Rijksmuseum

Object data

pen and brown ink, with grey wash, over traces of graphite; framing line in brown ink

height 95 mm × width 161 mm

Inscriptions

inscribed by the artist: upper right, Tot Grave de 1:m / 14 : d (date expressed as a fraction, month over day) 167 (trimmed)
inscribed on verso, in graphite: lower centre, Jos de Grave
stamped on verso: lower centre, with the mark of the museum (L. 2228)

Technical notes

watermark: none

Condition

Paper discolored; trimmed on the right

Provenance

…; ? acquired by the museum (L. 2228), in or after 1921;¹ first recorded in the museum in 1973 (as Josua de Grave)²

Object number: RP-T-00-133

The artist

Barend Klotz (? - ?)

Only one record, related to his position as a midshipman (adelborst) in the Dutch army, exists.³ The Klotz family may have come from the province of Limburg, where the surname was recorded in the seventeenth century.⁴ Barend was likely related to fellow draughtsman Valentijn Klotz (c. 1646-1721), who was probably a brother or cousin. Barend was part of the military company of Capt. Harderwijk (?-?), the leader of the naval department of the Dutch army, founded in Maastricht in 1668.⁵ In Maastricht, he likely met fellow draughtsman Josua de Grave (1643-1712). After being stationed in Bergen op Zoom (1671-early 1672), Barend and Valentijn Klotz and Josua de Grave accompanied the army during their campaigns in the southern Netherlands in 1672, 1674, 1675 and 1676.

Barend Klotz signed and dated his works only occasionally (e.g. inv. no. RP-T-00-736). Consequently, scholars seem to have been hesitant about attributing drawings to the artist. Furthermore, his style is very close to that of Valentijn Klotz and Josua de Grave. Based on the few inscriptions found on his sheets, Mosseveld and Van Ham were able to describe Barend Klotz’s handwriting and attribute a number of drawings of sites in Bergen op Zoom to the artist.⁶ Overall, his handwriting is neater than that of Valentijn, but not as consistent as that of Josua de Grave. His ‘w’, as well as his ‘p’ and ‘z’, are quite distinguishable; also noteworthy is his sparse use of capital letters.⁷ Barend used a very distinct old-fashioned ‘e’, adding an additional loop through the ‘o’. Further, he included the words ‘geteekent de’ [accompanied with a date and place] on several of his drawings. Based on this information, various drawings in the Rijksmuseum’s collection could be (tentatively) reattributed to the artist.

Carolyn Mensing, 2020

References
R. van Eijnden and A. van der Willigen, ‘Klotz, Valentijn’, in U. Thieme and F. Becker, Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, 37 vols., Leipzig 1907-50, XX (1927), pp. 549-50; R.J.G.M. van Hasselt, ‘Drie tekenaars van topografische prenten in Brabant en elders. Valentijn Klotz, Josua de Grave en Constantijn Huygens Jr.’, Jaarboek Oudheidkundige Kring ‘De Ghulden Roos’ 25 (1965), pp. 145-55; M.H. Breitbarth-van der Stok, ‘Josua de Grave, Valentinus Klotz en Bernardus Klotz’, Bulletin Koninklijke Nederlandse Oudheidkundige Bond 68 (1969), pp. 99-101; J.H. van Mosselveld and W.A. van Ham, Tekeningen van Bergen op Zoom. Topografische afbeeldingen van Bergen op Zoom en omgeving uit de zestiende tot en met de achttiende eeuw, exh. cat. Bergen op Zoom (Markiezenhof) 1973-74, pp. 15-18; G. Gordon, ‘Klotz, Valentijn’, in J. Turner (ed.), The Dictionary of Art, 34 vols., London/New York 1996, XVIII, pp. 140-41; P. Groenendijk, Beknopt biografisch lexicon van Zuid- en Noord-Nederlandse schilders, graveurs, glasschilders, tapijtwevers et cetera van ca. 1350 tot ca. 1720, Leiden 2008, p. 466

Entry

The city of Grave in the province of Noord-Brabant has a turbulent history, and it changed hands several times during the Eighty Years’ War (1568-1648) and after. In 1672, the ‘disaster year’ (rampjaar), the town was besieged by French troops under the command of Marshal General of France, Henri de La Tour d'Auvergne, Vicomte de Turenne (1611-1675). The city was recaptured by the Dutch troops on 29 October 1675, after a three-month siege. The heavy battles left the city in ruins.⁸

Between 1674 and 1676, Barend Klotz, Valentijn Klotz (c. 1646-1720) and Josua de Grave (1643-1712) made several drawings of Grave.⁹ They depicted the city from various angles, and sometimes they copied each other’s work. The artist of the present sheet drew a view on the fortifications around the city, standing on the other side of the ditch.

Hasselt attributed the sheet to Josua de Grave, but this is unlikely since he inscribed the dates on his sheets differently: unlike the inscription on the present sheet, De Grave placed the year before the day and the month (or flanked the specific date with a split year). Moreover, as Hasselt rightly stated, the technique is closer to that of one of either Valentijn or Barend Klotz.¹⁰ The handwriting appears closest to that of Barend, who regularly used an old-fashioned ‘e’. Furthermore, the penwork and application of the washes is comparable to two other drawings of Noord-Brabant sites also attributed to Barend, one depicting the village of Gemert, the other its castle (inv. nos. RP-T-1898-A-3978 and RP-T-1888-A-1642). That being said, the capital ‘G’ is quite different from the one used for the word ‘Gemert’ inscribed on those two sheets.

Carolyn Mensing, 2020

Literature

R.J.G.M. van Hasselt, ‘Drie tekenaars van topografische prenten in Brabant en elders. Valentijn Klotz, Josua de Grave en Constantijn Huygens Jr.’, Jaarboek Oudheidkundige Kring ‘De Ghulden Roos’ 25 (1965), pp. 145-92, no. 119 (as Josua de Grave?)

Citation

C. Mensing, 2020, 'attributed to Barend Klotz, View of Grave, Noord-Brabant, Grave, 1674 - 1676', in J. Turner (ed.), Dutch Drawings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.51950

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