Self-portrait with a Skull

1653

Self-portrait with a Skull

Object data

black chalk, with oiled charcoal, on vellum; framing lines in brown and black ink

height 208 mm × width 149 mm

Inscriptions

inscribed by the artist, in black chalk: upper right, Aen Sien / Doet gedencke; below this, Ao= 1653 / de 10 April
inscribed: upper right, in an eighteenth-century hand, in brown ink, AETATIS XXIV
inscribed on verso, in pencil: lower left, f 12 – 10 –; lower centre, 4; below that, B
stamped on verso: lower centre, with the mark of the museum (L. 2228); lower right, with the mark of Pitcairn Knowles (L. 2643)

Provenance

…; sale, Johan van der Marck Ægzn (1707-72, Leiden), Amsterdam (H. de Winter and J. IJver), 29 November 1773 sqq., Album T, no. 1765 (‘Cornelis de Visser. Het Portrait van dien Meester; oud zynde 24 Jaar, halver Lyf, met een Doodshoofd in de regter hand; mede zeer uitvoerig en fraay met zwart Kryt op Perkament getekend, h. 8 b. 5¾ duim [203 x 146 mm]’), fl. 50, to Jacob de Vos (1735-1833), Amsterdam;¹ his sale, Amsterdam (J. de Vries et al.), 30 October 1833 sqq., Album CC, no. 1 (‘Het Portret van Cornelis Visscher, ter halver lijve, houdende in de rechterhand een doodshoofd; aan een kolom staat: Aensien doet gedencken. Breed en meesterlijk met zwart krijt, op pergament, door hemzelven’), fl. 52, to the dealer A. Brondgeest, Amsterdam;² …; sale, Jan Gijsbert, Baron Verstolk van Soelen (1776-1845, The Hague and Soelen, near Tiel), Amsterdam (J. de Vries et al.), 22 March 1847 sqq., Album I, no. 347 (‘Portrait de Corneille Visscher, tenant une tête de mort dans la main droite; sur la muraille on lit la devise: ‘Aanzien doet gedenken’ (Souviens-toi de mourir). Dessin à la pierre d’Italie par Corneille Visscher’), fl. 101, to the dealer C.F. Roos for Gerard Leembruggen (1801-65), Amsterdam and Hillegom;³ his sale, Amsterdam (C.F. Roos et al.), 5 March 1866 sqq., no. 727, fl. 100, to the dealer C.F. Roos, Amsterdam;⁴ …; sale, Aarnout Jacobus van Eyndhoven (1805-61, Amsterdam and Zutphen) and J. Werneck (?-1893, Frankfurt-am-Main), Amsterdam (F. Muller) 23 June 1885 sqq., no. 318, fl. 220, to the dealer W.E. van Pappelendam, Amsterdam;⁵ … ; collection William Pitcairn Knowles (1820-94), Rotterdam and Wiesbaden (L. 2643); his sale, Amsterdam (F. Muller), 25 June 1895 sqq., no. 705, fl. 148, to the dealer C.F. Roos for the Vereniging Rembrandt;⁶ from whom on loan to the museum, 1895; from whom, fl. 170.50, to the museum (L. 2228), 1902

Object number: RP-T-1902-A-4624

Credit line: Purchased with the support of the Vereniging Rembrandt

The artist

Cornelis Visscher (Haarlem 1628/29 - 1658 Amsterdam)

Little is known about his early life. Information regarding his birth is based on two surviving self-portraits, one from 1649 in the British Museum, London (inv. no. 1895,0915.1343), and the other, dated 10 April 1653, in the Rijksmuseum (inv. no. RP-T-1902-A-4624). He was presumably born in Haarlem, where he became a member of the Guild of St Luke in 1653. His father – who cannot be identified – must have been an artist as well, because in the admission book of the guild Visscher is described as ‘plaetsnijder en Meester outste zoon’ (‘engraver and the master’s oldest son’). Two younger brothers, Jan Visscher (1633/34-1712) and Lambert Visscher (1630/32-after 1690), also pursued artistic careers. The relationship between Cornelis and the relatively unknown painter Cornelis de Visscher (c. 1530-c. 1586) of Gouda is unclear. According to Van Mander, the latter was a skilled portraitist, but had some mental issues and died in a shipwreck on the North Sea.⁷ Perhaps the same person can be identified with Cornelis de Visscher, whose money was managed (presumably on behalf of his under-age children) by the orphans’ board of Gouda because he was considered mentally ill; in 1622, the widow of Cornelis’ brother, the painter Gerrit Gerritsz. de Visscher II (c. 1559-before 1622), collected the money from the orphans’ board on behalf of Cornelis’ two nephews, her sons Gerrit de Visscher III (?-?), a goldsmith living in Gouda, and Barent de Visscher (?-?).⁸

