Bust of Willem Baron van Liere (1620-1654), Lord of Oosterwijk and both Katwijks

Entry

Upon establishing himself in the Dutch Republic shortly before 1650, Rombout Verhulst (1624-1698) evolved to become the most important sculptor of funerary monuments, portrait busts and garden sculpture in the Northern Netherlands. He initially collaborated with Artus Quellinus I (1609-1668) in Amsterdam on the sculptural decoration of the new town hall (now the Royal Palace on the Dam Square). In 1658, he moved to Leiden, where he became involved in several civil projects, including the sculptural decoration of the Waag (1658), the Pesthuis (1660) and later the Zijlpoort (1667). It was also during his years in Leiden, where he would remain until 1664, that Verhulst first received commissions for private tomb monuments.² In 1661, he completed a wall memorial to Pieter Adriaensz van der Werff, Leiden’s renowned sixteenth-century burgomaster. This was followed by a monumental tomb with effigy for Johannis Polyander van Kerchoven. Verhulst’s most important monumental tomb (1663) during these years was that of Willem Baron van Liere, who had died ten years before, and his widow, Maria van Reygersbergh, Lady of Katwijk, erected in the church of Katwijk-Binnen near Leiden. Conceived as a double tomb, with the widow depicted lying semi-recumbent alongside her deceased husband, with this monument Verhulst had developed an entirely new tomb type never seen before in the Northern Netherlands.

The same antithesis of life and death is also expressed in Verhulst’s terracotta studies of his patroness and her husband. Modelled post mortem, most likely after a painted portrait, Jacob van Liere’s bust (shown here) is rendered in a frontal and fairly static pose, unlike that of Maria van Reygersbergh (BK-NM-11957-B), which possesses the sensitivity and vitality of a portrait made ‘after life’. Stylistically, the latter bust is readily comparable to the terracotta bust of her brother Jacob, modelled by Verhulst almost ten years later in 1671 (BK-NM-10557).

Although the terracotta busts of Maria van Reygersbergh and her spouse were not reproduced as exact copies on the marble tomb monument, they were undoubtedly modelled during the preparatory phase prior to the tomb’s installation. Verhulst would inevitably have made various portrait studies. The present pair, essentially finished down to the last detail, were perhaps made to stand on Van Reygersbergh’s fireplace mantel. A similar case involving a terracotta portrait concerns that of Anna van Ewsum, a noble jonkvrouw from Groningen, who commissioned Verhulst to design a monumental tomb for her deceased husband and herself. Listed among Van Ewsum’s bequeathed possessions one year later was ‘1 red earthen bust-piece’ resting on the fireplace mantel – presumably one much like the present terracotta portraits.³

It was Jacob van Reygersbergh who quite possibly brought the widow Van Liere into contact with the sculptor Verhulst. In his capacity as Zeeland’s appointed representative to the States General, Van Reygersbergh regularly spent time in The Hague. He was also an extremely important contact for the future course of Verhulst’s career. Apart from his own portrait bust, commissioned in 1671, he also played a mediating role in procuring commissions for epitaphs and monumental tombs on Verhulst’s behalf. These included works made for members of the noble class in Holland, Zeeland and Groningen, with whom Van Reygersbergh held family ties or maintained business relations.

In any event, the monumental tomb for Willem van Liere and Maria van Reygersbergh is certain to have made a big impression on those in the (semi-)noble circles from which Maria came and with whom she and her brother associated. Undoubtedly, the imposing tomb was also highly beneficial to Verhulst’s career. Only one year later, the sculptor was commissioned to make a second monumental tomb of the same kind, this time for the aforementioned Anna van Ewsum, widow of Carel Hieronymus van In- en Kniphuisen, at Midwolde in Groningen. Having both served as representatives of their respective provinces in the States General in 1663, Jacob van Reygersbergh and Carel Hieronymus van In- en Kniphuisen knew each other well. In the same years, Verhulst also supplied wall memorials for Van Reygersbergh’s brother-in-law, Johannis van Gheel (Spanbroek, 1668), and Hendrik Thibaut, an aristocrat from Zeeland (Aagtekerke, 1669). Thibaut was related by marriage to both the Van Reygersbergh and Van Gheel families. That Jacob van Reygersbergh himself was a personal acquaintance of Verhulst is also affirmed by the fact that, in the years 1668 to 1676,⁴ the sculptor acted on at least four occasions as a witness to the execution of notarial documents in which Jacob or Jacoba van Reygersbergh was one of the parties involved.

Frits Scholten, 2024