Mountain Landscape with a Bridge across a River

1704

Object data

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

height 133 mm × width 211 mm

Inscriptions

signed and dated: lower right, in black ink, J v der meer / de jonge f 1704
inscribed on verso: centre, in an eighteenth-century hand, in graphite, IA / ƒ 12-0-; lower left, in a late eighteenth- or early nineteenth-century hand, in pencil, ƒ 2160.16-/
stamped on verso: lower left, with the mark of the museum (L. 2233)

Technical notes

Watermark: Letters, I V

Provenance

...; ? collection Sybrand Feitama II (1694-1758), Amsterdam;¹ ? his sale, Amsterdam (B. de Bosch et al.), 16 October 1758 sqq., Album Q, no. 24 (‘[Jan van der Meer Ao. 1704] Een Fraay Ryngezicht met een Stad, en een Houtebruggetje op den voorgrond als de voorgaande [met Oostind. inkt]. 5 - 8 ¼ duim [129 x 212 mm]’), with one other drawing, fl. 25, to ‘Albrecht’;² ...; ? sale, Jan Danser Nijman (1735-1797, The Hague), Amsterdam (P. van der Schley et al.), 19 March 1798 sqq., Album L, no. 5 (‘Een Bergachtig Rhyngezicht; op de voorgrond gestoffeerd met Landlieden en verscheide Vee, verder een Brug over de Rivier, ter zyde hoog Gebergte met Woningen Geboomten en bezaide Landen; fraai en uitvoerig met de Pen en O:Inkt geteekent, door J. v der Meer de Jonge’), fl. 4:10:-, to ‘Delfos’;³ ...; ? sale, Cornelis Ploos van Amstel (1726-98, Amsterdam), Amsterdam (P. van der Schley et al.), 3 March 1800 sqq., Album L, one of a pair in no. 48 (‘Twee stuks Gezigten, aan den Rhyn; met dito [de Pen], door J. van der Meer, den Jongen’), fl. 16, to ‘Boddens’;⁴ ...; ? sale, Diederik Jan Singendonck (1784-1833, Utrecht), Utrecht (H. van Ommeren), 17 June 1834 sqq., Album A, no. 4 (‘Een rijngezigt, gestoffeerd met koeijen, met O.I. door J. van der Meer de Jonge’), fl. 9, to ‘Martens’;⁵ ...; donated by Cornelis Peter David Pape (1841-1922), The Hague, to the museum (L. 2233), 1918

Object number: RP-T-1918-420

Credit line: Gift of C.P.D. Pape

The artist

Jan van der Meer II (Haarlem 1656 - Haarlem 1705)

Jan van der Meer II was the eldest son of the Haarlem artist Jan Vermeer van Haarlem I (1628-1691) and Aeltje Bosvelt (1629-1691). His brother Barend van der Meer (1659-before 1703) was also a painter and specialized in still lifes. As early as 1751, Van Gool mentioned that Jan was trained by both his father and by Nicolaes Pietersz Berchem (1620/21-1683).⁶ His training with Berchem is usually situated in the early 1670s, when Berchem was living in Haarlem.⁷ Although some authors wrote that Jan travelled to Italy, possibly even with his brother Barend,⁸ and he frequently depicted Italianate landscapes, no journey to Italy is documented. His oeuvre does not offer clues for specific locations he may have visited (see also the present sheet). If he did travel, then he must have returned to Haarlem by 1683, when he became a member of both the Guild of St Luke and the De Wijngaardranken chamber of rhetoric. On 7 February of the same year he married Maria Dusart (1662-1730).⁹ She was the sister of the artist Cornelis Dusart (1660-1704), who apparently drew a now lost portrait of his brother-in-law bearing an inscription that confirms Jan’s date of birth and that he died on 23 May 1705.¹⁰ On 9 December 1700 Van der Meer’s possessions were sold due to bankruptcy.

In the past, the name Vermeer or Van der Meer caused a great deal of confusion, not only in relation to the famous Johannes Vermeer of Delft (1632-1675), but also regarding the Utrecht artist Johannes van der Meer (1630-1695/97) and the four subsequent generations of men called Johannes or Jan Vermeer or van der Meer within the same family in Haarlem. Their biographies were frequently mixed up.¹¹ Bredius thought Jan’s grandfather was also a painter and therefore referred to him as Jan Vermeer I (1601-1670).¹² Since any archival evidence is lacking to support this assumption, his son Jan is currently usually referred to as Jan Vermeer van Haarlem I (1628-1691).

