Landscape with Bathers

c. 1660

Object data

oil on canvas

support: height 70 cm × width 84.5 cm

Inscriptions

signature, bottom centre: Berchem

Technical notes

Support The plain-weave canvas has been wax-resin lined. All tacking edges, including the original nail holes, have been preserved. An imprint indicates that the bars of the original strainer were approx. 2 cm wide.
Preparatory layers The double ground extends up to the tacking edges and slightly over the top right edge. It consists of two similar white layers, mixed with ochre-coloured pigment particles and some charcoal black.
Underdrawing No underdrawing could be detected with the naked eye or infrared photography.
Paint layers The paint extends up to the tacking edges. The sky was executed first, all the way down to the horizon. Branches and foliage were applied on top of it and then the tree trunks were added. A stiff, short brush was probably used for the leaves, giving them a typical fan shape. The reflections of the trees are glazed over the opaque paint of the water. The foreground was added on top of the water, as were the figures.
Michel van de Laar, 2022

Scientific examination and reports

infrared photography: I. Verslype, RMA, 27 April 2005
technical report: I. Verslype, RMA, 27 April 2005
paint samples: M. van de Laar, RMA, nos. SK-A-33/1-2, 20 February 2008
technical report: M. van de Laar, RMA, 20 February 2008

Condition

Good. There is an overall regular pattern of quite large drying cracks. The trees on the horizon have partly turned from green to brownish. There are some small areas of retouching throughout. The varnish has yellowed somewhat and is uneven.

Conservation

J.A. Hesterman, 1918: canvas lined, varnish removed; small damaged areas repaired
H.H. Mertens, 1964: treated

Provenance

…; sale, D. Teengs, Amsterdam (P. van der Schley et al.), 24 April 1811, no. 51 (‘hoog 27, breed 33 duimen [69.4 x 84.8 cm], Doek. Dit bevallig schilderij stelt voor een boomrijk landschap, met een helder Water, waarin badende Lieden, op den voorgrond in een Weide een Herder, bij grazende en rustende Beesten […]’), fl. 355, to Hulswit;¹…; sale, Engelberts et al., Amsterdam (P. van der Schley et al.), 25 August 1817, no. 34 (‘hoog 27, breed 33 duimen [69.4 x 84.8 cm] Doek. Dit aangenaam aan eene rivier gelegene boomrijke Landschap is gestoffeerd met verscheiden staand en liggend vee, een herder met zijn hond, ter zijde eenige zich badende jongelingen […]’), fl. 700, to Jonkheer Johan Goll van Franckenstein Jr (1756-1821), Amsterdam;² his sale, Amsterdam (J. de Vries et al.), 1 July 1833 sqq., no. 25 (‘hoog 7 p. 1 d. breed 8 p. 4 d. [71 x 84 cm] Doek. Aan de boorden van eene Rivier, met hoog geboomte omgeven, zijn eenige lieden bezig zich te baden, waarbij een herder bij eene kudde van verschillend vee.’), fl. 700, to Johannes Rombouts (1772-1850), Dordrecht;³ his nephew, Leendert Dupper Willemsz (1799-1870), Dordrecht, 1850;⁴ by whom bequeathed to the museum, with 63 other paintings, 12 April 1870;⁵ on loan to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 1929-40; on loan to Museum Arnhem, since 2 April 1952

Object number: SK-A-33

Credit line: Dupper Wzn. Bequest, Dordrecht

The artist

Joris van der Haagen (Arnhem or Dordrecht c. 1615 - The Hague 1669)

No record has yet been found of the baptism of Joris van der Haagen, who was a son of the painter Abraham van der Haagen and Sophia Ottendr van der Laen. It is assumed that he was born between 1613 and 1617, which were the dates of birth of two other children. The family moved from Dordrecht to Arnhem in that period, probably with a brief stop along the way.

