Object data
leadpoint, with black and grey wash, on vellum
height 195 mm × width 164 mm
Jan Thopas
Portrait of a Gentleman, Seated next to a Table Full of Books
c. 1675 - c. 1680
Inscriptions
-
signed: centre right, in black ink, J: Tho pas. Fecit
Condition
Laid down; slightly damaged at the edges
Provenance
…; donated by Cornelis Peter David Pape (1841-1922), The Hague, to the museum, 1918
Object number: RP-T-1918-393
Credit line: Gift of C.P.D. Pape
Copyright: Public domain
The artist
Johannes Thopas (Arnhem 1625 - probably Zaandam before 1695)
He grew up in Utrecht and Emmerich, where his mother’s second husband, Johannes Wijer (?-?), served as burgomaster. Thopas, who was born deaf, was probably self-taught. He does not feature in art-historical biographies from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. But from the early twentieth century, he was the ‘most prolific of the great plumbago (leadpoint) artists of the Rembrandt period’ and a ‘master of chiaroscuro’ who managed to make the ‘characters of his sitters leap out at us.’1 Because of his deafness, he lived with family members his entire life and needed the help of a guardian in all official matters. He started to draw portraits while still in Utrecht in the mid-1640s, the earliest known examples being the Portrait of a Man and the Portrait of a Woman, each dated 1646, in the Frits Lugt Collection, Fondation Custodia, Paris (inv. nos. 1971-PM 4 and 1971-PM 5).2 His approach to portraiture followed the example set by Utrecht painters such as Jan van Bijlert (1597/98-1671).3 From circa 1656-57 to 1662, Thopas lived in Amsterdam. In the course of the 1660s, he moved to Haarlem, where he entered the Guild of St Luke in 1668. In 1672, he must have moved to Assendelft, and he probably spent the last years of his life in Zaandam, where his sister (and then caretaker) Jacoba Thopas (?-before 1695) drew up her will in 1688.
Despite the sheltered life Thopas led, as an artist he was sought after by the rich and influential. His oeuvre consists of more than sixty portrait drawings on vellum, including some commissioned by members of highly respected Dutch families. His last dated drawings is a pair from 1684, the Portrait of a Man and the Portrait of a Woman in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London (inv. nos. P.26-1952 and P.27-1952).4 There is only one known painting by the artist, Girl on her Deathbed in the Mauritshuis, The Hague (inv. no. 1159).5
Annemarie Stefes, 2018
References
W. Mills, ‘Dutch Plumbagos: The Clements Collection’, The Connoisseur 37 (1913), pp. 153-60 (esp. p. 155); R.E.O. Ekkart, Deaf, Dumb & Brilliant: Johannes Thopas, Master Draughtsman, exh. cat. Aachen (Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum)/Amsterdam (Museum Het Rembrandthuis) 2014, pp. 15-23
Entry
This portrait follows the same type as Thopas’s Portrait of an Elderly Woman, with Astronomical Instruments in the Rijksmuseum (inv. no. RP-T-1882-A-177). A middle-aged man of unknown identity is seated at a table, his left arm resting next to a pile of books. He wears a knee-length black coat with no lapels (a justacorps), over a white shirt with a large lace jabot and lace cuffs. The walking stick in his right hand, as well as the black hat on the table, suggest that he may have just come in from a walk or is about to take some fresh air. This impression accords with the rural vista through the opening in the wall – not exactly a window, as frame and hinges are missing, but rather a niche introduced merely for the sake of composition. Depicted outside is a farm among trees with grazing cows and a church in the distance, characterizing the sitter as a landowner or the owner of a ‘hofstede’ to retire from his life in the bustling cities.6
According to Ekkart, the drawing, although undated, seems to be a late work by Thopas.7 It shows his brilliant technique at its best. For the most part, Thopas built up his compositions using thousands of tiny dots of leadpoint. Elements such as the jabot and the lace shirt cuffs are genuine masterpieces of draughtsmanship, with different hues of grey giving a perfect illusion of the delicate fabric. At the same time, the drawing’s smooth and velvety surface resembles a mezzotint, a printmaking technique that had just come into fashion in the last third of the seventeenth century.
Annemarie Stefes, 2018
Literature
R.E.O. Ekkart, Deaf, Dumb & Brilliant: Johannes Thopas, Master Draughtsman, exh. cat. Aachen (Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum)/Amsterdam (Museum Het Rembrandthuis) 2014, pp. 94, 97, no. 49 (fig. 61)
Citation
A. Stefes, 2018, 'Jan Thopas, Portrait of a Gentleman, Seated next to a Table Full of Books, c. 1675 - c. 1680', in J. Turner (ed.), Dutch Drawings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.60837
(accessed 15 November 2024 00:47:51).