Object data
oil on panel
support: height 66.5 cm × width 114.8 cm
depth 6 cm
Pieter Stalpaert
Hilly Landscape
1635
Inscriptions
- signature and date, bottom left (P, S, T and A ligated): 1635 PSTA Stalpart
Technical notes
The oak support consists of three horizontally grained planks and is bevelled on all sides. Scanning with infrared reflectography revealed an underdrawing in a dry medium, probably black chalk, fragments of which are also visible to the naked eye. The underdrawing of the landscape shows typical cloudshaped lines for the bushes, while the contours of the foliage are somewhat bigger than on the painted surface. The figures and sky were not prepared in the underdrawing. The paint was relatively thinly applied with visible brushstrokes throughout.
Scientific examination and reports
- technical report: W. de Ridder, RMA, 15 May 2002
Condition
Fair. There are several discoloured areas of retouching, and the varnish has yellowed.
Conservation
- conservator unknown, 1948: cleaned
Provenance
...; sale, A. Philips-Neven (Maastricht), 24 March 1892, no. 112, as T. Stalpert;...; donated to the museum by Dr Abraham Bredius (1855-1946), The Hague, 18921
Object number: SK-A-1581
Credit line: Gift of A. Bredius, The Hague
Copyright: Public domain
The artist
Pieter Stalpaert (Brussels c. 1572 - Amsterdam in or before 1639)
Pieter Stalpaert was very probably born in Brussels around 1572 as the son of the tapestry worker Jeremyas Stalpaert, who later moved to Delft. The name of his teacher is not known. In 1597-98 he was working in Dordrecht, and from 1598 he is documented in Amsterdam. The following year he married Beyken de Hertoge of Antwerp. He became an Amsterdam citizen in 1609, and in 1611, as a widower he married Maeyken de Walperghe, also of Antwerp. Their son Daniel, who was born in 1615, went on to become a painter and later an architect. Pieter must have died in or before 1639, because he was not present at Daniel’s betrothal that year.
Stalpaert’s work is rare, and the only paintings from his hand are a few landscapes,2 half a dozen marines,3 and possibly one architecture piece.4
Yvette Bruijnen, 2007
References
Bol 1973, pp. 39-40; Briels 1987, pp. 415-17; De Maere/Wabbes 1994, I, p. 375, no. 1113; Briels 1997, p. 387
Entry
This is one of only three known landscapes by Pieter Stalpaert. The others are the signed Wooded Landscape with a Falconer,5 and the attributed Mountain Landscape with Travellers and Herdsmen.6 The sober palette of green and brown tints, and the diagonal lines of the composition, with a dark ridge in the foreground, are related to the landscapes of Pieter de Molijn and Pieter van Santvoort. Bernt has remarked that more landscapes by Stalpaert may have survived but are going under the names of other artists.7 The distinctive underdrawing might be a good point of departure for attributions to this littleknown master.
Yvette Bruijnen, 2007
See Bibliography and Rijksmuseum painting catalogues
See Key to abbreviations and Acknowledgements
This entry was published in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, I: Artists Born between 1570 and 1600, coll. cat. Amsterdam 2007, no. 274.
Literature
Bernt III, 1970, no. 1106; Briels 1997, pp. 237-38, 387
Collection catalogues
1903, p. 250, no. 2228; 1934, p. 267, no. 2228; 1960, pp. 288-89, no. 2228; 1976, p. 520, no. A 1581; 2007, no. 274
Citation
Y. Bruijnen, 2007, 'Pieter Stalpaert, Hilly Landscape, 1635', in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.5487
(accessed 6 January 2025 08:23:57).