It seems likely that Van der Haagen trained first with his father, none of whose works has survived. After the latter’s death Joris and his mother went to The Hague, and in 1640 he built a house there on Amsterdamse Veerkade. In 1642 he married the widow Magdalena Thijmandr de Heer. The following year he paid 18 guilders to enrol in the Guild of St Luke; he was charged the highest fee because neither he nor his wife were born in The Hague. Van der Haagen acquired his burgess rights in 1644. He was made a warden of the guild in 1652-53, so was evidently a respected member of the city’s artistic community. In 1656 he became one of the founders of the Confrerie Pictura artists’ society but was never one of its officials. In 1660 he was teaching one Jan Jansz Schmidt, about whom nothing further is known.

Van der Haagen rarely dated his pictures, so it is difficult to follow his stylistic development. His earliest work bearing the year of execution is a drawing made in The Hague woods in 1644 or 1647.⁶ The first known dated painting is from 1649: a panorama outside the Rijnpoort near Arnhem.⁷ His last two commissions are from 1669, not long before he died. These consisted of an overmantel in the offices of the Schiedam water board, in collaboration with Ludolf de Jongh,⁸ and a likeness of an unidentified woman, the present whereabouts of which are unknown.⁹ The only other portrait he made was of himself in a trompe-l’oeil niche with a landscape in the background.¹⁰ His remaining oeuvre, both drawn and painted, comprises landscapes, city views, panoramas and other topographical works. Many of the latter are set in The Hague and Arnhem. Amsterdam is one of the few places where his activities are recorded in notarized documents from 1650 and 1657. His trips abroad were mainly to the German border region, especially the area around Cleves.

Van der Haagen regularly asked others to paint the figures in his landscapes and urban scenes. In addition to Ludolf de Jongh, signatures show that he worked together with Nicolaes Berchem and Dirck Wijntrack.¹¹ Other suspected collaborations are based on attribution of the staffage, not always reliably, to artists like Paulus Potter, Adriaen van de Velde, Pieter de Hooch, Johan le Ducq and Cornelis van Poelenburch.

Van der Haagen fell on hard times in the last ten years of his life, even though he kept on painting into old age. In 1658 he was threatened with the attachment of his house because he was in arrears in settling a debt, and in order to thwart his creditors his mother made his children her heirs. He nevertheless carried on living in his own home until his death on 20 May 1669. He still must have gone through a difficult period, because a few months before he died he was excused duty in the civic guard because of ‘indisposition’. Van der Haagen was buried in the Kloosterkerk in The Hague.

Richard Harmanni, 2022

References
A. Houbraken, De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen, III, Amsterdam 1721, p. 203; J. Immerzeel Jr, De levens en werken der Hollandsche en Vlaamsche kunstschilders, beeldhouwers, graveurs en bouwmeesters: Van het begin der vijftiende eeuw tot heden, II, Amsterdam 1843, p. 8; C. Kramm, De levens en werken der Hollandsche en Vlaamsche kunstschilders, beeldhouwers, graveurs en bouwmeesters: Van den vroegsten tot op onzen tijd, II, Amsterdam 1858, pp. 616-17; F.D.O. Obreen, Archief voor Nederlandsche kunstgeschiedenis: Verzameling van meerendeels onuitgegeven berichten en mededeelingen betreffende Nederlandsche schilders, plaatsnijders, beeldhouwers, bouwmeesters, juweliers, goud- en zilverdrijvers [enz.], IV, Rotterdam 1881-82, pp. 59, 82, 129; ibid., V, 1882-83, passim; A. Bredius, ‘Het schildersregister van Jan Sysmus, Stads-Doctor van Amsterdam’, Oud Holland 12 (1894), pp. 160-71, esp. pp. 168-70; A. von Wurzbach, Niederländisches Künstler-Lexikon, I, Leipzig/Vienna 1906, p. 633; F.J. van der Haagen, ‘Joris van der Haagen, kunstschilder: Hoofdman v/h St. Lucasgilde te ’s-Gravenhage, Bijdragen en Mededeelingen der Vereeniging Gelre 18 (1915), pp. 129-45, esp. pp. 129-36; A. Bredius, ‘Korte mededeelingen, VI: Hoe Joris van der Hagen betaald werd’, Oud Holland 35 (1917), p. 128; M.J.F.W. van der Haagen, ‘De samenwerking van Joris van der Haagen en Dirck Wijntrack’, Oud Holland 35 (1917), pp. 43-48; Schneider in U. Thieme and F. Becker (eds.), Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, XV, Leipzig 1922, pp. 463-64; J.K. van der Haagen, De schilders van der Haagen en hun werk: Met catalogus van de schilderijen en teekeningen van Joris van der Haagen, Voorburg 1932, pp. 16-52; Gordon in J. Turner (ed.), The Dictionary of Art, XIII, New York 1996, p. 892; Buijsen in E. Buijsen et al., Haagse schilders in de Gouden Eeuw: Het Hoogsteder Lexicon van alle schilders werkzaam in Den Haag 1600-1700, exh. cat. The Hague (Haags Historisch Museum) 1998-99, pp. 146-49; E. Löffler, ‘Illustrated Index on Painters Active in The Hague between 1600-1700’, in ibid., pp. 281-362, esp. p. 311; Pijl in Saur Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon: Die Bildenden Künstler aller Zeiten und Völker, LXVII, Munich/Leipzig 2010, p. 425

