A Fisherman Hauling in his Net

c. 1625 - c. 1630

Object data

pen and brown and grey ink, with transparent and opaque watercolour, over traces of graphite or black chalk; framing line in black ink

height 145 mm × width 195 mm

Inscriptions

monogrammed: lower right, in grey ink, HA (in ligature)
inscribed on verso of mount: upper left, possibly in a nineteenth-century hand, in pencil, 105; centre left, by Röver, in brown ink, 7/18 (L. 2984a-c); lower left, by Johann Edler Goll van Franckenstein, in red ink, N 3030 (L. 2987)
stamped on verso of mount: centre (twice), with the mark of the museum (L. 2233); lower right, with the mark of Langerhuizen Lzn (L. 2095)

Technical notes

watermark: none visible through lining

Condition

Creases and thin spots in the paper, laid down on cartridge paper

Provenance

…; collection Valerius Röver (1686-1739), Delft (L. 2984a-c), by 1731;¹ his widow, Cornelia Röver-van der Dussen (1689-1762), Delft; from whom, en bloc, fl. 20,500, through the mediation of the dealer H. de Leth, Amsterdam, to Johann Edler Goll von Franckenstein (1722-85), Amsterdam and Velzen (L. 2987), 1761;² ? his son, Jonkheer Johan Goll van Franckenstein (1756-1821), Amsterdam; ? his son, Jonkheer Pieter Hendrik Goll van Franckenstein (1787-1832), Amsterdam; …; ? anonymous sale, Amsterdam (C.S. Roos et al.), 1 March 1819 sqq., Album N, no. 1 (‘Een Riviergezigt, met Visschers en Vaartuigen; uitvoerig met de pen en sapverwen, door H. Averkamp, bijgenaamd de Stomme van Kampen’), fl. 10, to ‘A. Vries’; …; collection Pieter Langerhuizen Lzn (1839-1918) ‘Crailoo' near Bussum (L. 2095); his sale, Amsterdam (F. Muller), 29 April 1919 sqq., no. 13 (‘Hendrick Avercamp. Le Pêcheur [...] Gouache. - Hauteur 14.5, largeur 19.5 centimètres’), fl. 200, to the museum (L. 2233), with a contribution from the P. Langerhuizen Bequest

Object number: RP-T-1919-29

Credit line: Purchased with funds from the bequest of P. Langerhuizen

The artist

Hendrick Avercamp (Amsterdam 1585 – Kampen 1634)

The eldest son of the apothecary Barent Hendricksz Avercamp (1557-1602) and Beatrix Peters Vekemans (c. 1563-1633), he was baptized in the Oude Kerk in Amsterdam on 27 January 1585.³ In 1586 his father became the town apothecary of Kampen, and the family moved there. Hendrick has long been assumed to have been deaf and mute from birth, since he was commonly known as ‘de Stom’ or ‘de Stomme’ (‘the Mute’). Because one of the buyers at the 1607 studio sale of Pieter Isaacsz (1568-1625) in Amsterdam is mentioned as ‘de stom tot Pieter Isacqs’ (‘the mute at Pieter Isaacz’s’),⁴ it is thought that Avercamp was sent to Amsterdam to live and study with the history and portrait painter Pieter Isaacsz, who returned to his native Denmark in that year. By January 1613, but probably earlier, Avercamp must have returned to Kampen, where he remained for the rest of his life. Shortly before his mother died, she expressed in her will her concern about her unmarried eldest son, Hendrick, who she called ‘stom en miserable’ (‘mute and wretched’).⁵ Hendrick was buried on 15 May 1634 in the Bovenkerk (or St Nicolaaskerk) in Kampen.⁶

Avercamp painted and drew mainly winter scenes, which in the seventeenth century were called ‘wintertjes’. His early paintings, executed in 1608 and 1609, show the influence of Flemish landscape painters, such as Hans Bol (1534-1593), Gillis van Coninxloo (1544-1607) and David Vinckboons I (1576-1631/33), and a strong interest in narrative details in the tradition of Pieter Bruegel I (c. 1528-1569). The Flemish influence became less noticeable in his later works, with the horizon lines being lower and the perspective more natural. Although best known for his winter landscape paintings, he also drew and painted some summer and river landscapes.

Hendrick Avercamp was a prolific draughtsman, who worked mostly in pen, chalk and watercolour, creating figure studies that were recycled repeatedly in his paintings, as well as fully worked-out drawings as detailed as his paintings. The latter works were probably intended for sale. Paintings by artists such as Arent Arentsz (1585/86-1631), Adam van Breen (c. 1585-after 1642), Antonie Verstralen (c. 1594-1641) and Hendrick’s nephew Barent Avercamp (1612/13-1679) strongly resemble his work, but it is unclear whether those artists were taught by him or simply imitated his work.

