Landscape with Two Eel Fishermen by a Ditch

c. 1625 - c. 1630

Object data

pen and brown and grey ink, with watercolour and opaque white, over traces of graphite; framing line in brown ink

height 193 mm × width 311 mm

Inscriptions

monogrammed: lower left, in grey ink, HA (in ligature)
inscribed on verso: lower left, by Ploos van Amstel, in graphite, Hend Avercamp f/ Stomme v Campen/ h: 7½/ b: 12d (L. 3002 and 3004); below that, in an eighteenth- or nineteenth-century hand, in pencil, Hoofd/f n a–; below that, possibly in an eighteenth-century hand, in dark brown ink (partially legible), […]uye (?); below that, possibly by Josi, with codes in graphite (L. 2925bis)
stamped on verso: lower left, with the mark of the Vereniging Rembrandt (L. 2135); below that, with the mark of De Vos Jbzn (L. 1450); lower centre, with the mark of the museum (L. 2228)

Technical notes

watermark: none

Condition

A few thin spots

Provenance

…; sale, Nicolaas Albrechts (?-?) et al., Amsterdam (Van der Schley et al.), 11 May 1772, no. 132, fl. 71;¹ …; collection Cornelis Ploos van Amstel (1726-98), Amsterdam (L. 3002 and 3004); his sale, Amsterdam (Ph. van der Schley et al.), 3 March 1800 sqq., Album S, no. 22 (‘Een Landschap, ryk gestoffeerd met kloeke Beelden en Beesten; met de Pen en Sapverven’), fl. 60, to Willem Philip Kops (1755-1805), Haarlem;² his sale, Amsterdam (Ph. van der Schley et al.), 14 March 1808 sqq., Album A, no. 11 (‘In een Landzigt een grazige Weide, met een Water doorsneeden, vertoont zich op den voorgrond een oud Visser, verzeld van een Jongeling, met een Net op den Schouder, verder eenig Vee, Rijsigers, Postwagen en verder Stoffage. Meesterlijk met de pen en zapverven’), fl. 31, to Christiaan Josi (1768-1828), Amsterdam and London (L. 2925bis);³ …; sale, Jacob de Vos (1735-1833, Amsterdam), Amsterdam (J. de Vries et al.), 30 October 1833 sqq., Album I, no. 3 (‘Hendrik Averkamp. Een kapitaal Hollandsch Landschap, op den voorgrond aan het water twee visschers met hunne netten; ter zijde op het land koebeesten; op den weg een postwagen, een heer te paard, verder wandelaars enz. Uitmuntend fraai zoo van teekening als van kleur’), fl. 62, to the dealer ‘De Vries’, possibly for Jacob de Vos Wzn (1774-1844), Amsterdam;⁴ his son, Jacob de Vos Jbzn (1803-82), Amsterdam (L. 1450); his sale, Amsterdam (C.F. Roos et al.), 22 May 1883 sqq., no. 4 (‘H. Averkamp. Les Pêcheurs. [...] Aquarelle. - Hauteur 19.5, largeur 31 cent. Collection Ploos van Amstel [vendue 1800]. -Jacob de Vos [vendue 1833, page 31, no. 3]’), fl. 635, to the Vereniging Rembrandt (L. 2135);⁵ from whom, fl. 714:37:5-, to the museum (L. 2228), 1883

Object number: RP-T-1883-A-241

Credit line: Purchased with the support of the Vereniging Rembrandt

The artist

Hendrick Avercamp (Amsterdam 1585 – Kampen 1634)

