. Becker, Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler: Von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, 37 vols., Leipzig 1907-50, I (1907), p. 158 (entry by E.W. Moes); 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. 5-9; W.L. Strauss (ed.), The Illustrated Bartsch, New York and elsewhere 1978-, I (1978), pp. 267-79, nos. 1-21; W. Schulz, Herman Saftleven (1609-1685): Leben und Werke, mit einem kritischen Katalog der Gemälde und Zeichnungen, Berlin 1982, pp. 72, 113-14; A. Beyer et al. (eds.), Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon: Die bildenden Künstler aller Zeiten und Völker, Munich 1992-, I (1992), p. 700; 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. 57; https://rkd.nl/explore/artists/774
Entry
Despite being almost the same size as inv. nos. RP-T-1897-A-3396 and RP-T-1889-A-2028, the handling of the present drawing of a rocky mountain landscape with a dead conifer and a pool of water in the foreground is done in a slightly different style. It is a sketchier, less finished composition, most evident in the abbreviated pen conventions used to delineate sheep and goats, which do not always follow the preliminary sketch in black chalk. Those loopy pen lines resemble the handling of a signed drawing by Van Aken in The British Museum, London (inv. no. 1895,0915.1091).8 Another related drawing in the same format is Mountainous Landscape with Chapel in the Städel Museum, Frankfurt-am-Main (inv. no. 741), echoing the Scandinavian landscapes by Allaert van Everdingen (1621-1675).9
At the same time, the unusual combination of pen and brown ink with grey wash reflects the work of both Dutch Italianate artists and those active in Rotterdam. Van Aken may well have drawn inspiration from artists who spent time in Italy, such as Herman van Swanevelt (c. 1603/04-1655). The same combination is found in Van Aken’s Ruined Castle in the British Museum, London (inv. no. 1836,0811.786),10 a design (whose dimensions are similar to those of the present sheet) for his print (e.g. inv. no. RP-P-BI-17).11 As a type, the present composition seems to have been inspired by etchings by Van Swanevelt. It may have originally been intended as a study for a print, like one from the same series (e.g. inv. no. RP-P-BI-20).12
Annemarie Stefes, 2019
Citation
A. Stefes, 2019, 'Jan van Aken, Mountain Landscape with a Dead Conifer, Amsterdam, c. 1640 - c. 1660', in J. Turner (ed.), Dutch Drawings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.27099
(accessed 22 November 2024 09:33:04).