Object data
watercolour, with opaque watercolour, over traces of graphite
height 238 mm × width 345 mm
Pieter Withoos
c. 1680 - c. 1692
Inscriptions
-
signed: lower right, in brown ink, P:W:fe
-
inscribed: lower right, in brown ink, (32
Technical notes
brown stain upper left
Provenance
…; purchased with the support of the F.G. Waller-Fonds by the museum, 1951
Object number: RP-T-1951-328
Credit line: Purchased with the support of the F.G. Waller-Fonds
Copyright: Public domain
The artist
Pieter Withoos (Amersfoort 1654/55 - Amsterdam 1692)
He was the son of the Amersfoort painter Matthias Withoos (1627-1703) and Wendelina van Hoorn (1618-c. 1680). He and several of his siblings were trained by their father.1 The family moved to Hoorn in 1672, but Pieter returned to Amersfoort one year later. He married Maria van Oldebarnevelt (?-?), the daughter of a prominent Amersfoort family.2 In Amersfoort, Pieter cleaned the paintings that hung in the town hall.
Pieter and his family moved to the Nieuwstraat in Utrecht around 1686.3 According to Houbraken, Pieter painted flowers and animals in watercolour that were bound in albums, just like his father.4 Pieter and his sister Alida Withoos (1661-1730) were invited by Agnes Block (1629-1704) to draw and paint the flowers and birds in the garden of her estate ‘Vijverhof’ in Loenen aan de Vecht, near Utrecht. It is likely that he stayed there in 1687, the same year as his sister. Pieter made several contributions to Block’s ‘bloemenboeken’ (flower albums) and was the main contributor to her ‘Vogelboek’ (Book of birds).5 Later in his life, Pieter moved to Amsterdam and died there on 23 April 1692.
Carolyn Mensing, 2020
References
A. Houbraken, De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen, 3 vols., Amsterdam 1718-21, II (1719), p. 189; A. von Wurzbach, Niederländisches Künstlerlexikon, 3 vols., Vienna/Leipzig 1906-11, III (1911), p. 893; U. Thieme and F. Becker, Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler: Von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, 37 vols., Leipzig 1907-50, XXXVI (1947), p. 117; A. van der Willigen and F.G. Meijer, A Dictionary of Dutch and Flemish Still-life Painters Working in Oils, 1525-1725, Leiden 2003, p. 222; M.W. Heijenga-Klomp, ‘Matthias Withoos (ca. 1627-1703) en zijn kinderen. Een Amersfoortse schildersfamilie’, Flehite, Historisch Jaarboek voor Amersfoort en omstreken (2005), pp. 124-28
Entry
This sheet with seven insects, isolated from their native environment and reassembled on a sheet, fits within a tradition that was popular since the second half of the sixteenth century and pioneered by artists such as Joris Hoefnagel (1542-1601) and Anselmus de Boodt (1550-1632). Withoos made several of such drawings; the Rijksmuseum’s collection includes two others: inv. nos. RP-T-1951-329 and RP-T-1900-A-4433. These drawings do not have any scientific pretention, and he probably drew them from preserved rather than living specimens. To create a charming and balanced composition, Withoos strategically placed these insects using contrasting colours. The present drawing is in a very good condition and the colours are beautifully preserved. Withoos meticulously rendered each insect, including their little hairs, scales and wings. A similar drawing was sold at Sotheby’s in 2019.6
Quite a few drawings by Pieter and his sister Alida Withoos (c. 1660-1730) include a number in brown ink preceded by a parenthesis in the lower right corner. These sheets were likely part of the same, yet to be identified assemblage, now dispersed among several institutions and private collections.7 The Rijksmuseum’s collection preserves three other such numbered drawings either assigned to Pieter in full or attributed to him, all – like the present sheet – purchased in 1951: inv. nos. RP-T-1951-329, RP-T-1951-330 and RP-T-1951-331.
Carolyn Mensing, 2020
Citation
(accessed 23 November 2024 10:24:20).