View in the Haagse Bos

The Hague, c. 1650

Object data

black chalk, with grey wash; later additions in point of brush and grey ink; framing line in black ink

height 211 mm × width 299 mm

Inscriptions

inscribed: upper left (on an added piece of paper), in a seventeenth-century hand (possibly that of the artist), in red chalk, Haagsche bos
inscribed on verso: centre, in pencil, in a nineteenth-century hand, 6; lower right, in pencil (partially effaced), m/52- (?)
stamped on verso: lower left, with the mark of Pitcairn Knowles (L. 2643); lower centre, with the mark of the museum (L. 2228)

Technical notes

Watermark: Fragment of foolscap (on the attached piece of paper)

Provenance

…; collection William Pitcairn Knowles (1820-94), Rotterdam and Wiesbaden (L. 2643); his sale, Amsterdam (F. Muller), 25 June 1895 sqq., no. 545, with one other drawing, fl. 2 for both, to the dealer F. Muller, Amsterdam;¹ …; sale, Willem Frederik Piek (1838-1916, Oudshoorn), Amsterdam (F. Muller), 1 June 1897 sqq., no. 199, with one other drawing, fl. 12.50 for both, to ‘PKA’;² …; sale, Anna Johanna Suzanna van Kinschot-Luden (1824-1897, Amsterdam), Amsterdam (F. Muller), 31 January 1899 sqq., no. 666, with inv. no. RP-T-1899-A-4241, fl. 18 for both, to the dealer H.J Valk, Amsterdam;³ from whom, with inv. no. RP-T-1899-A-4241, fl. 20.70 for both, to the museum (L. 2228), 1899

Object number: RP-T-1899-A-4242

Context

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

This is a view in the forest known as the Haagse Bos, as is apparent from the inscription in red chalk, Haagse bos, which may have been written by the artist himself. The woods near The Hague are also the subject of inv. no. RP-T-1899-A-4241, a drawing with which the present sheet has long been paired, and which entered the museum at the same time. Given the loose, summary execution of both drawings, they must have been done on the spot, with the wash possibly added later in the studio.

There is a close connection with Roghman’s set of six etchings and engravings entitled Verscheyde Ghesichten in ‘t Haesche Bos na ‘t Leven geteyckent door Roelant Rogman (‘Views in the Haagse Bos drawn from life’),¹⁶ though neither the present sheet nor inv. no. RP-T-1899-A-4241 corresponds precisely with any of the prints. However, since the chalk sketches are of roughly the same format as the prints (c. 225 x 265 mm) and the choice of subject-matter is related, they may have served as the starting-point for the etched series or may have been considered (and then abandoned) for additional scenes to be circulated in print. The only known direct preparatory drawing for this series is a pen-and-ink-and-wash drawing of similar size (202 x 263 mm) in the Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg (inv. no. 22430),¹⁷ a study for the print in the same direction (e.g. RP-P-1886-A-11355).¹⁸ Since the print series was revised in a second state by Pieter Nolpe (1613/14-1652/53), this provides a terminus ante quem of 1652-1653 for the original etchings. The extant and lost original preliminary drawings – and thus the pair of Rijksmuseum drawings – presumably date from slightly earlier.

For unknown reasons, Roghman extended the present drawing with a 43 mm-high paper strip along the upper edge. Such a practice is generally used only when an artist runs out of room for a particular motif, but in this case the addition may have had to do with the wish for a squarer format, as in the print series. For two examples of oblong drawings by Roghman similarly enlarged at the top, see the Panoramic Landscape with Three Travellers near a Pond and Panoramic Landscape with Tall Trees and Cottages near a Pond, both in the Kupferstich-Kabinett, Dresden (inv. nos. C 1776 and C 1777).¹⁹

Annemarie Stefes, 2018

Literature

M. Schapelhouman and P. Schatborn, Land & water. Hollandse tekeningen uit de 17de eeuw in het Rijksprentenkabinet/Land & Water: Dutch Drawings from the 17th Century in the Rijksmuseum Print Room, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksprentenkabinet) 1987, n.p., under no. 52; W. Kloek and J.W. Niemeijer, De kasteeltekeningen van Roelant Roghman II, Alphen aan den Rijn 1990, p. 38 (n. 47); H.-U. Beck, ‘Netherlandish Drawings in the Städtische Kunstsammlungen, Augsburg’, Master Drawings 39 (2001), no. 4, p. 401; P. Schatborn, Rembrandt and his Circle: Drawings in the Frits Lugt Collection, 2 vols., coll. cat. Paris 2010, I, p. 359, II, fig. 76; A. Stefes, Niederländische Zeichnungen, 1450-1800, 3 vols., coll. cat. Hamburg 2011 (Die Sammlungen der Hamburger Kunsthalle, Kupferstichkabinett vol. 2), II, p. 469, under no. 868 (n. 2)

Citation

A. Stefes, 2018, 'Roelant Roghman, View in the Haagse Bos, The Hague, c. 1650', in J. Turner (ed.), Dutch Drawings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.59898

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