RKD STUDIES

1.3 Female Artists from the Low Countries in Britain

... tleman/pensioner of the Royal household’. Livinia soon joined the court as a painter and lady-in-waiting as well: in November 1546, Livinia received an annuity of £40 from the court, which she would receive annually until her death. Several works by her hand have been documented; however, the descriptions cannot be properly related to existing works, although attempts at attributions have been made [6].37 A reference to the artist and ‘Staatsjuffer’ (lady-in-waiting) Paulina van den Honig (active c. 1570-1576) appears on a drawn copy after a work by her, showing Queen Elizabeth I (1558-1603) receiving the Dutch ambassador in Richmond [7], an event that must have taken place in the 1570s. Thanks to the inscriptions on this drawing, which was in the possession of collector and artists’ biographer Christiaan Kramm (1797-1875) in the 19th century, we know her name.38When the troops of Allessandro Farnese (1545-1592) occupied Ghent in 1583, the Protestant calligrapher Jacomina Hondius (1558-1628) fled to London, along with her brother Jodocus Hondius (1563-1612), who was an engraver and cartographer and with whom she collaborated. In London, her work would have been admired by Queen Elizabeth. In London, brother and sister both married someone from Ghent: Jacomina to the writer Pieter van den Berghe (c. 1650-1625 and Jodocus to Colette, sister of the print and globe maker Pieter van der Keere (1571-1646). Around 1593, they decided to expand their business further in the Republic, from where the English market was also served.Miniature painter Susanna Droeshout (1584-1664) was born in London; her parents came from Antwerp. Unknown is by whom she was trained; unclear is whether there was any family relationship to Southern Netherlandish artists of the same surname who had fled to London. After an earlier marriage to the otherwise unknown Joos de Neve, she remarried in 1628 to Daniel Mijtens (c. 1590-1647), who by then had been a court painter for ten years. The family settled permanently in The Hague in 1634, but the move had already begun in 1630. Before her husband came over permanently, Susanna travelled to The Hague on 11 May 1631 from London with her three children and two servants, 'with her trunks of apparel'.39 Nothing is known about any work Susanna made, either in London or The Hague....

... at some point before 1653. There she married the flower painter Isaack Dusart (1628-1699), with whom she returned to the Dutch Republic before 1660. Artists’ biographer Arnold Houbraken (1660-1719) wrote that Isaack had learned in England to paint flowers on satin ('so naturally that they seemed to be living flowers') and that, in addition to this skill, he brought with him a wife (=Catharina van Valkenburg) 'who also mastered the art and who helped him paint flowers on satin'.41 Did Dusart learn the technique Houbraken describes from his wife? The paintings the couple must have produced were probably fragile; no works are known so far.The Amsterdam papercut artist Dyna der Kinderen (1654-after 1677) married Thomas Gerrards, a middleman from Norwich, on 19 November 1677, with whom she went to live in England. It is not known whether she remained active ...

... redwardine (born 1655) in 1683, who was then master of the horse to King-Stadholder William III (whom he later opposed). In ...

6.2 Glowingness in Oil and Water Colours

... de Mayerne (1573-1644/5) who had a keen interest in recipes and instructions used by artists, the second between 1648 and 1650.24 The English miniature painter discussed glowingness only in the second version, although he probably adopted it from Van Mander’s Schilder-boeck, which he had already consulted for his first manuscript.25 Besides, Norgate does not mention the term when speaking about Netherlandish art, but relating to another English miniature painter, Peter Oliver (1589-1674), and his commission by King Charles I (1600-1649) to make miniature copies of Italian paintings in the royal collection. He states that in his miniature copy on vellum, Oliver used Indian lake, a dark red pigment gained from resin, to achieve ‘glowing shadows’ of a similar quality as those in the original oil paintings by Titian (1488-1576):‘Peter Oliver […] made such expressions of those deep and glowing shadows in those Histories he copied after Titian, that no oil painting could appear more warm and fleshly then those of his hand’.26...

... egno.27As Norgate stated, the miniature painters used particular combinations of pigments to achieve the effect of glowingness. He reported that John Hoskins (1589-1664), who was well-known for his miniature paintings after portraits by Van Dyck, preferred mixtures of deep browns such as umber or earth of cologne, Indian lake and a certain brown-yellow pigment made from dyer’s greenwood, called, after its inventor, Sir Nathaniel Bacon’s Pinke.28 In a portrait of King Charles I, the red and yellow hues of what must have been glowing shadows once, can still be recognised in the visible part of the king’s neck and the shaded part of his chin [8].The British accounts of glowingness were mainly concerned with mixtures of pigments that were needed to achieve the effect. To apply glowing colours in oil painting, however, requires technical insight: the hue and tone of the brown-grey ground layer of the dead colour are relevant, and from there semi-transparent mixture...

