Sketches of Ships and of a Man in Winter Clothing / recto: Return of the Duck Hunters

c. 1610 - c. 1615

Object data

graphite; recto: pen and brown ink, with watercolour, over traces of graphite; framing line in dark brown ink

height 169 mm × width 146 mm

Inscriptions

stamped on verso: lower left, with the mark of De Vos Jbzn (L. 1450); centre, with the mark of the museum (L. 2233)

Technical notes

watermark: Arms of Württemberg (fragment); similar to Heawood, no. 484 (Schieland, 1604)

Condition

Light brown stains; thin spots along the edges.

Provenance

…; sale, Jan Danser Nijman (1735-97, The Hague), Amsterdam (Ph. van der Schley et al.), 19 March 1798 sqq., Album O, no. I (‘Een Wintergezigt, men ziet op de voorgrond een Huisman, welke met een Korfje aan den Arm en een Byl op zyn Rug, over een Bruggetje loopt, voor hem gaat een ander met twee Ganzen, in 't verschiet ziet men een Dorp; zynde Meesterlyk geteekend, en dun met zapjes behandeld, door de Stomme van Kampen’), fl. 41, to Bernardus de Bosch II (1742-1816), Amsterdam;¹ his sale, Amsterdam (Ph. van der Schley et al.), 10 March 1817 sqq., Album E, no. 6 (‘Hendrik van Avercamp. Een wintergezigt, gestoffeerd met een landman, gaande over een vondel; breed en dun met de pen en sapverw, h. 6 5/8, br. 5 5/8 d.’ [16.8 x 14.3 cm]), fl. 60, to the dealer C.S. Roos, Amsterdam;² …; ? collection Johannes Andreas Jolles (1771-1848), Amsterdam;³ his sale, Amsterdam (J. de Vries et al.), 27 November 1848 sqq., Album C, no. 110 (‘H. Averkamp. Een Wintergezigt, gestoffeerd met dansers [sic], gaande over een vondel; natuurlijk voorgesteld’), fl. 19, to ‘De Vries’;⁴ …; ? sale, Gérard Leembruggen Jzn (1801-65, The Hague), Amsterdam (C.F. Roos et al.), 5 March 1866 sqq., no. 15 (‘Hendrik van Avercamp. Le retour des pêcheurs. A l’aquarelle. Coll. Jolles’), fl. 25, to ‘Engelberts’;⁵ …; collection, Jacob de Vos Jbzn (1803-78), Amsterdam (L. 1450); his sale, Amsterdam (C.F. Roos et al.), 22 May 1883 sqq., no. 6 (‘H. Averkamp. En Route pour le Marché. Paysage d'hiver avec deux paysans qui se suivent a peu de distance, l’un portant des oies, l’autre une corbeille. Effet de neige. Aquarelle. - Hauteur 17, largeur 14.5 cent.’), fl. 250, to Pieter Langerhuizen Lzn (1839-1918), ‘Crailoo’, near Bussum;⁶ his sale, Amsterdam (F. Muller), 29 April 1919 sqq., no. 15, fl. 540, to the museum (L. 2233)

Object number: RP-T-1919-30(V)

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 1585.⁷ 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’),⁸ 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’).⁹ Hendrick was buried on 15 May 1634 in the Bovenkerk (or St Nicolaaskerk) in Kampen.¹⁰

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

The two men represented on the recto of this sheet have evidently been successful in their foray to supplement their frugal winter rations with a brace of duck. Avercamp depicted another two fowlers laden with baskets, cages, axes and other gear in a drawing in the Fodor Collection, Amsterdam Museum (inv. no. TA 10104)¹¹, but there the hunt is yet to begin, for they have no game. There is a distinct possibility that the same models were used for both drawings, for although the men are seen from the back in this sheet and obliquely from the front in the other, there are clear resemblances between them. Avercamp probably composed his scenes from a large stock of life studies, and it is fair to assume that he drew many of his models from different angles.

This sheet is very similar in style to the View of a Country House with Sowers in the Field (inv. no. RP-T-1879-A-21) and probably dates from the same period, that is, circa 1610-15. It is drawn on paper with the same watermark as the museum’s Landscape with Houses and Two Windmills along a Road, with Three Fishermen in the Foreground (inv. no. RP-T-1887-A-1242), which is datable before 1620.

The sketches on the verso of the present sheet are so cursory that it is difficult to say whether they are also by Avercamp.

Marijn Schapelhouman, 1998

Literature

I. Blok, ‘Tentoonstelling van de aanwinsten van ’s Rijks Prentenkabinet’, Oude Kunst 4 (1918-19), p. 292, fig. I; H. Teding van Berkhout, Reproducties naar teekeningen van Oud-Hollandsche meesters in ‘s Rijks Prentenkabinet te Amsterdam, Amsterdam 1926, unnumbered fig.; M.D. Henkel, Le Dessin hollandais des origines au XVIIe siècle, Paris 1931, p. 106 and pl. XXI b; C.J. Welcker, Hendrick Avercamp (1585-1634), bijgenaamd ‘De Stomme van Campen’ en Barent Avercamp (1612-1679). ‘Schilders tot Campen’, Zwolle 1933, no. T 9; Hollandsche teekenkunst in de Gouden Eeuw, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksprentenkabinet) 1935, no. 23; E. Goldschmidt and F. Schmidt-Degener, Catalogue de l’exposition de Jérôme Bosch à Rembrandt: Dessins hollandais du XVIe au XVIIe siècle, exh. cat. Brussels (Palais des Beaux-Arts) 1937-38, no. 46, pl. XXXI; M.F. Hennus, ‘Hendrick Avercamp als tekenaar’, Maandblad voor beeldende kunsten 25 (1949), no. 2, p. 5, repr.; F. Lugt et al., La Vie en Hollande aux XVIIe siècle, exh. cat. Paris (Musée des Arts Décoratifs) 1967, no. 74, pl. 24; M. Schapelhouman, Tekeningen van Noord- en Zuidnederlandse kunstenaars geboren voor 1600, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1979 (Oude tekeningen in het bezit van de Gemeentemusea van Amsterdam waaronder de collectie Fodor, vol. 2), p. 13, under no. 2; 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 9; 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. 3; P. Roelofs et al., Hendrick Avercamp: Master of the Ice Scene, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum)/Washington (DC) (National Gallery of Art), 2009-10, p. 107 (fig. 132)

Citation

M. Schapelhouman, 1998, 'possibly Hendrick Avercamp, Sketches of Ships and of a Man in Winter Clothing / recto: Return of the Duck Hunters, c. 1610 - c. 1615', in J. Turner (ed.), Dutch Drawings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.27156

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