View of a Dilapidated Building with a Fountain

1637

Object data

oil on panel

support: height 71 cm × width 96.2 cm
outer size: depth 7.5 cm (support incl. SK-L-4046)

Inscriptions

signature and date, bottom left, on a stone: S De Vlieger f 1637

Technical notes

Support The panel consists of two horizontally grained oak planks (approx. 36.5 and 34.5 cm), approx. 0.9 cm thick. The reverse is bevelled on all sides, though slightly narrower so at the top and bottom, and has regularly spaced saw marks. At a later date a layer of wax was applied to the reverse and small wooden blocks were glued on the join. Dendrochronology has shown that the youngest heartwood ring was formed in 1616. The panel could have been ready for use by 1627, but a date in or after 1633 is more likely.
Preparatory layers The single, thin, white ground extends over the edges of the support at the bottom and on the left and right. It consists of a solid, white mass with a few small, black pigment particles.
Underdrawing No underdrawing could be detected with the naked eye or infrared photography.
Paint layers The paint extends up to the edges of the support. The first lay-in of the composition was applied with a rough, playful sketch, visible with infrared photography. It was skilfully executed in thin, fluid paints, introducing some tonal values, and sometimes handled with the top of a stiff brush to create distinct, dark lines, while the contours of the architecture were done with more restrained, almost dotted lines as in drawing. This undermodelling is dark brown and is visible to the naked eye mainly in the shadowed areas, for example in the stairs and at the contours of the dogs. Reserves were left for most of the elements, but the figure on the stairs was added over the background. The painting was built up with thick, opaque paints and fluent, wet-in-wet brushwork. The branches of the tree in the top left corner were swiftly applied, pushing away the wet paint of the sky. The texture of the lightest, more opaque paints was used for modelling, as in the water flowing from the spout. Some of the leaves in the foliage on the left were imprinted by a sponge. Several elements in the initial lay-in were not executed, such as a nondescript, tall vertical form in the fountain and a dog under the arch. Contour shifts were made to the legs of almost all the dogs and to the head, legs, back and saddle of the horse.
Willem de Ridder, 2024

Scientific examination and reports

dendrochronology: P. Klein, RMA, 27 October 1995
infrared photography: W. de Ridder, RMA, 16 December 2009
paint samples: W. de Ridder, RMA, nos. SK-A-1981/1-2, 16 December 2009
technical report: W. de Ridder, RMA, 16 December 2009

Condition

Fair. Distinct craquelure and cupping of the paint is apparent in places, especially in the greenery in the left foreground beneath the horse and dogs. The bare wood of the panel has become visible in many of the small losses. The paint surface shows a whitish haze in dark areas, for instance under the arch, and is abraded throughout. The varnish has severely yellowed, turned dull and has lost its saturation.

Conservation

conservator unknown, 1951: varnish removed

Provenance

…; ? private sale, Théophile Thoré, also known as Willem Bürger (1807-1869), Paris, 28 February-28 March 1870 (‘L’Abreuvoir 0.96-0.71 1.800’), unsold;¹ ? sale, Théophile Thoré, Paris (Chevallier), 5 December 1892, no. 47, fr. 880, to Kleinberger;²…; sale, Gijsbert de Clercq (1850-1911, Amsterdam), Amsterdam (F. Muller), 1 June 1897, no. 113, fl. 2,100, to the Vereniging Rembrandt;³ from the Vereniging Rembrandt, fl. 525, to the museum, 1902⁴

Object number: SK-A-1981

Credit line: Purchased with the support of the Vereniging Rembrandt

The artist

Simon Jacobsz de Vlieger (? Rotterdam c. 1600/01 - Weesp 1653)

In 1649 Simon de Vlieger declared that he was about 47, which would mean that his year of birth must have been 1600 or 1601. He was probably born in Rotterdam, where his father died in 1633. Simon himself married the daughter of a cloth dyer there in 1627, and is mentioned in the city several times up until 1633. The following year he joined the Guild of St Luke in Delft, and rented a house and stayed there until 1638, when he can be traced to Amsterdam. However, he kept up the ties with the places where he previously lived and worked. In 1637 he bought property in Rotterdam’s Schilderstraat which he sold in 1644. In 1640 he delivered the cartoons for tapestries for Delft Town Hall, and in 1645 the churchwardens of St Lawrence’s in Rotterdam paid him for painting the organ wings. He also received several public commissions in Amsterdam, of which he became a citizen in 1643. He drew designs for the prints depicting Maria de’ Medici’s entry into the city in 1638, and in 1648 for stained-glass windows in the Nieuwe Kerk. These projects involved considerable sums of money, indicating that he was prospering. In 1649 he purchased a house and garden in Weesp, a small town near Amsterdam, where he remained until his death in 1653 and where his daughter Cornelia married the painter Paulus van Hillegaert II in 1651.

De Vlieger was one of the leading Dutch marine artists of the seventeenth century. Works of his that show dramatic and/or historical events at sea are in the tradition of his predecessors Hendrick Vroom and the Flemish marine painters. However, many of his pictures display a fresh approach to the genre, primarily inspired by Jan Porcellis, with the sea becoming a subject in its own right. De Vlieger left a very large oeuvre, but the hundreds of works attributed to him include many by anonymous followers and contemporaries, not infrequently bearing a fake signature. A couple of dozen paintings are dated, the earliest being from 1624 and the latest from 1651.⁵ According to Houbraken De Vlieger taught Willem van de Velde II (1633-1707) but that is not certain. His most important followers include Pieter Mulier I, Hendrick Dubbels and Jan van de Cappelle. The latter owned nine of his paintings and more than 1,300 of his drawings.

