Object data
oil on panel
support: height 57 cm × width 83 cm
outer size: depth 7 cm (support incl. frame and climate box)
Pieter de Bloot
The Lawyer’s Office
1628
Inscriptions
- signature and date, bottom right, on the platform: P. De Bloot 1628
- inscription and date, lower right, on a piece of paper on the side of the lectern: die wil rechten / om een koe / die brengter / noch een toe / 1628 (He who sues for a cow will lose another one)
Technical notes
Support The panel consists of three horizontally grained oak planks (approx. 20.2, 12.4 and 24.3 cm), approx. 0.9 cm thick. The reverse is bevelled on all sides.
Preparatory layers The double ground extends up to the edges of the support. The first layer consists of finely ground white pigment particles. The second, pinkish white ground contains white and some red and black pigment particles. It has diagonal scrape marks, apparent through the paint layers.
Underdrawing Infrared photography and infrared reflectography revealed an extensive underdrawing in a dry medium, also visible with the naked eye to some extent. A network of mostly orthogonal and some horizontal and vertical lines was used for the construction of the room. The orthogonal ones lead to the vanishing point in the wall between the windows, below the third hanging sheaf of papers from the left. It is noticeable as a small hole in the paint layers. The books, documents and bags on the shelves and walls were indicated by sketchy lines. More extensive and repetitive cursory lines were used for the man entering the door on the left, whereas the other figures do not seem to have been underdrawn at all. The preparation for the windows is detailed, defining each individual pane.
Paint layers The paint extends up to the edges of the support. An initial lay-in of the composition was done in translucent brown washes, in some areas serving as a mid-tone. Colour was then introduced to build the forms with rather loose brushstrokes, and details and highlights were created with small lines and dabs, enhancing contours and further delineating forms. More details were subsequently applied in the foreground figures. A cool greyish paint was scumbled over the walls in the background, and the two dogs in the foreground were added on top of the floor. At many points the underdrawing was not followed: the now square upper windowpanes were originally intended as diamond-shapes, and in several places the contours of books, papers and bags were altered. The paint layers are rather thin, except for the more impasted contour lines, especially of the figures, books, papers and bags.
Anna Krekeler, 2022
Scientific examination and reports
- infrared reflectography: A. Krekeler, RMA, 21 November 2008
- infrared photography: A. Krekeler, RMA, 21 November 2008
- paint samples: A. Krekeler, RMA, nos. SK-A-660/1-3, 21 November 2008
- technical report: A. Krekeler, RMA, 17 November 2009
Condition
Fair. The middle plank was shifted slightly to the left when the joins of the panel were reglued at some point. The bottom plank has three repaired horizontal cracks, 60, 43 and 3 cm long, and a small piece has broken off at bottom left. The grain of the wood has become visible due to increased transparency of the paint layers. The paint surface is abraded and has small losses along the wood grain. Extensive discoloured retouching is apparent along the joins and cracks. The varnish has yellowed slightly.
Conservation
- E. Bosshard, 1972: complete restoration; veneer strips on the reverse of the panel removed
- W. Hesterman, 1972: complete restoration; veneer strips on the reverse of the panel removed
- G. Tauber, 1994: retouchings adjusted; revarnished
Provenance
…; from the estate of Gerhard Nilant Bannier (1780-1877), Deventer, fl. 141.98, to the museum, 18771
Object number: SK-A-660
Copyright: Public domain
The artist
Pieter de Bloot (Rotterdam c. 1601 - Rotterdam 1658)
On 24 September 1640 Pieter de Bloot stated that his age was 38, while a deed of 10 May 1650 records that he was about 49. Since his parents married in Rotterdam on 31 January 1601 it can be taken that he was born in the closing months of that year at the earliest. He was given the same name as his father, a draper, who like his mother Anneke Jacobs came from Antwerp. Josijntje, a daughter from an earlier marriage of Pieter Sr, would later become the wife of the framemaker Pieter Jansz Molijn.
In 1624 Pieter de Bloot married Anneke Frans, the widow of Allart Jansz in Rotterdam. She died, however, within a year, and barely two months later his wedding to Grietje Hubertsdr took place in the town hall, from which it can be deduced that she was not a member of the Reformed Church. That union, too, was short-lived, and in 1630 Maria Govertsdr Vogel became his wife. She was a Remonstrant born in Schoonhoven and was the widow of Pieter Cornelisz Stolwijck. It was a good match from De Bloot’s point of view, because Maria was wealthier than he was. In 1646 he even bought a tiling works, which he ran himself, for in this period he is regularly referred to as a painter and tiler. Although it was not a very profitable investment, he did leave a sizable fortune on his death in 1658. De Bloot was buried in Rotterdam in the week of 9-16 November.
De Bloot specialized in landscapes in the manner of Jan van Goyen and in peasant pieces set both indoors and outside. His repertoire also includes village kermises and the occasional biblical subject. His earliest dated painting, a festive group of peasants, is from 1625, and his last one, of 1656, is a scene around the arched stone bridge of an orphanage or monastery.2 De Bloot’s output was highly prized during his lifetime. The Utrecht artist Cornelis Saftleven I already had three of his pictures by 1627, and another one listed in the probate inventory of Jan Miense Molenaer of Haarlem had one of the highest valuations at 48 guilders. Adriaen Lucasz Fonteyn (c. 1606-1661) and François Ryckhals (1609-1647) were probably his pupils.
