Object data
black chalk, over traces of graphite; traces of framing line in graphite (top)
height 218 mm × width 191 mm
Cornelis Saftleven
Seated Man Smoking, with a Coal Pan
1636
Inscriptions
-
monogrammed and dated: lower right (on the table), in black chalk, CSL / 1636
-
inscribed on verso: lower left corner, in an eighteenth or a nineteenth-century hand, in pencil, 3355
Technical notes
watermark: none
Provenance
…; collection Carel Vosmaer (1826-88), The Hague;1 his son, Prof. Dr Gualtherus Carel Jacob Vosmaer (1854-1916), Leiden; his son, C.J.J.G. Vosmaer (1907-86), Leiden; his heirs; from whom, fl. 650,000, with 212 other drawings, to the museum (L. 2228), with support from the Vereniging Rembrandt, the Rijksmuseum Stichting and the De Ster Holding BV
Object number: RP-T-1989-101
Credit line: Purchased with the support of the Vereniging Rembrandt, the Rijksmuseum Stichting and the De Ster Holding BV
Copyright: Public domain
Context
Of the approximately five hundred known drawings by Cornelis Saftleven, close to two hundred are studies of human figures. The Rijksmuseum collection holds sixteen of these sheets, made between 1634 and 1665, which give a fairly complete picture of Saftleven's figural draughtsmanship. The models are recorded in varying poses and drawn on different types of support, sometimes toned, sometimes coloured. The drawings range from very swift sketches to more detailed studies.
All the drawings are made with black chalk; those on coloured paper are heightened with opaque white watercolour or white chalk. The Seated Boy with a Hat (inv. no. RP-T-1989-105) is the only one finished with grey wash. The earliest dated study in the Rijksmuseum, the Seated Woman, Facing Left of 1634 (inv. no. RP-T-1989-100) and a later sheet dated 1665, Seated Boy with a Flute (inv. no. RP-T-1902-A-4570), are among the most monumental of the Rijksmuseum figure studies.
The goal of Saftleven's prolific output is unclear: in only a few cases can the figures be linked to his painted oeuvre. He may have sold his studies to other artists, and he certainly also drew figures for his talented landscapist brother Herman (1609-1685), who used them in his paintings. The Rijksmuseum’s collection includes two versions of a Seated Man with a Pipe (inv. nos. RP-T-1989-104 and RP-T-2019-423). Cornelis sent the latter sheet to his brother via post, probably so he could incorporate the figure in one of his compositions.2
Carolyn Mensing, 2020
The artist
Cornelis Saftleven (Gorinchem, 1606 – Rotterdam, 1681)
The son of the Rotterdam artist Herman Saftleven I (c. 1580-1627) and Lijntge Cornelisdr Moelants (d. 1625), he was trained by his father together with two of his brothers, Herman Saftleven (1609-1685) and Abraham Safleven (b. 1613). He likely stayed in Antwerp between 1632 and 1634, where Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) painted figures in some of his paintings.3 For a short period of time in the 1630s, he stayed with his brother Herman in Utrecht.4
Except for these few trips, Cornelis Saftleven stayed in Rotterdam. In 1640, he lived in the Lombardstraat and from 1648-1681 on the Franse Water.5 On 18 November 1648, he married Catharina Dircx van der Heyden (d. 1654). After she passed away, on 29 September 1655, he married Elisabeth Melchiors van Avont (1619-1695). It appears he remained childless. In 1667, he became the dean of the Guild of St Luke in Rotterdam.6
Cornelis Saftleven was a versatile artist who produced paintings and drawings on a large variety of topics: peasant scenes, rural interiors, landscapes, cattle scenes, biblical and mythological themes, images of hell, allegories, satires and illustrations of proverbs. About 200 paintings and 500 drawings (probably a fraction of his output) have been documented.7 In his drawings, he worked mainly in black chalk and sometimes finished his sheets with grey wash. Occasionally, he drew on toned papers. His characteristic monogram – combining the letters ‘C, S and L’ – and a date can be found on his several of his drawings. Perhaps he made these for the market. Stylistically, he was influenced by the landscape drawings of Roelant Rogman (1627-1692), the animal drawings of Roelant Savery (1576-1639), Frans Snijders (1579-1657) and Aelbert Cuyp (1620-1691), and the figure studies of Gabriel Metsu (1629-1667).8
Saftleven was buried on 5 June 1681 in the French Protestant Church in Rotterdam.9
Carolyn Mensing, 2020
References
A. Houbraken, De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen, 3 vols., Amsterdam 1718-21, I (1718), pp. 342-43 (as: Kornelis Zachtleven); C. Hofstede de Groot, ‘Een spotteekening van Cornelis Saftleven op de Dordtsche Synode’, Oud-Holland 15 (1897), pp. 121-23; A. von Wurzbach, Niederländisches Künstlerlexikon, 3 vols., Vienna/Leipzig 1906-11, II (1910), p. 548; N. Alting Mees, ‘Aanteekeningen over oud-Rotterdamsche kunstenaars III’, Oud-Holland 31 (1913), pp. 241-68, 255-59; U. Thieme and F. Becker, Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler: Von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, 37 vols., Leipzig 1907-50, XXIX (1935), p. 309; B.J.A. Renckens, ‘Enkele notities bij vroege werken van Cornelis Saftleven’, Bulletin Museum Boymans-van Beuningen 13 (1962), pp. 59-74; A. Zwollo, ‘Een “Cornelis Saftleven” per brief’, Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek 38 (1987), pp. 402-06; W. Schulz, Cornelis Saftleven (1607-1685): Leben und Werke, mit einem kritischen Katalog der Gemälde und Zeichnungen, Berlin 1978; N. Schadee, Rotterdamse meesters uit de gouden eeuw, exh. cat. Rotterdam (Historisch Museum) 1994-95, pp. 295-96; RKD artists https://rkd.nl/artists/69245
Entry
In 1989, the Rijksmuseum purchased six figure drawings by Cornelis Saftleven, part of a large group from the heirs of the eighteenth-century collector Carel Vosmaer (1826-1888). They span the artist’s career, and except for one drawing, they are all signed and dated (1634, 1636, 1651, 1656 and 1662, respectively).10
The figure in the present sheet casually sits on his stool, lighting a pipe from a pan of hot coals. A waft of thin smoke rises up from his mouth into the air, adding liveliness to the drawing. Saftleven depicted smokers in a couple of his drawings, for example on fol. 4 of the Abrams Album, a seventeenth-century album amicorum in the collection of the Harvard University Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Cambridge, MA (inv. no. 1999.123.1-53),11 and in a drawing dated 1631 in the Hamburger Kunsthalle. Hamburg (inv. no. 22474).12 He also depicted them in some of his peasant genre paintings, such as Peasants Smoking and Drinking in a Barn with Devils Dancing Beyond, which was sold at Christie’s London in 1987.13
Carolyn Mensing, 2020
Literature
J.F. Heijbroek (ed.), De verzameling van mr. Carel Vosmaer (1826-1888), exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksprentenkabinet) 1989, pp. 64, 66, 69, no. 20 (ill.)
Citation
C. Mensing, 2020, 'Cornelis Saftleven, Seated Man Smoking, with a Coal Pan, 1636', in J. Turner (ed.), (under construction) Drawings 2, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200143917
(accessed 12 December 2025 23:59:52).