Rijksmuseum

Object data

black chalk, with grey and brown wash, over graphite, on light-brown coloured paper

height 200 mm × width 293 mm

Inscriptions

falsely signed and dated: lower right, in black chalk, CSL 1649
inscribed on verso: lower centre, in a nineteenth-century hand, in pencil, C. Saftleven; lower left corner, in pencil, d J / S o c -: ; lower right corner, in black ink, 327
stamped on verso: lower left, with the mark of (L. 2643); lower left, with the mark of the museum (L. 2228)

Technical notes

watermark: VI (countermark?)

Provenance

…; sale, Amsterdam (F. Muller), 10 January 1904, no. 327, together with 133 other drawings, fl. 1000 for all, through the mediation of the dealer J. H. Odink, with the support of the Vereniging Rembrandt, to the museum (L. 2228), 1905

Object number: RP-T-1905-94

Credit line: Purchased with the support of the Vereniging Rembrandt

The artist

Cornelis Saftleven (Gorinchem, 1606 – Rotterdam, 1681)

The son of the Rotterdam artist Herman Saftleven I (c. 1580-1627) and Lijntge Cornelisdr Moelants (d. 1625), he was trained by his father together with two of his brothers, Herman Saftleven (1609-1685) and Abraham Safleven (b. 1613). He likely stayed in Antwerp between 1632 and 1634, where Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) painted figures in some of his paintings.¹ For a short period of time in the 1630s, he stayed with his brother Herman in Utrecht.²

Except for these few trips, Cornelis Saftleven stayed in Rotterdam. In 1640, he lived in the Lombardstraat and from 1648-1681 on the Franse Water.³ On 18 November 1648, he married Catharina Dircx van der Heyden (d. 1654). After she passed away, on 29 September 1655, he married Elisabeth Melchiors van Avont (1619-1695). It appears he remained childless. In 1667, he became the dean of the Guild of St Luke in Rotterdam.⁴

Cornelis Saftleven was a versatile artist who produced paintings and drawings on a large variety of topics: peasant scenes, rural interiors, landscapes, cattle scenes, biblical and mythological themes, images of hell, allegories, satires and illustrations of proverbs. About 200 paintings and 500 drawings (probably a fraction of his output) have been documented.⁵ In his drawings, he worked mainly in black chalk and sometimes finished his sheets with grey wash. Occasionally, he drew on toned papers. His characteristic monogram – combining the letters ‘C, S and L’ – and a date can be found on his several of his drawings. Perhaps he made these for the market. Stylistically, he was influenced by the landscape drawings of Roelant Rogman (1627-1692), the animal drawings of Roelant Savery (1576-1639), Frans Snijders (1579-1657) and Aelbert Cuyp (1620-1691), and the figure studies of Gabriel Metsu (1629-1667).⁶

Saftleven was buried on 5 June 1681 in the French Protestant Church in Rotterdam.⁷

Carolyn Mensing, 2020

References
A. Houbraken, De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen, 3 vols., Amsterdam 1718-21, I (1718), pp. 342-43 (as: Kornelis Zachtleven); C. Hofstede de Groot, ‘Een spotteekening van Cornelis Saftleven op de Dordtsche Synode’, Oud-Holland 15 (1897), pp. 121-23; A. von Wurzbach, Niederländisches Künstlerlexikon, 3 vols., Vienna/Leipzig 1906-11, II (1910), p. 548; N. Alting Mees, ‘Aanteekeningen over oud-Rotterdamsche kunstenaars III’, Oud-Holland 31 (1913), pp. 241-68, 255-59; U. Thieme and F. Becker, Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler: Von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, 37 vols., Leipzig 1907-50, XXIX (1935), p. 309; B.J.A. Renckens, ‘Enkele notities bij vroege werken van Cornelis Saftleven’, Bulletin Museum Boymans-van Beuningen 13 (1962), pp. 59-74; A. Zwollo, ‘Een “Cornelis Saftleven” per brief’, Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek 38 (1987), pp. 402-06; W. Schulz, Cornelis Saftleven (1607-1685): Leben und Werke, mit einem kritischen Katalog der Gemälde und Zeichnungen, Berlin 1978; N. Schadee, Rotterdamse meesters uit de gouden eeuw, exh. cat. Rotterdam (Historisch Museum) 1994-95, pp. 295-96; RKD artists https://rkd.nl/artists/69245

Entry

Saftleven made several drawings of bears. The British Museum’s collection includes two beautiful examples (inv. nos. 1836,0811.505 and 1880,0214.27). Closer in style to the present sheet is a drawing of a bear in different postures at the Amsterdam Museum (inv. no. TA 10309). Here, the artist applied his monogram twice alongside each bear.

Of the present composition, there are two other versions: one in the Amsterdam Museum (inv. no. TA 10308) and one in the Maida and George Abrams collection, Boston.⁸

The sheets are all dated 1649, either on the recto or the verso, and are executed in black chalk with grey and black wash. The animal in the other two sheets has a ring in its nose. The sheet in the Abrams Collection is worked up with a little pink and green watercolour, and there are also touches of colour in the Amsterdam Museum sheet. Of the three drawings, the Rijksmuseum sheet is the least impressive. The lines and modelling of the fur are cruder and lack the spontaneity of the other sheets. Furthermore, the initials of the monogram do not appear autograph. One wonders whether the Rijksmuseum sheet is a copy after one of the other two sheets.

Carolyn Mensing, 2020

Literature

W. Schulz, Cornelis Saftleven (1607-1685): Leben und Werke, mit einem kritischen Katalog der Gemälde und Zeichnungen, Berlin 1978, p. 124, no. 239 (as Cornelis Saftleven); W.W. Robinson, Seventeenth-century Dutch Drawings: A Selection from the Maida and George Abrams Collection, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksprentenkabinet)/Vienna (Graphische Sammlung Albertina)/New York (Pierpont Morgan Library)/Cambridge (MA) (Fogg Art Museum) 1991-92, p. 160, under no. 71

Citation

C. Mensing, 2020, 'copy after Cornelis Saftleven, _, c. 1649', in J. Turner (ed.), _(under construction) Drawings 2, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200143949

(accessed 12 December 2025 01:24:04).

Bear Tied to a Tree