Saying Grace

c. 1653 - 1668

Object data

oil on panel

support: height 28.5 cm × width 24.8 cm
outer size: depth 3.5 cm (support incl. frame)

Inscriptions

signature, bottom centre, on the stool: Jan Molenaer

Technical notes

Support The single, vertically grained oak plank is approx. 1 cm thick. The reverse is bevelled on all sides and has regularly spaced saw marks, as well as scratches that may be panelmaker 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, thin and smooth, greyish ground extends up to the edges of the support.
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. The composition was built up in no more than two layers from the back to the front and from dark to light. A semi-transparent brownish first lay-in of the architecture allows the ground to show through and has remained partially visible. The more opaque and lighter colours were then added, introducing further detail and form. The paint was applied wet in wet with short, rapid brushstrokes. The dark colours in the background and in some parts of the foreground were executed very sketchily. A few economical strokes suggest a small room in the distance. The figures and objects in the foreground are more detailed, and were rendered with sharp, fine lines in opaque, cool colours. The paint surface is smooth.
Jessica Roeders, 2022

Scientific examination and reports

paint samples: J. Roeders, RMA, nos. SK-C-188/1-2, 13 February 2008
infrared photography: J. Roeders, RMA, 13 February 2008
technical report: J. Roeders, RMA, 13 February 2008
dendrochronology: P. Klein, RMA, 6 June 2008

Condition

Fair. The panel is stable but has suffered from woodworm, leaving several holes on the back and one on the front. There are a few paint losses at bottom left. The thick and severely fragmented varnish has yellowed.

Provenance

...; sale, Hendrik Muilman (1743-1812, Amsterdam), Amsterdam (P. van der Schley et al.), 12 April 1813 sqq., no. 106 (‘Hoog 11, breed 9½ duimen [28 x 24.5 cm], Paneel. In een Binnenhuis vertoont zich een Boeren-Huisgezin, biddende voor de Maaltijd, bij eene gedekte Tafel met Spijs.’), fl. 20, to Spakler,¹ or to the dealer Levi Pakker,² for Adriaan van der Hoop (1778-1854), Amsterdam;³ by whom bequeathed to the City of Amsterdam, with 223 other paintings, 1854;⁴ on loan from the City of Amsterdam to the museum since 30 June 1885⁵

Object number: SK-C-188

Credit line: On loan from the City of Amsterdam (A. van der Hoop Bequest)

Context

Jan Miense Molenaer (Haarlem c. 1610/11 - Haarlem 1668)

A document of 21 November 1637 states that Molenaer was about 27 years old, which means he was most probably born in 1610, the year of his parents’ marriage, or 1611. He was the oldest son of a Haarlem tailor and his second wife. Two of Molenaer’s brothers, Bartholomeus and Nicolaes, were also artists, and his sister Maria was married to one. Although it is not recorded, Molenaer is considered to have been a pupil of Frans Hals. His four earliest dated paintings are from 1629 and show the influence of Dirck Hals as much, if not more, than that of his older brother Frans.⁶ Molenaer is first mentioned in the contribution list of the Guild of St Luke in 1634. Two years later he wed the artist Judith Leyster in Heemstede. Although his parents were almost certainly Catholics, he married in the Reformed Church. It was also in 1636 that he ran into money problems for the first of many times. By mid-1637 he had moved to Amsterdam, where he soon received the substantial commission for a large group portrait of one of the city’s most important patrician families. That picture, The Wedding Portrait of Willem van Loon and Margaretha Bas, was completed before the end of 1637.⁷ Predominantly a genre painter, in 1639 Molenaer produced one of the few religious works in his oeuvre, the monumental Mocking of Christ, which was probably ordered by the Sint-Odulphuskerk in Assendelft.⁸ Peasant imagery figured only sporadically in Molenaer’s art before his relocation to Amsterdam, but eventually became his major focus after 1640. His principle influences in this genre were Adriaen Brouwer and Isack and Adriaen van Ostade.

By the end of 1648, Molenaer and his family moved out of Amsterdam and divided their time between Haarlem and Heemstede, where they had bought a manor. Molenaer was to pay for this house and one he bought in Amsterdam in 1655 with a combination of cash and paintings. As early as 1656 the couple left the latter city once more to settle in the Heemstede estate. In the period that followed Molenaer was repeatedly involved in court cases involving money owed by and to him. Both ill, he and Leyster drew up a will on 6 November 1659 in Heemstede. His wife died three months later but Molenaer recovered and went on to produce the most accomplished works of his later career. He initially continued to live in the Heemstede manor but eventually rented a house in Haarlem where he spent the remaining five years of his life. Molenaer’s last dated picture is the 1667 Merry Company at a Table.⁹ He died on 15 September 1668 and was buried in the Grote Kerk.

While Ampzing, who did acknowledge Judith Leyster, did not mention Molenaer in 1628, Schrevelius referred to him in 1648 only in passing as Leyster’s husband.

