Women Bathing in a Landscape

Dirck van der Lisse (The Hague 1607 – The Hague 1669)

He was the seventh child of Abraham Claesz van der Lisse (c. 1575-1635) and Dirckie Dircx van Swieten (?-before 1626). Dirck grew up in The Hague and likely received his initial training there. He moved to Utrecht around 1625 for additional training.¹ According to Arnold Houbraken (1660-1719), Van der Lisse was apprenticed to Cornelis van Poelenburch (1594/95-1667), but he possibly also worked in the workshop of Abraham Bloemaert (1566-1651).² In 1635, he was commissioned together with Abraham Bloemaert and Herman Saftleven (1609-1685) to produce paintings related to Il pastor fido, an Arcadian tragicomedy from Giovanni Battista Guarini (1538-1612). The paintings were hung in Huis Honselaarsdijk, a palace near The Hague and were presumably commissioned by either Stadholder Frederik Hendrik, Prince of Orange (1584-1647) or his wife, Amalia van Solms (1602-1675).³

Thanks to two advantageous marriages, Van der Lisse moved within the highest social circles in The Hague. In 1639, he married Anna Petronella van der Houve (c. 1619-1646), daughter of the wealthy lawyer Matthijs van der Houve(n) (1578-1638), Lord of Kampen. The couple lived in Utrecht and later in Amsterdam. In 1644 they settled permanently in The Hague, where Van der Lisse enrolled in the city’s guild in that year and became the guild’s dean one year later. The couple had four children, two daughters and two sons, both of whom died early. In 1648, two years after the death of his first wife, he married Maria Both van der Eem (c. 1627-?), daughter of the deputy clerk of the Supreme Court of Holland. They had two children, of whom only one daughter, Eleonora, reached adulthood. The three surviving daughters married into prominent families and maintained their high social standing.⁴

Later in his life, Van der Lisse began a political career in The Hague, serving as an alderman (1654), a member of the city council (1656) and eventually as the mayor (1659). He was also involved with several charitable organizations. Together with fellow artists Adriaen van de Venne (1589-1662), Jacob van der Does I (1623-1673), and Joris van der Haagen (1615-1669), he founded the artist society called the Confrerie Pictura. Van der Lisse died in The Hague in January 1669.⁵ His estate inventory of 7 February 1669 reveals an extensive collection of art objects, paintings, drawings, supplies and contacts with art organizations of The Hague.⁶

Van der Lisse was renowned for his Italianate landscapes with mythological and biblical figures. His paintings are close in style to the early works of his teacher Poelenburch, which he sometimes copied directly. However, his colour use is distinctive.⁷ He made large numbers of preparatory chalk studies of nudes, as well as finished watercolours, of which a large number still exist in the Kupferstich-Kabinett in Dresden.⁸

Carolyn Mensing, 2020

References
A. Houbraken, De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen, 3 vols., Amsterdam 1718-21, I (1718), p. 244 (as: Dirk van der Lis); U. Thieme and F. Becker, Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler: Von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, 37 vols., Leipzig 1907-50, XXIII (1929), pp. 287-88; Christopher Brown, Masters of Light: Dutch Painters in Utrecht during the Golden Age, exh. cat. San Francisco (Fine Arts Museums)/Baltimore (Walters Art Gallery)/London (National Gallery) 1997-98, pp. 384-85; L.J. Wassink, ‘Lisse, Dirck van der’, in J. Turner (ed.), The Dictionary of Art, 34 vols., London/New York 1996, XIX, pp. 473-74; E. Buijsen (ed.), Haagse schilders in de Gouden Eeuw. Het Hoogsteder Lexicon van alle schilders werkzaam in Den Haag, 1600-1700, Zwolle 1998, pp. 195-99 and 325; Saur Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon: Die bildenden Künstler aller Zeiten und Völker, 94 vols., Munich 1992-, LXXXV (2015), p. 57; M. Plomp, ‘Drawings by Dirck van der Lisse in Dresden: New Light on a Special Poelenburch Pupil’, Master Drawings 58 (2020), no. 4, pp. 441-92