Object data
pen and brown ink, with grey and brown wash, over traces of graphite; framing line in graphite
height 153 mm × width 210 mm
Valentijn Klotz
Veghel, 1676
pen and brown ink, with grey and brown wash, over traces of graphite; framing line in graphite
height 153 mm × width 210 mm
inscribed by the artist: upper right, in brown ink, t Casteel Tot vechel . de 1:m / 4:d (date expressed as a fraction, day over month) 1676.
inscribed on verso: upper left, in brown ink, N […] 3?; lower centre, in graphite, J. de Grave; lower left, in brown ink, Josua de Graaf (underlined)
stamped on verso: lower left, with the mark of the museum (L. 2228)
watermark: coat of arms
Some brown spots
…; sale, René Jacques della Faille de Waerloos (1830-1902, Antwerp), Amsterdam (F. Muller), 19 January 1904, no. 142, fl. 21, to ‘Van Gogh’;1 from which, with support from the Vereniging Rembrandt, to the museum (L. 2228), 1905
Object number: RP-T-1905-66
Credit line: Purchased with the support of the Vereniging Rembrandt
Copyright: Public domain
Valentijn Klotz (c. 1646 - The Hague 1721)
Except for a death certificate in The Hague dated 15 November 1721,2 no documents relating to his life are known. Klotz may have come from the province of Limburg, where his surname is recorded in the seventeenth century.3 Biographical information is therefore based only on his dated drawings: the earliest, from 1667, was mentioned in Kramm, but its whereabouts are unknown4 and the last is in the Rijksmuseum’s collection (inv. no. RP-T-1894-A-2889), from 1718.5 In 1670, Klotz resided in Maastricht, where he likely met fellow draughtsman Josua de Grave (1643-1712). Together with Barend Klotz (?-?), his presumed brother or cousin who was an midshipman (adelborst) in the army, the three men accompanied the army of the Dutch States-General under the Stadholder Prince Willem III of Orange (1650-1702) on various campaigns. They were probably hired as individual draughtsmen, tasked to record the landscapes, cities, villages and encampments encountered along the way, including those around Bergen op Zoom (1671-early 1672), cities around the Dutch ‘waterlinie’ (1672) and various regions in the southern Netherlands and present-day Belgium (1674, 1675 and 1676).
Like Josua de Grave, Klotz probably settled in The Hague at some point; several drawings dating between 1673 and 1718 depict the city and its environs, among them two in the Rijksmuseum’s collection (inv. nos. RP-T-1894-A-2888 and RP-T-1894-A-2889).
Although as a draughtsman, he worked in a very similar style and technique to Barend Klotz and Josua de Grave, Valentijn seems to have had a somewhat more spontaneous approach. According to Gordon, Klotz’s subject-matter is also slightly more diverse, focusing more heavily on architectural elements.6 Only a few of Valentijn Klotz’s drawings are signed, only occasionally with his full name. He more often provided his drawings with a date and a short description of the location. His handwriting is quite irregular, somewhat sloppy and not very consistent. He did use a very recognizable capital letter ‘B’.7 Klotz built up his landscapes with thin brown lines, often on top of an initial quick sketch in graphite or black chalk. Compared to De Grave’s drawings, his pen strokes in brown ink are tighter, and he often used zigzags rather than loops. In a few instances, the drawing is worked out entirely in grey and black rather than brown ink (e.g. inv. no. RP-T-1888-A-1640). His rendering of trees is quite sketchy, using short strokes of the pen to suggest leaves, with grey washes often applied to establish their shape and volume. Some sheets in the Rijksmuseum have watercolour washes, probably applied by a later hand (e.g. inv. nos. RP-T-00-171 and RP-T-00-172).
Carolyn Mensing, 2019
References
R. van Eijnden and A. van der Willigen, ‘Klotz, Valentijn’, in U. Thieme and F. Becker, Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, 37 vols., Leipzig 1907-50, XX (1927), pp. 549-50; R.J.G.M. van Hasselt, ‘Drie tekenaars van topografische prenten in Brabant en elders. Valentijn Klotz, Josua de Grave en Constantijn Huygens Jr.’, Jaarboek Oudheidkundige Kring ‘De Ghulden Roos’ 25 (1965), pp. 145-55; M.H. Breitbarth-van der Stok, ‘Josua de Grave, Valentinus Klotz en Bernardus Klotz’, Bulletin Koninklijke Nederlandse Oudheidkundige Bond 68 (1969), pp. 97-99; J.H. van Mosselveld and W.A. van Ham, Tekeningen van Bergen op Zoom. Topografische afbeeldingen van Bergen op Zoom en omgeving uit de zestiende tot en met de achttiende eeuw, exh. cat. Bergen op Zoom (Markiezenhof) 1973-74, pp. 15-18; G. Gordon, ‘Klotz, Valentijn’, in J. Turner (ed.), The Dictionary of Art, 34 vols., London/New York 1996, XVIII, pp. 140-41
Depicted here is Kasteel Frisselstein, near Veghel, Noord-Brabant. The castle was probably built sometime after 1450 by Godefridus van Erpe (?-?). The last resident left the castle in 1808, and the building quickly feel into disrepair. It was demolished in 1810.8
In the winter of 1675-76, Valentijn Klotz and Barend Klotz (?-?) travelled around the province of Noord-Brabant. The Rijksmuseum's collection includes several drawings of both artists depicting prominent architecture in and around Veghel and Gemert, for example, inv. nos. RP-T-1888-A-1642, RP-T-1898-A-3978 and RP-T-00-173. The last sheet, by Barend Klotz, was drawn one day earlier, on 3 January 1676, and depicts the castle from the opposite side of the moat.
Both Valentijn and Barend drew in an incredibly similar style: the only way to tell the difference is by comparing the handwriting of both artists. In the present sheet, the handwriting is somewhat irregular and sloppy, a characteristic more commonly associated with Valentijn. Furthermore, he consistently used the modern ‘e’, in contrast to Barend, who used the old-fasioned version. It is unclear whether the two artists made these drawings as independent works or on commission for Prince Willem III (1650-1702), who did not start his official campaign until April 1676. Considering that there are at least two versions of the same view, they could also have been made for several specific buyers, acting as records of the castle.
Carolyn Mensing, 2020
R.J.G.M. van Hasselt, ‘Drie tekenaars van topografische prenten in Brabant en elders. Valentijn Klotz, Josua de Grave en Constantijn Huygens Jr.’, Jaarboek Oudheidkundige Kring ‘De Ghulden Roos’ 25 (1965), pp. 145-92, no. 277
C. Mensing, 2020, 'Valentijn Klotz, View of Kasteel Frisselstein, Veghel, Veghel, 1676-04-01 - 1676-04-02', in J. Turner (ed.), Dutch Drawings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.54269
(accessed 14 November 2024 21:57:58).