Object data
watercolour, with opaque watercolour (?)
height 315 mm × width 206 mm
Pieter Withoos (possibly)
c. 1674 - c. 1692
Inscriptions
-
inscribed: lower right, in brown ink, (7
Technical notes
watermark: countermark with letters P B
Provenance
…; purchased with the support of the F.G. Waller-Fonds by the museum, 1951
Object number: RP-T-1951-330
Credit line: Purchased with the support of the F.G. Waller-Fonds
Copyright: Public domain
The artist
Pieter Withoos (Amersfoort 1654/55 - Amsterdam 1692)
He was the son of the Amersfoort painter Matthias Withoos (1627-1703) and Wendelina van Hoorn (1618-c. 1680). He and several of his siblings were trained by their father.1 The family moved to Hoorn in 1672, but Pieter returned to Amersfoort one year later. He married Maria van Oldebarnevelt (?-?), the daughter of a prominent Amersfoort family.2 In Amersfoort, Pieter cleaned the paintings that hung in the town hall.
Pieter and his family moved to the Nieuwstraat in Utrecht around 1686.3 According to Houbraken, Pieter painted flowers and animals in watercolour that were bound in albums, just like his father.4 Pieter and his sister Alida Withoos (1661-1730) were invited by Agnes Block (1629-1704) to draw and paint the flowers and birds in the garden of her estate ‘Vijverhof’ in Loenen aan de Vecht, near Utrecht. It is likely that he stayed there in 1687, the same year as his sister. Pieter made several contributions to Block’s ‘bloemenboeken’ (flower albums) and was the main contributor to her ‘Vogelboek’ (Book of birds).5 Later in his life, Pieter moved to Amsterdam and died there on 23 April 1692.
Carolyn Mensing, 2020
References
A. Houbraken, De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen, 3 vols., Amsterdam 1718-21, II (1719), p. 189; A. von Wurzbach, Niederländisches Künstlerlexikon, 3 vols., Vienna/Leipzig 1906-11, III (1911), p. 893; U. Thieme and F. Becker, Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler: Von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, 37 vols., Leipzig 1907-50, XXXVI (1947), p. 117; A. van der Willigen and F.G. Meijer, A Dictionary of Dutch and Flemish Still-life Painters Working in Oils, 1525-1725, Leiden 2003, p. 222; M.W. Heijenga-Klomp, ‘Matthias Withoos (ca. 1627-1703) en zijn kinderen. Een Amersfoortse schildersfamilie’, Flehite, Historisch Jaarboek voor Amersfoort en omstreken (2005), pp. 124-28
Entry
Compared to the detailed rendering of the insect, the ranunculus plant is more summarily drawn, emphasized by the strong outlines around in the yellow petals of the buttercup flowers (also known as batchelor’s buttons or gold buttons). Overall, the technique is less refined compared to signed sheets by Pieter Withoos in the Rijksmusuem’s collection, such as inv. no. RP-T-1951-328. Interestingly, a similar technique with strong outlines was found in an unsigned sheet that is folio 5 in the Bloemenboek (Book of flowers) of Agnes Block (1629-1704) in the Rijksmuseum’s collection (inv. no. RP-T-1948-119), depicting a Ranunculus hortensis. Perhaps both drawings were made by the same artist.
Quite a few drawings by Pieter and his sister Alida Withoos (c. 1660-1730) include a number in brown ink preceded by a parenthesis in the lower right corner. These sheets were likely part of the same, yet to be identified assemblage, now dispersed among several institutions and private collections.6 The Rijksmuseum’s collection preserves three other such numbered drawings either assigned to Pieter in full or attributed to him, all – like the present sheet – purchased in 1951: inv. nos. RP-T-1951-328, RP-T-1951-329 and RP-T-1951-331.
Carolyn Mensing, 2020
Citation
(accessed 23 November 2024 10:24:08).