Rijksmuseum

Object data

pen and brown and black ink, with grey wash; later additions in pen and black ink and dark-grey wash; framing line in brown ink (upper, left and right edges) and black ink (bottom edge)

height 170 mm × width 297 mm

Inscriptions

dated: lower right, in brown ink, geteekent de : 3 / 15 (date expressed as a fraction, month over day) / : 167 [2] / tot Den nieuwenhoorn
inscribed on verso, in graphite: lower left, Nieuwen Hoorn 1672 / Ni […]; next to that, Klotz 2007; lower right, B. Klotz
stamped on verso: lower left corner, with the mark of Pitcairn Knowles (L. 2643); lower centre, with the mark of the museum (L. 2228)

Technical notes

watermark: none

Provenance

…; collection William Pitcairn Knowles (1820-94), Rotterdam and Wiesbaden (L. 2643); his sale, Amsterdam (F. Muller), 25-26 June 1895, no. 361, fl. 23, to H.J. Valk for the Vereniging Rembrandt, Amsterdam;¹ from whom, fl. 26:45:-, to the museum (L. 2228), 1899 (as Valentijn Klotz)²

Object number: RP-T-1899-A-4281

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

In the spring of 1672, Barend and Valentijn Klotz (c. 1646-1721) made various trips around Voorne, an island in the province of Zuid-Holland between the North Sea, the narrow lake known as the Brielse Meer and the rivers Oude Maas, Spui and Haringvliet. Both artists drew views of the village of Nieuwenhoorn in the region; a drawing by Valentijn Klotz, made on the same day, is in the collection of the Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterloo (inv. no. KM 109.359).⁸ Valentijn drew the village from the same road, but more from the right, and included a view of the church and the surrounding houses. Another drawing of Nieuwenhoorn by Valentijn Klotz, dated 24 March that year, is in the Groninger Museum, Groningen (inv. no. 1919.0427).

The present drawing was made three days after a signed sheet by Barend Klotz, also in the Rijksmuseum’s collection (inv. no. RP-T-00-736). The towns are 66 kilometers apart, which seems quite a distance to cover by foot or horse in three days. Perhaps he traveled by tow barge, as both towns lay along the Haringvliet.

The present sheet and the drawing in the Kröller-Müller Museum are, except for the handwriting, extremely similar in execution. The Rijksmuseum sheet includes the word ‘geteekent’, using an old-fashioned ‘e’, which looks like an ‘o’ with a loop through its centre – a style typically found on Barend’s drawings. By contrast, Valentijn mainly used the modern ‘e’ in his inscriptions and his handwriting is less calligraphic and more straightforward. Based on these observations, the present sheet is here attributed to Barend Klotz.

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. 361 (as Valentijn Klotz)

Citation

C. Mensing, 2020, 'attributed to Barend Klotz, View of the Village of Nieuwenhoorn, Zuid-Holland, Nieuwenhoorn, 1672-03-15', in J. Turner (ed.), Dutch Drawings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.54212

(accessed 23 September 2024 11:21:45).