Object data
pen and dark brown ink, on brown paper; framing line in dark brown ink
height 190 mm × width 279 mm
Hendrick Avercamp (possibly)
Evening Landscape with Fishermen
1624
Inscriptions
Technical notes
watermark: bird atop three mounds, within a circle, with letters IV; similar to Heawood, nos. 161-69
Condition
Laid down
Provenance
…; sale, Dr Nicolaas Beets (1878-1963, Amsterdam), Amsterdam (F. Muller), 9 April 1940 sqq., no. 94 (‘Maître hollandais du XVIIe siècle. Paysage riverain. Daté: 1624. Plume sur papier brun. - Haut. 19, larg. 28 cent’), fl. 65, to the dealer Jacob Herman Jan Mellaart (1895-1972), Blaricum, London, The Hague, Kasteel Borgharen, Mheer (Margraten);1 from whom, fl. 65, to the museum (L. 2228), with support from the F.G. Wallerfonds (L. 2760), 1940
Object number: RP-T-1940-586
Credit line: Purchase, with the support of the F.G. Waller-Fonds
Copyright: Public domain
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 1585.2 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’),3 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’).4 Hendrick was buried on 15 May 1634 in the Bovenkerk (or St Nicolaaskerk) in Kampen.5
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
In the right middle ground is a ‘standing’ fishing net that was erected vertically in the water and was reeled in using a block and tackle. The low sun, just above the horizon at left, casts long shadows over water and land.
This evening scene is exceptional in Avercamp’s oeuvre. It is the only known drawing to be done with the pen alone, which was enough to raise some slight doubts in Welcker’s mind. ‘The attribution may be correct’, she wrote in her Avercamp monograph of 1933. In the revised edition, by Hensbroek-van der Poel (1979), the sentence was removed, and rightly so, it seems to me.6 In the rendering of the figures, the mise en sce`ne and the use of dense, zigzag hatching for the reflections in the water, the drawing is closely related to the Moonlit River Landscape with Fishermen in the museum (inv. no. RP-T-1948-397). The date ‘1624’ is written in the same shade of ink as the rest of the drawing and thus appears completely trustworthy.
Marijn Schapelhouman, 1998
Literature
C.J. Welcker, Hendrick Avercamp (1585-1634), bijgenaamd ‘De Stomme van Campen’ en Barent Avercamp (1612-1679). ‘Schilders tot Campen’, Zwolle 1933, no. T 5; M.F. Hennus, ‘Hendrick Avercamp als tekenaar’, Maandblad voor beeldende kunsten 25 (1949), no. 2, p. 3 (repr.); R. Boddeke, Elk vist op zijn getij, 25 tekeningen uit de 17de, 18de en 19de eeuw, Utrecht n.d. [1962], no. 6 (repr.); 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 5; 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. 11; P. Roelofs et al., Hendrick Avercamp: Master of the Ice Scene, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum)/Washington (DC) (National Gallery of Art), 2009-10, pp. 116-17 (figs. 144-46)
Citation
M. Schapelhouman, 1998, 'possibly Hendrick Avercamp, Evening Landscape with Fishermen, 1624 - in or after 1624', in J. Turner (ed.), Dutch Drawings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.27101
(accessed 10 November 2024 01:00:23).