View of the Town Hall, Gouda

Gouda, 1646

Object data

black chalk, point of brush and dark grey ink, with grey wash, over some graphite; framing line in dark brown ink

height 396 mm × width 273 mm

Inscriptions

monogrammed and dated: lower right, in graphite, R. R. 1646
inscribed on verso: lower left, in pencil, III; lower centre, in an eighteenth-century hand (possibly Niemeijer’s ‘Hand C’), in graphite, Stadhuys van Gouda
stamped on verso: lower left, with the mark of De Vos (L.1450); lower centre, with the mark of the museum (L. 2228)

Technical notes

Watermark: None

Condition

Foxing and light brown stains

Provenance

…; sale, Jacob Cats (1741-99, Amsterdam) et al., Amsterdam (P. van der Schley et al.), 16 April 1800 sqq., Album A, no. 38 (‘’t Stadhuis te Gouda’), fl. 6:15:-, to Jacob de Vos (1735-1833), Amsterdam;¹ his sale, Amsterdam (J. de Vries et al.), 30 October 1833 sqq., Album Q, no. 5 (‘Roeland Roghman. Het Stadhuis te Gouda, van voren en op zijde te zien. Meesterlijk, als de voorgaande [met zw. krijt en o.i. inkt]’), fl. 110, to the dealer J. de Vries, Amsterdam;² …; collection Jacob de Vos Jbzn (1803-78), Amsterdam (L. 1450); his widow, Abrahamina Henrietta de Vos-Wurfbain (1808-83), Amsterdam; his sale, Amsterdam (C.F. Roos et al.), 22 May 1883 sqq., no. 443, fl. 305, to the dealer R.W.P. de Vries, Amsterdam, for the Vereniging Rembrandt;³ from whom acquired, by the museum (L. 2228), 1891

Object number: RP-T-1891-A-2417

Credit line: Purchased with the support of the Vereniging Rembrandt

The artist

Roelant Roghman (Amsterdam 1627 - Amsterdam 1692)

He was the son of Hendrick Lambertsz Roghman (1602-1647/57) and Maria Saverij and was baptized on 25 March 1627 in Amsterdam’s Nieuwe Kerk. His father worked as an engraver,⁴ as did two of his five siblings: his sisters Geertruyt (1625-c. 1651/57) and Magdalena (1632⁵-after 1669).⁶ Through his mother, Roelant was a grandson of Jacob Savery I (1566-1603) and a great-nephew of Roelant Savery (1576-1639), after whom he was named. It is not known under whom he trained, but it is likely that he was influenced by the example of his grandfather and great-uncle. Although sometimes grouped with the pupils of Rembrandt (1606-1669), Roghman never actually studied with him. They were friends, however, and according to Houbraken, Rembrandt refused to accept Jan Griffier (1645/52-1718) as an apprentice because he was already studying with his friend Roghman.

Roghman was a prolific draughtsman, whose earliest dated works are two drawn views of tollhouses on the River IJ, both dated 1645, in the Van Eeghen collection, Stadsarchief, Amsterdam (inv. nos. 10055/28) and 10055/29).⁷ Among the works possibly made even earlier is a pen-and-wash drawing in the Kupferstich-Kabinett, Dresden (inv. nos. C 1798), clearly influenced by Roelant Savery.⁸

In 1646/47, Roghman embarked on his most ambitious project, the series of some 250 castle drawings, of which the Rijksmuseum owns 49 individual sheets. Besides travelling through the Dutch provinces to make castle drawings and topographical views, he also visited Brussels and the region around Cleves.⁹ A number of alpine landscapes – including one in the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam (inv. no. MB 221), dated 1654¹⁰ – suggest that he must have travelled to the Alps that year,¹¹ presumably passing through France. A trip further south may be documented by a View of San Giacomo a Rialto in the Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin (KdZ 2617), traditionally attributed to the artist,¹² and a signed drawing in the Klassik Stiftung Weimar, Sailing Boat at a Moorage, could have well been made in Venice.¹³ In 1657, Roghman stayed in Augsburg, where he had a set of six etched alpine landscapes published by Melchior Küsel (1626-1684)¹⁴ and contributed a drawing to an album amicorum (inv. no. RP-T-1898-A-3991). No later than 1658, he was back in Amsterdam, where he is documented during the 1660s. In 1672, his opinion was sought on the authenticity of a group of Italian paintings in a legal dispute between Gerrit Uylenburgh (c. 1625-1679) and Friedrich Wilhelm, Elector of Brandenburg (1620-1688).