The eldest son of the apothecary Barent Hendricksz Avercamp (1557-1602) and Beatrix Peters Vekemans (c. 1563-1633), he was baptized in the Oude Kerk in Amsterdam on 27 January 1585.⁶ In 1586 his father became the town apothecary of Kampen, and the family moved there. Hendrick has long been assumed to have been deaf and mute from birth, since he was commonly known as ‘de Stom’ or ‘de Stomme’ (‘the Mute’). Because one of the buyers at the 1607 studio sale of Pieter Isaacsz (1568-1625) in Amsterdam is mentioned as ‘de stom tot Pieter Isacqs’ (‘the mute at Pieter Isaacz’s’),⁷ it is thought that Avercamp was sent to Amsterdam to live and study with the history and portrait painter Pieter Isaacsz, who returned to his native Denmark in that year. By January 1613, but probably earlier, Avercamp must have returned to Kampen, where he remained for the rest of his life. Shortly before his mother died, she expressed in her will her concern about her unmarried eldest son, Hendrick, who she called ‘stom en miserable’ (‘mute and wretched’).⁸ Hendrick was buried on 15 May 1634 in the Bovenkerk (or St Nicolaaskerk) in Kampen.⁹

Avercamp painted and drew mainly winter scenes, which in the seventeenth century were called ‘wintertjes’. His early paintings, executed in 1608 and 1609, show the influence of Flemish landscape painters, such as Hans Bol (1534-1593), Gillis van Coninxloo (1544-1607) and David Vinckboons I (1576-1631/33), and a strong interest in narrative details in the tradition of Pieter Bruegel I (c. 1528-1569). The Flemish influence became less noticeable in his later works, with the horizon lines being lower and the perspective more natural. Although best known for his winter landscape paintings, he also drew and painted some summer and river landscapes.

Hendrick Avercamp was a prolific draughtsman, who worked mostly in pen, chalk and watercolour, creating figure studies that were recycled repeatedly in his paintings, as well as fully worked-out drawings as detailed as his paintings. The latter works were probably intended for sale. Paintings by artists such as Arent Arentsz (1585/86-1631), Adam van Breen (c. 1585-after 1642), Antonie Verstralen (c. 1594-1641) and Hendrick’s nephew Barent Avercamp (1612/13-1679) strongly resemble his work, but it is unclear whether those artists were taught by him or simply imitated his work.

Jan-Piet Filedt Kok, 2007

REFERENCES
E. Bénézit, ‘Hendrick Avercamp’, in U. Thieme and F. Becker, Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, 37 vols., Leipzig 1907-50, II (1908), pp. 276-77; C.J. Welcker, Hendrick Avercamp (1585-1634), bijgenaamd ‘De Stomme van Campen’ en Barent Avercamp (1612-1679). ‘Schilders tot Campen’, Zwolle 1933, pp. 33-71; C.J. Welcker and D.J. Hensbroek-van der Poel, Hendrick Avercamp (1585-1634), bijgenaamd ‘De Stomme van Campen’ en Barent Avercamp (1612-1679). ‘Schilders tot Campen’, Doornspijk 1979, pp. 33-71; A. Blankert, Hendrick Avercamp (1585-1634), Barent Avercamp (1612-1679): Frozen Silence: Paintings from Museums and Private Collections, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Waterman Gallery)/Zwolle (Provinciehuis Overijssel) 1982-83, pp. 15-36; D.J. Hensbroek-van der Poel, ‘Hendrick Avercamp’, in Saur Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon: Die bildenden Künstler aller Zeiten und Völker, 94 vols., Munich 1992-, V (1992), pp. 728-29; D.J. Hensbroek-van der Poel, ‘Avercamp Family’, in J. Turner (ed.), The Dictionary of Art, 34 vols., London/New York 1996, II, pp. 854-55; J. Bikker, ‘Hendrick Avercamp: “The Mute of Kampen”, in P. Roelofs et al., Hendrick Avercamp: Master of the Ice Scene, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum)/Washington (DC) (National Gallery of Art) 2009-10, pp. 11-21

Entry

Boddeke believed that the nets of the old fisherman and his young companion were placed across the ditch and the fish or eels driven into them.¹⁰ This is contradicted by an Avercamp drawing in which a man is standing on the bank dragging one of these nets through the water like a giant scoop, with the handle pointing diagonally upwards; the current whereabouts of this drawing, sold in Berlin in 1931,¹¹ are unknown, but its appearance is recorded in a reversed reproductive etching after it by Simon Fokke (1712-1784) entitled Ouderkerk aan den Amstel Ao 1622 (e.g. inv. no. RP-P-1905-403).