Richard Harmanni, 2022
References
Scheffer in 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.], III, Rotterdam 1880-81, pp. 568-71; ibid., V, 1882-83, p. 118; ibid. VII, 1888-90, p. 304; P. Haverkorn van Rijsewijk, ‘Pieter de Bloot’, Oud Holland 9 (1891), pp. 62-68; A. von Wurzbach, Niederländisches Künstler-Lexikon, I, Leipzig/Vienna 1906, p. 118; Haverkorn van Rijsewijk in U. Thieme and F. Becker (eds.), Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, IV, Leipzig 1910, p. 138; A.J.C. Hoynck van Papendrecht, De Rotterdamsche plateel- en tegelbakkers en hun product, 1590-1851, Rotterdam 1920, pp. 193-96, 283-84, 292-93; Blok in P.C. Molhuysen et al. (eds.), Nieuw Nederlandsch biografisch woordenboek, IX, Leiden 1933, cols. 72-73; Van der Zeeuw in N.I. Schadee (ed.), Rotterdamse meesters uit de Gouden Eeuw, exh. cat. Rotterdam (Historisch Museum) 1994, p. 262; Wegener in Saur Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon: Die Bildenden Künstler aller Zeiten und Völker, XI, Munich/Leipzig 1995, pp. 601-02; J.G.C.A. Briels, Vlaamse schilders en de dageraad van Hollands Gouden Eeuw 1585-1630, Antwerp 1997, p. 300
Entry
This scene is identified as a lawyer’s office by the bags hanging around the edge of the ceiling, in which completed case files were kept. The inscription on the piece of paper on the side of the lectern on the right is an attack on the greediness of the profession. It translates loosely as ‘He who sues for a cow will lose another one’. Legal costs were evidently so high, certainly for a simple man, that they generally bore no relation to the value of the object in contention. The origin of the proverb is not known, but the earliest record is from 1726, stating that it was already old by then.3 Its meaning is given there as ‘a miserly verdict’ is better than a ‘lavish judgement’, and ‘it leaves the money box bare and empty’. The saying is being taken so literally by Pieter de Bloot that a peasant is leading a cow through the door in the left background.
The figures are much stiffer than they are in De Bloot’s Festive Peasants of 1625 and his Village Scene with Peasants of the same year as the present work.4 The explanation for this must be sought in the fact that he based his painting on one of the versions of The Village Lawyer by Pieter Brueghel II, of which no fewer than 91 are known, 19 of them autograph.5 It was evidently one of the latter’s most successful creations. Whereas Brueghel depicted only peasants and simple folk, De Bloot included people from other classes as well. The lawyer is holding his hand out to a dandy clad in white, while a well-dressed gentleman on the right is examining his purse, which is probably now empty. The artist evidently wanted to show that everyone, regardless of social standing, could become the victim of lawyers’ rapacity. His moneygrubber is wearing spectacles, which had been a bad sign since the late Middle Ages.6 Here they reinforce the message about the man’s guile.
De Bloot also repeated much of Brueghel’s setting, with the lawyer behind his lectern on the right and the clerks’ counter against the rear wall. The vanishing point is also more or less the same, and allows quite a lot of the floor to be seen.7 All that is missing compared to the prototype is the left side wall with the door, around which a peasant is peeking shyly. De Bloot extended the back of the office and installed an entrance on the far left through which the man brings in the cow. There are documents lying about everywhere in Brueghel’s work, and the figures are far larger relative to the size of the interior which, together with their poses and physiognomies, gives the scene more the air of a caricature. De Bloot’s room looks much bigger, there are fewer papers and the figures are far more static in both execution and composition, which is in marked contrast to what he had done up to now.
Since Cornelis Saftleven also depicted a lawyer’s office with the same inscription the following year, it must have been a topical subject.8 He replaced the people with animals, and his painting is far livelier for that reason alone. It seems from an account of a work auctioned in Cologne that De Bloot produced a similar interior later on, in 1630.9 Unfortunately there are no extant images of it, but the title identified it as a bailiff’s office. According to the description, he was in the same position as the present lawyer, peasants were standing around waiting, and there were papers everywhere.
The Rijksmuseum acquired this panel in 1877 from the collection of Gerhard Nilant Bannier, a lawyer and later president of the court in Deventer. His profession gave him an affinity with the subject, and he was also a creditable amateur painter himself.10
Richard Harmanni, 2022
See Key to abbreviations, Rijksmuseum painting catalogues and Acknowledgements
Literature
B.J.A. Renckens, ‘Enkele notities bij vroege werken van Cornelis Saftleven’, Bulletin Museum Boymans-van Beuningen 13 (1962), pp. 59-74; C. Brown, ‘...Niet ledighs of ydels...’: Nederlandse genreschilders uit de 17e eeuw, Amsterdam 1984, pp. 98-99; Schadee in N.I. Schadee (ed.), Rotterdamse meesters uit de Gouden Eeuw, exh. cat. Rotterdam (Historisch Museum) 1994, p. 169; I. Krueger, ‘“… nimbt Gelt, Butter, Hüner, Endten”: Zu Darstellingen des Bauernadvokaten von Pieter Brueghel d.J. und anderen’, Das Rheinische Landesmuseum Bonn: Berichte aus der Arbeit des Museums 3 (1995), no. 3, pp. 78-85, esp. p. 82; Lammertse in F. Lammertse, J. Giltaij and A. Janssen, Dutch Genre Paintings of the 17th Century, coll. cat. Rotterdam (Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen) 1998, pp. 154-55; K. Ertz, Pieter Brueghel der Jüngere (1564-1637/38): Die Gemälde mit kritischem Oeuvrekatalog, I, Lingen 2000, p. 493
Collection catalogues
1880, pp. 58-59, no. 39; 1885, p. 6, no. 39; 1887, p. 16, no. 130; 1903, p. 53, no. 534; 1976, p. 122, no. A 660
Citation
Richard Harmanni, 2022, 'Pieter de Bloot, The Lawyer’s Office, 1628', in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.6084
(accessed 10 November 2024 08:12:35).