Object data
oil on canvas
support: height c. 99.3 cm × width c. 65 cm
Jan Philip van Thielen
Cartouche Decorated with Swags and Sprays of Flowers
1665
Inscriptions
- signature and date, bottom left: İ.P. Van. Thielen .F.Anº 1665
Scientific examination and reports
- technical report: I. Verslype / Z. Benders, RMA, 25 May 2009
Conservation
- H. Heijdenrijk, 1913: wax relined
Provenance
…; collection Johannes Rombouts (1772-1850), Dordrecht; his nephew Leendert Dupper Willemsz (1799-1870), Dordrecht, 1850;1 by whom bequeathed to the museum, with 63 other paintings, 12 April 1870; on loan to the Council of State, The Hague, 1946; on loan through the DRVK, 1952; on loan to the States General, The Hague, since 2008
Object number: SK-A-407
Credit line: Dupper Wzn. Bequest, Dordrecht
Copyright: Public domain
The artist
Jan Philip van Thielen (Mechelen 1618 - Booischot 1667)
Of noble birth, Jan Philip van Thielen, a specialist painter of flowers, was born in Mechelen, the son of Libertus van Thielen, Lord of Couwenberg, and Anna Rigouts. He enrolled as a pupil of Theodoor Rombouts (1597-1637), his brother-in-law, in Antwerp in 1631/32 and became a master in the guild ten years later.2 How long he remained with Rombouts is not clear; Cornelis de Bie states that he was the first pupil of the Jesuit Daniël Seghers (1590-1661), who had been active in Antwerp since 1627. Papenbroeck states that Van Thielen had come to Antwerp with the intention of being taught by Seghers, who could not refuse to take him on because of his noble birth.3 Perhaps he enrolled with Rombouts for form’s sake and so that he could lodge in his house.
Van Thielen married Francesca Hemelaer, before he became a master, in 1639; he thus became a brother-in-law of Erasmus Quellinus II (1607-1678). From that union, there were nine children; three of his daughters became still-life painters.4 Van Thielen remained active in Antwerp until 1660 when, presumably on the death of his father, he inherited the title and estate at Booischot, for in that year he applied to be a foreign citizen of Antwerp and joined the Mechelen guild of St Luke on 14 October. In his early works he sometimes added his mother’s maiden name to his signature and, after 1660, he occasionally appended his title, ‘Heere van Couwen Berche’, to it.5
His most frequent collaborator was his brother-in-law, Erasmus Quellinus II, who owned one of his paintings at his death.6 His portrait by Quellinus7 was engraved by Richard Collin and published in Cornelis de Bie’s Het gulden cabinet, 1662. His production was not extensive; his work is rarely listed in the Antwerp inventories published by Duverger or in the correspondence of the dealers Musson and Forchondt, published by Denucé.
REFERENCES
C. de Bie, Het gulden cabinet van de edel vrij schilder const, inhoudende den lof vande vermartste schilders, architecte, beldtowers ende plaetsnijders van deze eeuwe, Antwerp s.a. [1662], pp. 344-46; F.J. van den Branden, Geschiedenis der Antwerpsche schilderschool, 3 vols., Antwerp 1883, III, pp. 152-53
Entry
This cartouche decorated with flowers was painted towards the end of Jan Philip van Thielen’s career, when he had returned to his native Mechelen and spent much of his time at his country estate.
The support has been reduced particularly at the bottom where the signature is at a slant. Because of that, the niche appears unusually low, with its central point in the lower half of the composition. The feigned sculpted bust of Flora, set into it, is by another hand working in the style of Erasmus Quellinus II (1607-1678) and probably not contemporary with Van Thielen’s execution of the flowers. Hairs attributed it to Cornelis van Poelenburgh (1594-1687) on the mistaken assumption that the oval bore this artist’s initials.8 The handling rather suggests a date circa 1700. Niches were not always filled by Antwerp painters working on this model developed by Daniel Seghers (1590-1661) (see under SK-A-800).
It is possible that the cartouche itself – although the larger flowers have circular reserves – was the work of a specialist supplier. The flowers, set in two ivy-based swags and two lateral swags, are part of Van Thielen’s normal repertory of standard varieties; three types of roses and tulips, and anemones, jasmine, morning glory, hollyhock, larkspur, narcissus, foxglove, carnation, African marigold, angel trumpet, with a peacock and angel tip butterflies.9
Gregory Martin, 2022
Literature
M.-L. Hairs, Les peintres flamands de fleurs au XVIIe siècle, 2 vols., Brussels 1985 [ed. princ. Paris/Brussels 1955], p. 264 and fig. 72
Collection catalogues
1880, p. 423, no. 495; 1903, p. 259, no. 2301; 1918, p. 259, no. 2301; 1976, p. 537, no. A 407
Citation
G. Martin, 2022, 'Jan Philip van Thielen, Cartouche Decorated with Swags and Sprays of Flowers, 1665', in Flemish Paintings in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.6785
(accessed 19 September 2024 18:58:54).