Cornelis Visscher probably received his first artistic training from his father. Later he must have been apprenticed to the Haarlem painter, engraver and draughtsman Pieter Soutman (1593/1601-1657), with whom he collaborated on several print series in 1649/50. Shortly after his admission in the Guild of St Luke in Haarlem, he moved to Amsterdam. In the 1650s, he received numerous commissions for portrait drawings and engravings of Haarlem and Amsterdam scholars, clergymen and writers, including Joost van den Vondel (1587-1679) (e.g. inv. no. RP-P-H-P-41). One of his last commissions was an engraved portrait of Constantijn Huygens I (1596-1687) after a lost drawing by the sitter’s son Christiaan Huygens (1629-95), which was included as the frontispiece to Huygens’ poem book Koren-bloemen (1658) (e.g. inv. no. RP-P-OB-27.428). It was finished in the last months of 1657, when the artist was presumably suffering from ‘de steen’ (kidney stones). Visscher died the following year and was buried on 16 January in the Nieuwe Kerk, Amsterdam. Despite his short life – he was only twenty-eight years old when he died – Visscher left an extensive oeuvre, consisting of more than 100 drawings and some 185 prints.

Marleen Ram, 2019

References
R. van Eijnden and A. van der Willigen, Geschiedenis der vaderlandsche schilderkunst, 4 vols., Haarlem 1816-40, I (1816), pp. 71-77, IV (1840), pp. 96-97; P. Schatborn, Dutch Figure Drawings from the Seventeenth Century, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksprentenkabinet)/Washington (DC) (National Gallery of Art) 1981-82, pp. 100-01; R.E.O. Ekkart, ‘Visscher, Cornelis (de)’, in J. Turner (ed.), The Dictionary of Art, 34 vols., London/New York 1996, XXXII, pp. 622-23; J. Hawley, ‘An Introduction to the Life and Drawings of Jan de Vissccher’, Master Drawings 52 (2014), no. 1, pp. 59-94; J. Hawley, ‘Cornelis Visscher and Constantijn Huygens’s Koren-bloemen’, Print Quarterly 32 (2015), no. 1, pp. 51-53

Entry

Cornelis Visscher was one of the most skilled portrait draughtsmen in the second half of the seventeenth century in the Netherlands. Even after his premature death in 1658, his works continued to be widely praised. According to Arnold Houbraken (1660-1719), Visscher had ‘a way of making drawings in black chalk, done from life, that could not be bettered, so that if I could choose a method of drawing above all others as an example for young artists, I can think of none more skilful, in the surface highlights, broad clear shadows, and solid touches, handled with ease and great understanding, to look at’.⁹ Moreover, his drawings fetched high prices at auction, from the late eighteenth century to the present day.

The museum’s drawing, which is one of the many self-portraits that Visscher produced during his life, clearly demonstrates his abilities as a draughtsman. With delicate, almost invisible hatching, he rendered his face, while he drew his wavy, shoulder-length hair and his clothes in a looser style. He is holding a skull in his hand and on the column behind him is inscribed the Dutch proverb ‘Aanzien doet gedenken’ (‘To see is to remember’). According to Stoett in his lexicon on Dutch proverbs, this proverb can mean two things: seeing someone makes one think of that person or seeing an object can make one remember something from the past.¹⁰ In earlier times, the proverb was also used in a religious context, in which an image can serve as an instrument for devotion and prayer.¹¹ The meaning of the proverb in Visscher’s portrait is probably also twofold. On the one hand, the actual portrait reminds us of the artist himself; on the other hand, when we see the skull in his hand, we are aware of the transience of life.¹² Because of these attributes (the skull and the proverb) and the rather melancholic look in his eyes, the portrait has been interpreted as a foreshadowing of the artist’s untimely death.¹³ Although it has been suggested that Visscher suffered from ‘den steen’ (kidney stones),¹⁴ he was to live for five more years after the execution of the present drawing. The portrait is, therefore, more likely to be a personal memento mori, with the skull as a general symbol of death.

Hawley suggested that the portrait could have been modelled after Lucas van Leyden’s engraved Young Man with a Skull of circa 1519 (e.g. inv. no. RP-P-OB-1773),¹⁵ in which a well-dressed man considers his mortality while pointing at the human skull tucked under his cloak.¹⁶ In 1653, Visscher was by then well-established. A few months after the execution of this portrait, he was admitted to the Guild of St Luke in Haarlem; his career was on the rise. Perhaps he made the present sheet as a reminder to himself that one should not dwell on success, because life – in the end – is temporary.

