View of the Rhine near Rheineck Castle

1654

Object data

oil on panel

support: height 30.4 cm × width 45.3 cm

Inscriptions

signature and date, with ligated monogram, bottom left, on the stone: HS 1654
inscription and date, on the reverse: Bij . Rijneck . / Herman . Saft . Leven . A . Utrecht . f . / Anno . 1654

Technical notes

Support The single, horizontally grained oak plank is approx. 0.9 cm thick. The reverse is bevelled on all sides and has some vertical saw marks and horizontal scraping marks. Dendrochronology has shown that the youngest heartwood ring was formed in 1620. The panel could have been ready for use by 1631, but a date in or after 1637 is more likely.
Preparatory layers The single, beige ground extends up to the edges of the support at the top and bottom, and slightly over the left and right edges. It consists of some large white and a few tiny red and black pigment particles.
Underdrawing No underdrawing could be detected with the naked eye or infrared photography.
Paint layers The paint extends up to the edges of the support. A brown initial lay-in, introducing light and dark areas, was left exposed locally in the left foreground and shows through the mountains in the background. The blue of the sky was placed on top of the ground in two layers: the first being greyish blue containing some black pigment particles, followed by a deep blue one composed of finely ground bright blue pigment particles. The left foreground, also built up in two layers, was applied on top of the initial lay-in: the first being dark brown and containing a mixture of blue, red and black pigments, followed by a transparent brown one. The small figures, trees and boats were executed with numerous tiny brushstrokes. The paint layers are smooth throughout, with only some impasto in the foliage of the trees.
Eva van Zuien, 2023

Scientific examination and reports

infrared photography: E. van Zuien, RMA, 18 June 2008
paint samples: E. van Zuien, RMA, nos. SK-A-363/1-2, 18 June 2008
technical report: E. van Zuien, RMA, 18 June 2008
dendrochronology: P. Klein, RMA, 27 March 2009

Condition

Fair. There is an old, stable crack of approx. 3 cm at top right. Some small paint losses are visible along the edges. There are numerous small matte retouchings in the sky, mountains and river. Remains of an old varnish can be seen in the dark foreground. The varnish has slightly yellowed.

Conservation

M. Kuiper, 1987: complete restoration

Provenance

From the artist, fl. 150, to Baron Willem Vincent van Wyttenhorst (1613-1674), Gansoijen Castle, near Den Bosch, June 1654;¹ inventory of his paintings, 1651-59, fol. 17, no. Cxxxiiij (‘een seer curieus lantscap en boere kermis met eenige sceepies van Herman Saftleeven waer in hij een vleck op de rijn genaempt […] heeft afgemaelt met seer aerdige figuerties seer plaijsant heb daer voor aende man selver betaelt de somma van hondert en vyftig gl dus alhier pro memoria sonder de lijst. 150:0:0’);²…; sale, Jaques Meyers (?-1721, Rotterdam), Rotterdam (auction house not known), 9 September 1722, no. 157 (‘Een Gezigt van den Rhyn, vol Beelden en Gebergte […] H. 1 v., br. 1 v. 5 d. [31.4 x 44.5 cm]’), fl. 202, to Hendrik van Heteren (1672-1749), The Hague;³ his collection (‘Een gesigt langs de Ryn, in een dorp, daar het Kermis is, door denzelve [Herman Sagtleven], h. 12d., br. 17d. P. [31.4 x 44.5 cm]’);⁴ his son, Adriaan Leonard van Heteren (1724-1800), The Hague; his third cousin and godson, Adriaan Leonard van Heteren Gevers (1794-1866), Rotterdam (‘Saftleven (Herman) Peint sur bois, haut 11, large 14½ pouces [28.8 x 38 cm]. Vue du Rhyn, d’une Coté près de la Riviere un Marché avec plusieurs figures’);⁵ from whom, with 136 other paintings (known as ‘Kabinet van Heteren Gevers’), fl. 100.000, to the museum, by decree of Louis Napoleon, King of Holland, and through the mediation of his father, Dirk Cornelis Gevers (1763-1839), 8 June 1809;⁶ on loan to the Mauritshuis, The Hague, since 2000

Object number: SK-A-363

The artist

Herman Saftleven (Rotterdam 1609 - Utrecht 1685)

Herman Saftleven, whose surname has been spelled in more than 100 different ways down the centuries, was born in Rotterdam in 1609. Like his older brother Cornelis and the younger Abraham he followed in the footsteps of their father, the painter Herman Saftleven, who probably dealt in art as well. Herman Jr and Cornelis are the only ones with an extant oeuvre.