Jonathan Bikker, 2021

References
S. Ampzing, Beschryvinge ende lof der stad Haerlem in Holland, Haarlem 1628 (reprint Amsterdam 1974), p. 370; T. Schrevelius, Harlemias, Haarlem 1648, p. 384; A.P. van der Willigen, Geschiedkundige aanteekeningen over Haarlemsche schilders en andere beoefenaren van de beeldende kunsten, voorafgegaan door eene korte geschiedenis van het schilders- of St. Lucas Gilde aldaar, Haarlem 1866, pp. 163-64; A. Bredius, ‘Het verblijf van Jan Miense Molenaer te Amsterdam, in documenten’, 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.], VII, Rotterdam 1888-90, pp. 289-304; A. Bredius, Künstler-Inventare, I, The Hague 1915, pp. 1-26; ibid., VII, 1921, pp. 154-61; Schneider in U. Thieme and F. Becker (eds.), Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, XXXV, Leipzig 1931, pp. 30-32; H. Miedema, De archiefbescheiden van het St. Lucasgilde te Haarlem, 1497-1798, 2 vols., Alphen aan den Rijn 1980, passim; E. Broersen, ‘“Judita Leystar”: A Painter of “Good, Keen Sense”’, in J.A. Welu and P. Biesboer (eds.), Judith Leyster: A Dutch Master and her World, exh. cat. Haarlem (Frans Halsmuseum)/Worcester (Worcester Art Museum) 1993, pp. 15-38, esp. pp. 21-37; Weller in J. Turner (ed.), The Dictionary of Art, XXI, New York 1996, pp. 813-15; D.P. Weller, ‘Jan Miense Molenaer: Painter of the Dutch Golden Age’, in D.P. Weller, C. von Bogendorf Rupprath and M. Westermann, Jan Miense Molenaer: Painter of the Dutch Golden Age, exh. cat. Raleigh (North Carolina Museum of Art)/Indianapolis (Indianapolis Museum of Art)/Manchester (Currier Museum of Art) 2002-03, pp. 9-25; I. van Thiel-Stroman, ‘Biographies 15th-17th Century’, in P. Biesboer et al., Painting in Haarlem 1500-1850: The Collection of the Frans Hals Museum, coll. cat. Haarlem 2006, pp. 99-363, esp. pp. 241-45; Biesboer in Saur Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon: Die Bildenden Künstler aller Zeiten und Völker, XC, Munich/Leipzig 2016, pp. 215-16

The artist

Jan Miense Molenaer (Haarlem c. 1610/11 - Haarlem 1668)

A document of 21 November 1637 states that Molenaer was about 27 years old, which means he was most probably born in 1610, the year of his parents’ marriage, or 1611. He was the oldest son of a Haarlem tailor and his second wife. Two of Molenaer’s brothers, Bartholomeus and Nicolaes, were also artists, and his sister Maria was married to one. Although it is not recorded, Molenaer is considered to have been a pupil of Frans Hals. His four earliest dated paintings are from 1629 and show the influence of Dirck Hals as much, if not more, than that of his older brother Frans.¹⁰ Molenaer is first mentioned in the contribution list of the Guild of St Luke in 1634. Two years later he wed the artist Judith Leyster in Heemstede. Although his parents were almost certainly Catholics, he married in the Reformed Church. It was also in 1636 that he ran into money problems for the first of many times. By mid-1637 he had moved to Amsterdam, where he soon received the substantial commission for a large group portrait of one of the city’s most important patrician families. That picture, The Wedding Portrait of Willem van Loon and Margaretha Bas, was completed before the end of 1637.¹¹ Predominantly a genre painter, in 1639 Molenaer produced one of the few religious works in his oeuvre, the monumental Mocking of Christ, which was probably ordered by the Sint-Odulphuskerk in Assendelft.¹² Peasant imagery figured only sporadically in Molenaer’s art before his relocation to Amsterdam, but eventually became his major focus after 1640. His principle influences in this genre were Adriaen Brouwer and Isack and Adriaen van Ostade.

By the end of 1648, Molenaer and his family moved out of Amsterdam and divided their time between Haarlem and Heemstede, where they had bought a manor. Molenaer was to pay for this house and one he bought in Amsterdam in 1655 with a combination of cash and paintings. As early as 1656 the couple left the latter city once more to settle in the Heemstede estate. In the period that followed Molenaer was repeatedly involved in court cases involving money owed by and to him. Both ill, he and Leyster drew up a will on 6 November 1659 in Heemstede. His wife died three months later but Molenaer recovered and went on to produce the most accomplished works of his later career. He initially continued to live in the Heemstede manor but eventually rented a house in Haarlem where he spent the remaining five years of his life. Molenaer’s last dated picture is the 1667 Merry Company at a Table.¹³ He died on 15 September 1668 and was buried in the Grote Kerk.

While Ampzing, who did acknowledge Judith Leyster, did not mention Molenaer in 1628, Schrevelius referred to him in 1648 only in passing as Leyster’s husband.