A copy of the drawing is in the Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen (inv. no. Tu 65/7 (6682)).¹⁷

Bonny van Sighem, 2000/Marleen Ram, 2019

Literature

C. Josi, Collection d’imitations des dessins d’après les principaux maîtres hollandais et flamands, commencée par C. Ploos van Amstel […] precedés d’un discours sur l’état ancient et moderne des arts dans les Pays Bas, 2 vols., London 1821, p. 35; Getekende Nederlandsche portretten, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksprentenkabinet) 1905, no. 60; Hollandsche teekenkunst in de Gouden Eeuw, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksprentenkabinet) 1935, no. 160; H. van Hall, Portretten van Nederlandse beeldende kunstenaars, Amsterdam 1963, no. 5; W. Wegner, Die niederländischen Handzeichnungen des 15.-18 Jahrhunderts, 2 vols., coll. cat. Munich (Staatliche Graphische Sammlung) 1973, I, p. 142, under no. 1029; L.C.J. Frerichs, Getekende kunstenaarsportretten, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksprentenkabinet) 1974-75, no. 27; P. Dirkse, ‘Cornelis de Visscher en de iconografie van het Noordnederlands pastoorsportret’, in H. Blasse-Hegeman, Nederlandse portretten. Bijdragen over de portretkunst in de Nederlanden uit de zestiende, zeventiende en achttiende eeuw, The Hague 1990 (Leids Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek, vol. 8), p. 258; P. Dirkse, ‘Tien portretgravures van 17de-eeuwse geestelijken door Cornelis de Visscher’, Catharijnebrief 8 (1990), no. 32, p. 7; P. Dirkse, Begijnen, pastoors en predikanten. Religie en kunst in de Gouden Eeuw, Leiden 2001, p. 170

Citation

B. van Sighem, 2000/M. Ram, 2019, 'Cornelis (II) Visscher, Self-portrait with a Skull, 1653-04-10', in J. Turner (ed.), Dutch Drawings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.63625

(accessed 24 March 2025 03:49:03).

Footnotes

¹ Copy RKD.
² Copy RKD.
³ Copy RKD.
⁴ Copy RKD.
⁵ Copy RMA.
⁶ Copy RKD.
⁷ K. van Mander, Het schilder-boeck waer in voor eerst de leerlustighe iueght den grondt der edel vry schilderconst in verscheyden deelen wort voorghedraghen, Haarlem 1604, p. 228.
⁸ Gouda, Streekarchief Midden-Holland, inv. no. OA196.
⁹ A. Houbraken, De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen, 3 vols., Amsterdam 1718-21, I (1718), p. 77 (‘een wyze van teekenen met swart kryt, naar ‘t leven, die onverbeterlyk is, zodanig dat zoo ik een wyze van teekenen onder alle uitkeuren moest ten voorbeeld van de schilderjeugt, ik zoude geen bekwamer konnen bedenken, om de vlakke dagingen, breede klare schaduwen, en vaste toetsen, met groot verstand en gemakkelyk behandeld, daar uit af te zien’); for the English translation see J. Hawley, ‘An Introduction to the Life and Drawings of Jan de Visscher’, Master Drawings 52 (2014), no. 1, p. 61.
¹⁰ F.A. Stoett, Nederlandse spreekwoorden en gezegden, Zutphen 1953, no. 25; P. Dirkse, ‘Tien portretgravures van 17de-eeuwse geestelijken door Cornelis de Visscher’, Catharijnebrief 8 (1990), no. 32, p. 7.
¹¹ M.L. Caron, ‘Ansien doet gedencken. De religieuze voorstellingswereld van de moderne devotie’, in Geert Grote en de Moderne Devotie, exh. cat. Deventer (Athenaeumbibliotheek/De Waag)/Utrecht (Catharijneconvent) 1984, p. 25.
¹² P. Dirkse, ‘Tien portretgravures van 17de-eeuwse geestelijken door Cornelis de Visscher’, Catharijnebrief 8 (1990), no. 32, p. 7.
¹³ C. Josi, Collection d’imitations des dessins d’après les principaux maîtres hollandais et flamands, commencée par C. Ploos van Amstel … precedés d’un discours sur l’état ancient et moderne des arts dans les Pays Bas, 2 vols., London 1821, p. 35; P. Dirkse, Begijnen, pastoors en predikanten. Religie en kunst in de Gouden Eeuw, Leiden 2001, p. 170; and in various sale catalogues, for example, sale, Aarnout Jacobus van Eyndhoven (1805-1861, Amsterdam and Zutphen) and J. Werneck (?-1893, Frankfurt-am-Main), Amsterdam (F. Muller) 23 June 1885 sqq., no. 318 (‘Corneille de Visscher. Son portrait, à l’âge de vingt-quatre ans. Portrait très-remarquable du célèbre graveur, en même temps un document frappant sur sa vie. Apparemment sous l’influence du mal auquel il a succombé, il s’est représenté avec une tête-de-mort dans la main. C’est à ce crâne que se rapporte la devise qu’on voit écrite sur la colonne au fond: “Aen Sien Doet gedencke.” (Souviens-toi que tu dois mourir). Le dessin porte la date: “Ao 1653 de 10 April.” Cabinet Verstolk de Soelen. Pierre noir sur peau de vélin. Hauteur 21, largeur 15 cent.’).
¹⁴ R. van Eijnden and A. van der Willigen, Geschiedenis der vaderlandsche schilderkunst, 4 vols., Haarlem 1816-40, IV (1840), p. 97.
¹⁵ New Hollstein: Lucas van Leyden, no. 174.
¹⁶ Oral communication John Hawely, 30 August 2016.
¹⁷ Photo Gernsheim, no. 72338.