Roghman’s rare paintings feature mostly mountain scenes and were probably done after his trip to the Alps. Of his circa fifty etchings, mostly landscapes, one depicts the Breach of the St Anthony’s Dike,¹⁵ a famous incident in 1651 that was also recorded by Jan Asselijn (c. 1610-1652), for example in his painting in the Rijksmuseum (inv. no. SK-A-5030), Willem Schellinks (1627-1678) and Jacob Esselens (1626-1687).

Roghman apparently never married and from 1686 lived in Amsterdam’s Oudemannenhuis (Old Men’s Home). His last dated drawing is from 1657, but according to Houbraken, he continued to produce art well into his old age. He died on 3 January 1692 and was buried in the St Anthonis Kerkhof, Amsterdam.

Annemarie Stefes, 2018

References
A. Houbraken, De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen, 3 vols., Amsterdam 1718-21, I (1718), pp. 173-74; III (1721), p. 358; A. von Wurzbach, Niederländisches Künstlerlexikon, 3 vols., Vienna/Leipzig 1906-11, II (1910), p. 464; R. Juynboll, ‘Roelant Roghman’, in U. Thieme and F. Becker, Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler: Von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, 37 vols., Leipzig 1907-50, XXVIII (1934), p. 518, with earlier literature; W.T. Kloek, ‘Een berglandschap door Roelant Roghman’, Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 23 (1975), no. 2, pp. 100-01; F.W.H. Hollstein et al., Dutch and Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts, c. 1450-1700, 72 vols, Amsterdam and elsewhere 1947-2010, XX (1978), pp. 67-93; H. Gerson and B.W. Meijer (eds.), Ausbreitung und Nachwirkung der Holländischen Malerei des 17. Jahrhunderts, Amsterdam 1983 (rev. ed.; orig. ed. 1942), pp. 27, 49, 130, 186, 293, 307, 356, 403; W. Kloek and J.W. Niemeijer, De kasteeltekeningen van Roelant Roghman II, Alphen aan den Rijn 1990, pp. 1-14; W. Sumowski, Drawings of the Rembrandt School, 10 vols., New York 1979-92, X (1992), pp. 4989-5174; P. Groenendijk, Beknopt biografisch lexicon van Zuid- en Noord-Nederlandse schilders, graveurs, glasschilders, tapijtwevers et cetera van ca. 1350 tot ca. 1720, Utrecht 2008, p. 642

Entry

The present drawing is one of the earliest dated works by Roelant Roghman. Signed and dated 1646, this – his only known drawn view of Gouda – apparently served as either a kind of warm-up or by-product of his ambitious series of drawings of Dutch castles begun that very same year.¹⁶ Roghman could well have made a detour to Gouda during his first castle recording campaign near Leiden and Rotterdam. The handling of the chalk, combining broad and delicate strokes, displays the same precocious skill evident already in the castle drawings (e.g. inv. nos. RP-T-1888-A-1779 and RP-T-1891-A-2420). At the same time, the young artist apparently was still struggling with perspective, as can be seen in the slightly distorted rendering of the building.

The Gothic Town Hall of Gouda – built between 1448 and 1459 – is among the earliest extant Dutch town halls. In 1517-1518 it was renovated into the state that is memorialized in the present sheet and that survives to a large extent today. The grand entrance staircase was added in 1603 by Gregorius Cool (c. 1570-1629). Later renovation campaigns were undertaken in 1692-1697 and 1946-1952. Since 2012, the building is no longer in use as a town hall, but mostly as a civic wedding venue.

Roghman initially intended to introduce a large figure in the foreground, the outlines of which are still visible. He later abandoned this idea, leaving the building as the sole eye-catcher, with only a few chickens adding anecdotal interest to the scene.

Annemarie Stefes, 2018

Literature

A. Scheygrond (ed.), Het Stadhuis van Gouda. Een verzameling bijdragen, in het bijzonder gewijd aan de restauratie, 1947-1952, uitgegeven ter gelegenheid van de officiële heropening door H.M. Koningin Juliana op 18 Juli 1952, Gouda 1952, pp. 5, 115; M. Schapelhouman, Het beste bewaard. Een Amsterdamse verzameling en het ontstaan van de Vereniging Rembrandt, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksprentenkabinet) 1983, no. 80; W. Kloek and J.W. Niemeijer, De kasteeltekeningen van Roelant Roghman II, Alphen aan den Rijn 1990, pp. 16-18 (fig. 19); W. Sumowski, Drawings of the Rembrandt School, 10 vols., New York 1979-92, X (1992), p. 4991

Citation

A. Stefes, 2018, 'Roelant Roghman, View of the Town Hall, Gouda, Gouda, 1646', in J. Turner (ed.), Dutch Drawings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.60395

(accessed 15 November 2024 20:19:46).