Harvesting the Vines

Pieter Bodding van Laer (Haarlem 1599 - ? in or after 1642)

Pieter van Laer was probably trained by Esaias van de Velde in his native town of Haarlem. His first works, a series of drawings for a songbook which can be dated 1624, show the strong influence of Van de Velde. According to Von Sandrart, Van Laer and his brother Roeland travelled to Italy, where he stayed for 16 years. He is first recorded as living in Rome in 1625, and he was still there three years later. Von Sandrart, who arrived in Rome himself in 1629, gives a detailed account of Pieter’s awkward appearance, which gained him the nickname ‘Bamboccio’ (rag doll) amongst the Bentvueghels. Von Sandrart also describes Van Laer’s working method as precise, and states that he did not draw from life, nor did he use prints; instead he painted mainly from memory. Indeed, there are very few known drawings by the artist. Van Laer returned to Haarlem in 1639, but according to Schrevelius soon left on a second journey to Italy. This was probably in 1642, because the 1654 will of Van Laer’s sister mentions that he had left Haarlem 12 years earlier. It is not known where or when he died.

Van Laer mainly painted small canvases. According to Passari he invented the distinct genre of Bambocciate, a version of low-life painting that has a strong naturalistic style and subjects indebted to Italian popular culture. Only one signed and dated painting is known, A Blacksmith in a Roman Ruin of 1635², and only 30 can be firmly attributed to him. Van Laer also produced about 20 small etchings with subjects related to his painted oeuvre.

Amongst his patrons were the Viceroy of Naples, Ferdinand Afan de Ribera and Cardinal Francesco Maria Brancaccio. His paintings were also much sought after on the open market, however, and he soon developed a large following that produced Bambocciate. Many of these were at one time attributed to Van Laer himself, but are in fact the work of his followers, the most important of whom were Jan Miel, Johannes Lingelbach, Michelangelo Cerquozzi, and to a certain extent Michael Sweerts. His prints may have also contributed to his influence on Dutch artists of the following generation like Jan Asselijn, Karel Dujardin and Nicolaes Berchem. Houbraken’s remark that Philips Wouwerman owned drawings by Van Laer is supported by the latter’s borrowing of a figure in a drawing by Van Laer for one of his paintings.³

Taco Dibbits, 2007

References
Schrevelius 1647, p. 290; De Bie 1661, p. 169; Von Sandrart 1675 (1925), pp. 183-84; Passeri 1934 (1679), pp. 72-74 (fols. 36r-37v); Houbraken I, 1718, pp. 359-64; Hoogewerff 1932, pp. 1-17, 205-20; Kurtz 1958, pp. 231-32; Blankert in Utrecht 1965 (1978), pp. 92-94; Janeck 1968, pp. 1-64; Schatborn in Amsterdam 2001, pp. 85-87