The name Jan van der Meer II is used for the grandson Jan (1656-1705), given the way he often signed his drawings and paintings with his signature ‘J v der meer’ and the addition of ‘de jonge’ (the younger) and the date. Van der Meer mainly produced paintings and drawings with vast river landscapes or idyllic pastoral landscapes (usually with a somewhat Italianate character) that often include animals accompanied by one or more shepherds. His graphic oeuvre consists of four etchings, two depicting sheep and two with shepherds in landscapes.

Milou Goverde, 2019

References
J. van Gool, De nieuwe schouburg der Nederlantsche kunstschilders en schilderessen, 2 vols., The Hague 1750-51, II (1751), pp. 460-62; A.J. Dézallier d’Argenville, Abrégé de la vie des plus fameux peintres, 4 vols., Paris 1762, III, pp. 400-01; J. Immerzeel, De levens en werken der Hollandsche en Vlaamsche kunstschilders, 3 vols., Amsterdam 1842-43, II (1843), p. 210; A. van der Willigen, Les artistes de Harlem: Notices historiques avec un précis sur la Gilde de St. Luc, Haarlem/The Hague 1870, p. 221; A. von Wurzbach, Niederländisches Künstlerlexikon, 3 vols., Vienna/Leipzig 1906-11, II (1910), p. 128; U. Thieme and F. Becker, Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler: Von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, 37 vols., Leipzig 1907-50, XXXIV (1940), p. 263 (entry by E. Trautscholdt); F.W.H. Hollstein et al., Dutch and Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts, c. 1450-1700, 72 vols., Amsterdam and elsewhere 1947-2010, XIV (1956), pp. 1-3; W.L. Strauss (ed.), The Illustrated Bartsch, New York and elsewhere 1978-, I (1978), pp. 238-39; H. Miedema, De archiefbescheiden van het St. Lukasgilde te Haarlem, 1497-1789, 2 vols., Alphen aan den Rijn 1980, II, pp. 701, 746, 933, 947, 1036; G. Weber, ‘Antoine Dézallier d’Argenville und fünf Künstler namens Jan van der Meer’, Oud Holland 107 (1993), no. 3, pp. 298-304; P. Biesboer and N. Köhler (eds.), Painting in Haarlem, 1500-1850: The Collection of the Frans Hals Museum, coll. cat. Haarlem 2006, pp. 321-22 (entry by I. van Thiel-Stroman); Th. Vignau-Wilberg, ‘Jan van der Meer der Jüngere. Südliche Hügellandschaft’, in A. Czére (ed.), In Arte Venustas: Studies on Drawings in Honour of Teréz Gerszi: Presented on her Eightieth Birthday, Budapest 2007, pp. 199-200; 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. 772; E. Buijsen, with G. Broersma, The Young Vermeer, exh. cat. The Hague (Mauritshuis)/Dresden (Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister/Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden)/Edinburgh (National Gallery of Scotland) 2010-11, p. 75

Entry

From at least as early as 1686, Jan van der Meer II drew vast mountainous river landscapes that in eighteenth-century sale catalogues were described as Rhine landscapes, for instance the Mountainous River Landscape, dated that year, which in 2003 appeared on the Amsterdam art market.¹³ However, no journey along the Rhine is documented for Van der Meer, nor does the present scene have much in common with the Rhine views of other artists. Compare, for example, the museum’s drawing by Herman Saftleven (1609-1685) of a Rhine Landscape near Drachenfels (inv. no. RP-T-1885-A-463). There are also some topographical similarities to French views along the Seine Valley by Gabriel Perelle (1604-1677), such as the View of Saint-Cloud from the South, of circa 1660, in the Frits Lugt Collection, Fondation Custodia, Paris (inv. no. 4905-116).¹⁴ It is most likely that the present sheet was made as an imaginary view rather than as an accurate record of an actual topographical site.

Such impressive river landscapes apparently appealed to contemporary collectors, which may explain the relatively high number of drawings of this kind produced by Van der Meer at the end of his career. Other examples from 1704 (the year before his death) include a sheet preserved in the Klassik Stiftung Weimar (inv. no. KK 5563) and others recently on the art market in Amsterdam in 1981 ¹⁵ and 1998;¹⁶ in Haarlem in 2017;¹⁷ and in The Hague in 2018.¹⁸ Van der Meer’s rather repetitive output makes it difficult to identify specific drawings in eighteenth-century sale catalogues. Most of the references to possible sales proposed in the above provenance do not match in all respects. However, those that mention a date of 1704 (Feitama), are amply described (Nijman) or were sold for a price that corresponds to one of the inscriptions (Ploos van Amstel) deserve serious consideration.

Annemarie Stefes, 2018

Citation

A. Stefes, 2018, 'Jan van der (II) Meer, Mountain Landscape with a Bridge across a River, 1704', in J. Turner (ed.), Dutch Drawings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.55810

(accessed 6 January 2025 07:59:49).