Erlend de Groot, 2024

References
G. van Spaan, Beschrijvinge der stad Rotterdam en eenige omleggende dorpen, Rotterdam 1698, p. 421; A. Houbraken, De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen, II, Amsterdam 1719, p. 325; P. Scheltema, Rembrand: Discours sur sa vie et son génie, Paris 1866, p. 77; F.D.O. Obreen, Archief voor Nederlandsche kunstgeschiedenis: Verzameling van meerendeels onuitgegeven berichten en mededeelingen betreffende Nederlandsche schilders, plaatsnijders, beeldhouwers, bouwmeesters, juweliers, goud- en zilverdrijvers [enz.], I, Rotterdam 1877-78, p. 6; A.D. de Vries, ‘Biografische aanteekeningen betreffende voornamelijk Amsterdamsche schilders, plaatsnijders, enz. en hunne verwanten’, Oud Holland 3 (1885), pp. 55-80, 135-60, 223-40, 303-12, esp. p. 150; ibid., 4 (1886), pp. 71-80, 135-44, 215-24, 295-304, esp. p. 297; A. Bredius, ‘Het schildersregister van Jan Sysmus, Stads-Doctor van Amsterdam’, Oud Holland 9 (1891), pp. 137-49, esp. p. 147; P. Haverkorn van Rijsewijk, ‘Simon Jacobsz. De Vlieger’, Oud Holland 9 (1891), pp. 221-24 (documents); ibid., 11 (1893), pp. 229-35; A. Bredius, Künstler-Inventare, I, The Hague 1915, pp. 356-58; ibid., V, 1918, pp. 1643, 1687-88; Vollmer in U. Thieme and F. Becker (eds.), Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, XXXIV, Leipzig 1940, p. 462; J. Kelch, Studien zu Simon de Vlieger als Marinemaler, diss., Freie Universität Berlin 1971; Van der Zeeuw in N.I. Schadee (ed.), Rotterdamse meesters uit de Gouden Eeuw, exh. cat. Rotterdam (Historisch Museum) 1994, p. 306; Kelch in J. Giltaij and J. Kelch (eds.), Praise of Ships and the Sea: The Dutch Marine Painters of the 17th Century, exh. cat. Rotterdam (Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen)/Berlin (Bode-Museum) 1996-97, pp. 181-82; Bredius notes, RKD

Entry

The traditional title of this painting by Simon de Vlieger is The Falconer’s Homecoming,⁶ referring to the figure to be seen in the open window of the dilapidated structure. The building is Italian, as can be deduced from the fountain with classical columns up against the wall. The theme of the picture is extremely odd, because there is no visual tradition of a falconer coming home from the hunt, so the composition raises all sorts of questions. What does the old woman on the steps have to do with the place? What role do the dogs play? Does the horse belong to the falconer? In Christian iconography the falcon is the attribute of St Julian, the hospitable patron of innkeepers and travellers,⁷ but it seems too far-fetched to identify the man in this panel with a saint. The fact that the figures are interacting to some extent seems to indicate that it is a narrative scene and not just an Italianate landscape. The subject of the carving that can be made out with some difficulty above the waterspout on the fountain might be Eliezer and Rebecca at the well (Genesis 24), with Rebecca flanked by Eliezer on the left and two women coming to collect water on the right. It is uncertain whether this relief has any connection with the rest of the picture, so the latter’s theme remains shrouded in mystery.

The work is almost unique in De Vlieger’s painted oeuvre. An Italianate scene attributed to him contains a similar fountain, but that is where the resemblance ends.⁸ Another picture by the artist that is known only from an old photograph shows a man watering a horse in front of a dilapidated building too, this time with an Asian looking man and woman standing on the landing and descending the steps respectively, and a dog playing with a bone in the foreground.⁹ Once again, the question arises whether it is simply a landscape with an oriental flavour, or is there more to it than that? The slight similarity between the two subjects suggests that this painting and the present work are related, but as yet it is not clear how.

Erlend de Groot, 2024

See Key to abbreviations, Rijksmuseum painting catalogues and Acknowledgements

Literature

A. Heppner, Weverswerkplaatsen, geschilderd door Haarlemsche meesters der 17e eeuw, Haarlem 1938, pp. 86-89; J. Kelch, Studien zu Simon de Vlieger als Marinemaler, diss., Freie Universität Berlin 1971, pp. 55, 170, no. 105; Van der Zeeuw in N.I. Schadee (ed.), Rotterdamse meesters uit de Gouden Eeuw, exh. cat. Rotterdam (Historisch Museum) 1994, p. 306

Collection catalogues

1903, p. 286, no. 2561; 1934, p. 303, no. 2561; 1960, p. 329, no. 2561; 1976, p. 581, no. A 1981

Citation

Erlend de Groot, 2024, 'Simon de Vlieger, View of a Dilapidated Building with a Fountain, 1637', in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.6460

(accessed 17 November 2024 16:29:06).