Saftleven moved to Utrecht around 1632, and married Anna van Vliet there in 1633. He is mentioned several times in the guild records between 1655 and 1667, as warden in 1655, 1656 and 1665, and as dean in 1657, 1658, 1666 and 1667. Although he was not granted his burgess rights until 1659, the Utrecht authorities had made use of his services as an artist before then, as in 1648 he received 150 guilders for ‘copies of the view of this city made by him and published in print’.⁷ In 1669 they also paid him for an engraving with a panorama of Utrecht.⁸ Five years later, on 1 August 1674, a hurricane destroyed part of the old centre and the cathedral. Saftleven recorded the devastation in three series of drawings, some of them highly detailed. Although he was extremely successful as a painter and draughtsman, it seems that he ran into financial difficulties at the end of his life. After his death on 3 January 1685 and burial in the Buurkerk, his house and possessions were sold by judicial decree, with the proceeds going to his creditors.

Saftleven’s earliest pictures from the first half of the 1630s are of peasant cottages and landscapes, but from around 1635 he specialized almost exclusively in the latter genre. Initially his output followed a variety of styles and influences, most notably those of Cornelis van Poelenburch and Jan Both. He was in close touch with the former, for they were both wardens of the guild in 1656 and deans in 1657-58. It seems likely that Van Poelenburch was a mentor to him even earlier, for in 1635 he and the young Saftleven were two of the Utrecht painters who worked on a series of scenes from Il pastor fido for the stadholder’s Honselaarsdijk palace. Saftleven signed his Silvio and Dorinda, which he may have executed jointly with Abraham Bloemaert.⁹ He was undoubtedly introduced at court by Van Poelenburch. Between 1648 and 1659, finally, Saftleven was in regular contact with the latter’s main patron, the art collector Baron Willem Vincent van Wyttenhorst. In addition to many pictures by both artists separately, the baron’s collection included a landscape dead-coloured by Van Poelenburch and completed by Saftleven.

At some stage between 1649 and 1651 Saftleven embarked on a journey along the Rhine through Germany that was to have a profound impact on his career. He must have made countless sketches of the landscape, castles and places as he travelled. He later worked them up into drawings and pictures in which he often combined real and imaginary elements. He quickly gained a great reputation as the ‘Rhine stream painter’, and continued producing views of the river until just before his death. His last dated one is from 1684.¹⁰ Only two of Saftleven’s apprentices are known for certain: Willem van Bemmel between 1645 and 1647, and Jan van Bunnick in 1668-71. He had many imitators, both at home and abroad and until well into the eighteenth century.

Erlend de Groot, 2023

References
C. de Bie, Het gulden cabinet van de edel vrij schilder const, inhoudende den lof vande vermarste schilders, architecte, beldthowers ende plaetsnijders van deze eeuw, Antwerp 1662, p. 275; A. Houbraken, De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen, I, Amsterdam 1718, pp. 340-43; 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.], II, Rotterdam 1879-80, pp. 71-96, 266; S. Muller, Schilders-vereenigingen te Utrecht: Bescheiden uit het Gemeente-Archief, Utrecht 1880, pp. 129, 131; 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.], V, Rotterdam 1882-83, pp. 48, 115-28; A. Bredius, Künstler-Inventare, I, The Hague 1915, p. 116; ibid., II, 1916, pp. 422, 582; ibid., IV, 1917, pp. 1232, 1374; ibid., V, 1918, pp. 1590-91, 1605, 1619; ibid., VI, 1919, pp. 1893, 2038; Stechow in U. Thieme and F. Becker (eds.), Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, XXIX, Leipzig 1935, pp. 310-11; A.F.E. Kipp, ‘Saftleven, verslaggever van de stormramp’, in A. Graafhuis and D.P. Snoep, De Dom in puin 1 augustus 1674: Herman Saftleven tekent de stormschade in de stad Utrecht, exh. cat. Utrecht (Centraal Museum) 1974, pp. 29-33; W. Schulz, Herman Saftleven 1609-1685: Leben und Werke: Mit einem kritischen Katalog der Gemälde und Zeichnungen, Berlin 1982; J. de Meyere, ‘De Utrechtse schilder Herman Saftleven en “an extensive Rhineland view…” uit 1669’, Maandblad Oud-Utrecht 63 (1990), no. 4, pp. 33-40; M. Boers, ‘De schilderijenverzameling van baron Willem Vincent van Wyttenhorst’, Oud Holland 117 (2004), pp. 181-243; Veldman in Saur Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon: Die Bildenden Künstler aller Zeiten und Völker, C, Munich/Leipzig 2018, pp. 345-46