Entry

This painting bears the signature of Nicolaes Berchem, and the elegant brushwork and graceful depiction of the figures and animals clearly betray his hand. Although Joris van der Haagen’s name is missing it has never been doubted that he was responsible for the wooded setting. In the auction catalogues it has always been praised as a joint work by the two of them. An attribution of the landscape to Berchem is ruled out by the absence of any Italianate features and the emphasis on the trees. The group on the left was executed reasonably carefully and is typical of Van der Haagen’s repertoire. This view of a stretch of water surrounded by trees bears some resemblance to the artist’s Landscape with Fisherman with a Square Net.¹²

The signature is of the kind that Berchem used in 1656 and 1664.¹³ It is difficult to trace a stylistic development in Van der Haagen’s oeuvre because of the scarcity of dated paintings, but from the second half of the 1650s onwards one does see more balanced compositions with more massive groups of trees and less detailing – features which are found in this picture. The groups of trees in the right background, for instance, are sketchy. Fairly densely wooded landscapes of this type are indebted to the work of Jacob van Ruisdael and the etchings of Antonie Waterloo.

Berchem occasionally painted the figures in works by fellow landscapists, such as Jacob van Ruisdael’s The Great Oak and Wooded Landscape with a Flooded Road.¹⁴ To the best of our knowledge this is the only time he did the same for Van der Haagen. It is not known how they became acquainted, but the latter’s view of Haarlem shows that he visited the city where Berchem settled for a long time.¹⁵ They could also have got in touch when Berchem was living in Amsterdam, for notarized documents of 1650 and 1657 demonstrate that Van der Haagen also knew people there.¹⁶

Figures bathing and swimming were mainly depicted in Arcadian and Italianate landscapes in the seventeenth century. They are less frequent in more realistic scenes.¹⁷ The mood in the Rijksmuseum painting is midway between accurate and Arcadian.

Richard Harmanni, 2022

See Key to abbreviations, Rijksmuseum painting catalogues and Acknowledgements

Literature

J.K. van der Haagen, De schilders van der Haagen en hun werk: Met catalogus van de schilderijen en teekeningen van Joris van der Haagen, Voorburg 1932, pp. 100-01, no. 157

Collection catalogues

1870, p. 217, no. IV; 1876, p. 19, no. 33; 1880, p. 5, no. 31; 1887, p. 24, no. 184; 1903, p. 111, no. 1030; 1976, p. 255, no. A 33

Citation

Richard Harmanni, 2022, 'Joris van der Haagen and Nicolaes Pietersz. Berchem, Landscape with Bathers, c. 1660', in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.6657

(accessed 22 September 2024 01:20:32).