At first sight, one might be tempted to regard this and the museum’s drawing of a Winter Scene on the Ice, with a Hunter Showing an Otter (inv. no. RP-T-1883-A-240) as pendants depicting Winter and Summer, but that is unlikely, for they are not quite the same size (193 x 311 mm and 201 x 335 mm, respectively) and were first united only in the collection of Jacob de Vos Jbzn (1803-1882). Nevertheless, the almost emblematic array of motifs from daily life – fishermen emptying their nets, a postwagon with an armed escort, boats, travellers on horseback and on foot, cattle grazing and drinking – does tend to suggest that the sheet was originally one of a pair (Winter and Summer) or a quartet (the Four Seasons). There are a few isolated indications that Avercamp did indeed produce suites of that kind.¹²

The style of drawing, with the boldly articulated contours and bright colours, is typical of Avercamp’s work from the late 1620s.

Marijn Schapelhouman, 1998

Literature

E.W. Moes, Oude teekeningen van de Hollandsche en Vlaamsche school in het Rijksprentenkabinet te Amsterdam, 2 vols., coll. cat. Amsterdam 1905-06, fig. 2; T. von Frimmel, ‘Bilder von seltenen Meistern in der Sammlung Mallmann zu Blaschkow’, Blätter für Gemäldekunde 2 (1905-06) , no. 8, pp. 151-62; Georg Poensgen, ‘Arent Arentsz (genannt Cabel) und sein Verhältnis zu Hendrik Avercamp’, Oud-Holland 41 (1923-24), p. 127 (as Arent Arentsz); C.J. Welcker, Hendrick Avercamp (1585-1634), bijgenaamd ‘De Stomme van Campen’ en Barent Avercamp (1612-1679). ‘Schilders tot Campen’, Zwolle 1933, no. T 12; W. Bernt, Die niederländischen Zeichner des 17. Jahrhunderts, 2 vols., Munich 1957-58, I (1957), no. 16 (repr.); R. Boddeke, Elk vist op zijn getij, 25 tekeningen uit de 17de, 18de en 19de eeuw, Utrecht n.d. [1962], no. 5 (repr.); P. Schatborn and K.G. Boon, Dutch Genre Drawings of the Seventeenth Century: A Loan Exhibition from Dutch Museums, Foundations and Private Collections, exh. cat. New York (Pierpont Morgan Library)/Boston (Museum of Fine Arts)/Chicago (Art Institute of Chicago) 1972-73, no. 1; P. Schatborn, Hollandse genre-tekeningen uit de zeventiende eeuw, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksprentenkabinet) 1973, no. 1; C.J. Welcker and D.J. Hensbroek-van der Poel, Hendrick Avercamp (1585-1634), bijgenaamd ‘De Stomme van Campen’ en Barent Avercamp (1612-1679). ‘Schilders tot Campen’, Doornspijk 1979, no. T 12; M. Schapelhouman, Het beste bewaard. Een Amsterdamse verzameling en het ontstaan van de Vereniging Rembrandt, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksprentenkabinet) 1983, no. 3; M. Schapelhouman and P. Schatborn, Dutch Drawings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam: Artists Born between 1580 and 1600, 2 vols., coll. cat. Amsterdam 1998, no. 16; G. Luijten and J.P. Filedt Kok (eds.), The Glory of the Golden Age: Dutch Art of the 17th Century: Drawings, Prints, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 2000, pp. 26-27, fig. 17; P. Murray, Figure and Ground: Rembrandt to Mondriaan, exh. cat. Cork (Crawford Municipal Art Gallery), 2005, pp. 29 (repr.), 30; A.E. Waiboer and M. Franken, Northern Nocturnes: Nightscapes in the Age of Rembrandt, exh. cat. Dublin (National Gallery of Ireland), 2005, no. 18; P. Roelofs et al., Hendrick Avercamp: Master of the Ice Scene, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum)/Washington (DC) (National Gallery of Art), 2009-10, p. 97 (fig. 122)

Citation

M. Schapelhouman, 1998, 'Hendrick Avercamp, Landscape with Two Eel Fishermen by a Ditch, c. 1625 - c. 1630', in J. Turner (ed.), Dutch Drawings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.27151

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