Entry

Baron Willem Vincent van Wyttenhorst bought this view of the Rhine directly from the artist in June 1654, paying no less than 150 guilders for it (unframed).¹¹ He did not specify the location in his handwritten inventory of his paintings, but Herman Saftleven’s autograph inscription on the back of the panel makes it clear that it is a spot ‘near Rijneck’.¹² In the past it was assumed that this was a reference to the Swiss village of Rheineck,¹³ but comparison with Saftleven’s drawing in the Atlas Blaeu-Van der Hem (fig. a) shows that he meant Rheineck Castle near (Bad) Breisig am Rhein, between Bonn and Koblenz.¹⁴ Here it is shown to the right of the river, standing on top of a hill which was heightened immensely for dramatic effect. Breisig, consisting of a church spire and a few houses, is situated below it near the Rhine. The place on the left bank is more of a problem. Given the geographical location it should be (Bad) Hönningen, which had had a three-nave parish church since the twelfth century. However, since the old village has not survived, it is conceivable that Saftleven’s depiction is entirely or partly a product of his imagination. The timber-frame houses, though, are typical of the Rhine valley.

In the inventory Van Wyttenhorst labelled this Rhine view ‘most curious’,¹⁵ as he did almost all his other landscapes by Saftleven, by which he meant little more than ‘very interesting’. In fact, he used that term for most of the works in his collection.¹⁶ What is more remarkable is that the baron seems to have had little interest in Saftleven’s refined, almost miniaturist manner. He does say that paintings by Cornelis van Poelenburch and Bartholomeus van der Helst, for example, were ‘curious and neatly done’, but he never applies the latter wording to Saftleven.¹⁷ Van Wyttenhorst was particularly impressed by the ‘very nice figures, very pleasing’ in the present picture, which is hardly surprising, given its anecdotal character.

Saftleven often delighted in enlivening his sceneries with narrative details of every kind. In this case, he included a motley crew of festive peasants and villagers spread over several groups. Some are taking part in a round dance by the local inn or are drinking near the church. A couple of people are sitting in the foreground enjoying some beer or wine, while others are resting after a journey, possibly peasants who have come from far and wide for a fair. A boy in the left foreground is standing with his face to a tree. Is he playing hide-and-seek? Is he sad? The artist appears to be suggesting that he has some sort of connection with the pig rootling in the earth behind him, but it is not clear what it could be. In the meantime, life along and on the river carries on as normal. A ferry is taking passengers to the other side, one small merchant vessel is being towed upstream by horses while others are moored or have been drawn up onto the bank. There is a half-sunken boat in the immediate foreground.

Saftleven’s inscription ‘near Rheineck’ quite clearly does not do justice to the painting. The castle of that name is in fact barely recognizable, being largely dissolved in the hazy, light pastel-coloured background.

Erlend de Groot, 2023

See Key to abbreviations, Rijksmuseum painting catalogues and Acknowledgements

Literature

W. Schulz, Herman Saftleven 1609-1685: Leben und Werke: Mit einem kritischen Katalog der Gemälde und Zeichnungen, Berlin 1982, pp. 145-46, no. 80

Collection catalogues

1809, p. 88, no. 369; 1843, p. 73, no. 370 (‘in good condition’); 1853, p. 32, no. 342 (fl. 100), or no. 343 (fl. 200), or no. 344 (fl. 200); 1858, p. 126, no. 280 (as A Village on a River); 1880, p. 276, no. 319 (as A Village on a River); 1887, p. 150, no. 1267 (as Village on a River); 1903, p. 236, no. 2105 (as Village on a River); 1976, p. 493, no. A 363 (as Village on a River); 1992, p. 82, no. A 363

Citation

Erlend de Groot, 2023, 'Herman Saftleven, View of the Rhine near Rheineck Castle, 1654', in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.5359

(accessed 20 September 2024 21:34:06).

Figures

fig. a Herman Saftleven, *View of Rheineck Castle near Bad Breisig*, 1651. Black chalk and brown ink on paper, 380 x 500 mm. Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Atlas Blaeu-Van der Hem