Jonathan Bikker, 2022

References
S. Ampzing, Beschryvinge ende lof der stad Haerlem in Holland, Haarlem 1628 (reprint Amsterdam 1974), p. 370; T. Schrevelius, Harlemias, Haarlem 1648, p. 384; A.P. van der Willigen, Geschiedkundige aanteekeningen over Haarlemsche schilders en andere beoefenaren van de beeldende kunsten, voorafgegaan door eene korte geschiedenis van het schilders- of St. Lucas Gilde aldaar, Haarlem 1866, pp. 163-64; A. Bredius, ‘Het verblijf van Jan Miense Molenaer te Amsterdam, in documenten’, 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.], VII, Rotterdam 1888-90, pp. 289-304; A. Bredius, Künstler-Inventare, I, The Hague 1915, pp. 1-26; ibid., VII, 1921, pp. 154-61; Schneider in U. Thieme and F. Becker (eds.), Allgemeines Lexicon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, XXXV, Leipzig 1931, pp. 30-32; H. Miedema, De archiefbescheiden van het St. Lucasgilde te Haarlem, 1497-1798, 2 vols., Alphen aan den Rijn 1980, passim; E. Broersen, ‘“Judita Leystar”: A Painter of “Good, Keen Sense”’, in J.A. Welu and P. Biesboer (eds.), Judith Leyster: A Dutch Master and her World, exh. cat. Haarlem (Frans Halsmuseum)/Worcester (Worcester Art Museum) 1993, pp. 15-38, esp. pp. 21-37; Weller in J. Turner (ed.), The Dictionary of Art, XXI, New York 1996, pp. 813-15; D.P. Weller, ‘Jan Miense Molenaer: Painter of the Dutch Golden Age’, in D.P. Weller, C. von Bogendorf Rupprath and M. Westermann, Jan Miense Molenaer: Painter of the Dutch Golden Age, exh. cat. Raleigh (North Carolina Museum of Art)/Indianapolis (Indianapolis Museum of Art)/Manchester (Currier Museum of Art) 2002-03, pp. 9-25; I. van Thiel-Stroman, ‘Biographies 15th-17th Century’, in P. Biesboer et al., Painting in Haarlem 1500-1850: The Collection of the Frans Hals Museum, coll. cat. Haarlem 2006, pp. 99-363, esp. pp. 241-45; Biesboer in Saur Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon: Die Bildenden Künstler aller Zeiten und Völker, XC, Munich/Leipzig 2016, pp. 215-16

Entry

A popular subject in the seventeenth century, saying grace before a meal was first used for portraits of well-to-do burghers and prints reflecting the ideal of a pious, harmonious and fecund home life.¹⁴ Around the middle of the century a number of genre painters began depicting peasant families at prayer. One of those works by Quiringh van Brekelenkam, for example, is from 1654,¹⁵ and Lasius has convincingly assigned his other treatments of the theme to around 1655.¹⁶ Seminal for Van Brekelenkam’s scenes, and for those by Jan Steen of a slightly later date,¹⁷ was a 1653 etching by Adriaen van Ostade.¹⁸ Jan Miense Molenaer, too, often picked up the subject, usually in a very sketchy way, as in the present Saying Grace. Unfortunately none of his versions bear the year of execution. The dendrochronology of this one indicates that the panel would probably have been ready for use as early as 1637, but as far as style and quality are concerned, this and Molenaer’s other depictions of the theme belong to a later stage in his career. The figure types, their smaller scale and the largely tonal palette are more consistent with his oeuvre of the 1650s and ’60s, a period in which the quality of his work was often waning.¹⁹ Moreover, given the largely imitative rather than innovative nature of his iconography after about 1640, a dating to before Van Ostade’s 1653 etching would not be appropriate.

Prominently displayed on a placard nailed to the back wall in Jan Steen’s 1660 Prayer before the Meal in the Walter Morrison Collection is a stanza of a song based on Proverbs 30:7-9 extolling the virtues of devotion to God, modesty and frugality: ‘Three things I desire and no more / Above all to love God the Father / Not to covet an abundance of riches / But to desire what the wisest prayed for / An honest life in this vale / In these three all is based.’²⁰ The present painting by Molenaer conveys similar sentiments by means of the sparse interior with its bare walls and chairs fashioned out of barrels, as well as the plain clothes worn by the peasants who are reverently bowing their heads in prayer. The tonal palette and the sketchy execution also contribute to the modest and frugal tenor of the scene. Two of the figures cover their hands with their caps and another holds his hat before his face. Both gestures are common in seventeenth-century representations of peasants saying grace, and apparently holding one’s hat before one’s face remained a standard prayer practice into the nineteenth century, as a number of foreigners commented on it in their travel journals.²¹

Jonathan Bikker, 2022

See Key to abbreviations, Rijksmuseum painting catalogues and Acknowledgements

Collection catalogues

1887, p. 115, no. 973; 1903, p. 181, no. 1636; 1934, p. 194, no. 1636; 1976, p. 391, no. C 188

Citation

Jonathan Bikker, 2022, 'Jan Miense Molenaer, Saying Grace, c. 1653 - 1668', in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.4615

(accessed 26 November 2024 04:57:54).