Jan-Piet Filedt Kok, 2007

REFERENCES
E. Bénézit, ‘Hendrick Avercamp’, in U. Thieme and F. Becker, Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, 37 vols., Leipzig 1907-50, II (1908), pp. 276-77; C.J. Welcker, Hendrick Avercamp (1585-1634), bijgenaamd ‘De Stomme van Campen’ en Barent Avercamp (1612-1679). ‘Schilders tot Campen’, Zwolle 1933, pp. 33-71; C.J. Welcker and D.J. Hensbroek-van der Poel, Hendrick Avercamp (1585-1634), bijgenaamd ‘De Stomme van Campen’ en Barent Avercamp (1612-1679). ‘Schilders tot Campen’, Doornspijk 1979, pp. 33-71; A. Blankert, Hendrick Avercamp (1585-1634), Barent Avercamp (1612-1679): Frozen Silence: Paintings from Museums and Private Collections, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Waterman Gallery)/Zwolle (Provinciehuis Overijssel) 1982-83, pp. 15-36; D.J. Hensbroek-van der Poel, ‘Hendrick Avercamp’, in Saur Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon: Die bildenden Künstler aller Zeiten und Völker, 94 vols., Munich 1992-, V (1992), pp. 728-29; D.J. Hensbroek-van der Poel, ‘Avercamp Family’, in J. Turner (ed.), The Dictionary of Art, 34 vols., London/New York 1996, II, pp. 854-55; J. Bikker, ‘Hendrick Avercamp: “The Mute of Kampen”, in P. Roelofs et al., Hendrick Avercamp: Master of the Ice Scene, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum)/Washington (DC) (National Gallery of Art) 2009-10, pp. 11-21

Entry

Avercamp gave the old, white-bearded fisherman with his thigh boots an imposing monumentality by viewing him from below and allowing him to dominate the picture space. The anecdotal details that are usually so prominent in the artist’s drawings have been reduced to a minimum and literally pushed into the background. This makes the sheet exceptional in Avercamp’s known oeuvre. From the point of view of style and technique, it has all the hallmarks of his late period.

The same fisherman, though with red hair, appears in a single figure study in the Muse´es Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Brussels, in the same pose, but in reverse (inv. no. 4060 / 95).⁷ One would have to place the originals side by side to be certain, but – given the fact that the figures are absolutely identical in size – it very much appears that one is based on an offset of the other, although at present it is impossible to say which was which.

Marijn Schapelhouman, 1998

Literature

Tentoonstelling van teekeningen van oude meesters, exh. cat. Leiden (Stedelijk Museum De Lakenhal) 1902, no. 1; I. Blok, ‘Tentoonstelling van de aanwinsten van ’s Rijks Prentenkabinet’, Oude Kunst 4 (1918-19), pp. 292-96 (esp. p. 292); C.J. Welcker, Hendrick Avercamp (1585-1634), bijgenaamd ‘De Stomme van Campen’ en Barent Avercamp (1612-1679). ‘Schilders tot Campen’, Zwolle 1933, no. T 8; Hollandsche teekenkunst in de Gouden Eeuw, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksprentenkabinet) 1935, no. 27; C.J. Welcker and D.J. Hensbroek-van der Poel, Hendrick Avercamp (1585-1634), bijgenaamd ‘De Stomme van Campen’ en Barent Avercamp (1612-1679). ‘Schilders tot Campen’, Doornspijk 1979, no. T 8; M. Schapelhouman and P. Schatborn, Dutch Drawings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam: Artists Born between 1580 and 1600, 2 vols., coll. cat. Amsterdam 1998, no. 17; S. Hautekeete, Tekeningen uit de Gouden Eeuw in de verzameling Jean de Grez, exh. cat. Brussels (Koninklijke Musea voor Schone Kunsten van België)/Amsterdam (Museum Het Rembrandthuis)/Aachen (Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum) 2007-08, pp. 60-61 under no. 17 (fig. 1); P. Roelofs et al., Hendrick Avercamp: Master of the Ice Scene, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum)/Washington (DC) (National Gallery of Art), 2009-10, p. 96 (fig. 121)

Citation

M. Schapelhouman, 1998, 'Hendrick Avercamp, A Fisherman Hauling in his Net, c. 1625 - c. 1630', in J. Turner (ed.), Dutch Drawings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.27152

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