7.2 Italianate Frames and the Emergence of Leatherwork and Kwab

... he correspondence between the signed and dated painting, the dated timbers of the frame, and the sitter’s coat of arms comprise a unique survival from the reign of James I.An Italian influence of centred foliate scrolls going out to the rope tied corners can be seen on the painting at Ham House of Queen Henrietta Maria (1609-69), inscribed ‘HR 1637’, painted after Sir Anthony van Dyck [4]. Examination of the original pine frame reveals its half-lapped constuction. The ornament of its four members is symetrical about their centres, with paired foliate s-scrolls and tripartite corners. The dates of manufacture for the pattern appears to be within the second half of the 1630s. Of the seven examples known, three contain paintings by or after Van Dyck but the earliest is on a portrait by Cornelis Jonson van Ceulen the elder (1593-1661).23 All of these examples have been overgilded but may originally have been blue and gold.Examination of two full-length examples of the same pattern at Knole, both adjusted in size and over-gilded for their present paintings, has confirmed they we...

... iginal to Van Dyck’s portrait of Charles I Dressed in Black at Ham House, has the carv...

... rtographer Joan Blaeu I (1596-1673) whose published maps were exported widely. Jansz.’s drawing, Cartouche with a man with a pine trunk, made between 1630 and 1638 [11], shows how fictive frames in fashionable kwab designs of could be easily disseminated.Another drawing by Jansz, Cartouche with two putti and a drapery, presently given a broad dating by the Rijksmuseum of between 1630 to 1672, has an oval cartouche with irregular inner and outer edges and screaming masks [12]. It has visual similarities to a celebrated early frame now in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery. This is the carved and gilded Leatherwork frame, by an unknown maker, is on Sir Anthony van Dyck’s last Self-portrait, of about 1640/1 [13-13a]. The frame has strong Italianate and kwab characteristics – motifs at its vertical and horizontal centres, irregular inner and outer edges, masks, scrolls, and the evocation of cut, twisting and overlapping skins.This frame has been researched by Jacob Simon, who considers that Van Dyck possibly had a strong influence on frame designs in England.27 The frame is generally considered to have been made for the Self-portrait, however, it might be a few years earlier than the painting’s date of 1640/1, since it is a closely similar design to the frame in a representation of Van Dyck’s double portrait of himself with Endymion Porter in a Mortlake tapestry at Knole – and new examination of this tapestry’s border suggests it was not woven after about 1636.28 Such a date would make this one of, or the earliest known auricular Leatherwork frames and reinforces the importance of Van Dyck to frames in England....

... nd to have had their decorative surfaces stripped and refinished [16-17]. It is not possible to see whether they were originally painted and gilded, or over-all gilded.The possibly original frame on the Portrait of a Young Lady dated 1643 is also in a carved Sansovino frame. It is similar to fig. 15 but narrower and with a mask at the top centre.The frame on a Portrait of a Young Gentleman, date unknown, has a slip-frame added between the painting and frame perhaps indicating reuse for this painting. The frame shows a close relationship with the Sansovino form of the last three examples, with paired scroll centres, scrolls at each corner, and masks at the top and bottom centres – however, the sillouette is more complex, the motifs look more supple, contorting away from the inner edge, and the seed pods are becoming claws. The Sansovino form had started to become auricular....

... works of art to be executed by others. Alternatively, his use of the auricular may have inspired artists working in different media’.31 However, the frames in Figs 14-19 show this frame’s design most likely evolved incrementally and quickly in England from an Italianate Sansovino pattern.The portrait of Charles I by Van Dyck’s studio of the late 1630s at Kingston Lacey [20], exhibits some of the features of the last few frames, but while the side members retain perhaps a suggestion of concave centres they are no longer limited by symetry about them. These last seven examples [Figs 14-20] indicate the swift evolution of just one English Italianate frame pattern into the auricular – other types of English Italianate patterns made the same incremental development around the same time – together creating a new ornamental language for frames, directly related to, and yet quite distinct from, their predecessors....

11.3 The Tronies in Context

... ke’ [20].34 Special lighting, partial shadows and the removal of outline and structure characterise these works. At the same time, they serve as an experimental ground for the depiction of extravagant, often historicising costumes or people dressed in rags, unusual combinations of clothing, jewellery or weapons. Often, only one of these aspects is elaborated on, sometimes all of them, suggesting that the visualisation of different surface textures is one of the main purposes of...

... dressed in ‘orientalised’ fantasy fashions, with headscarves, turbans and other supposed attributes associated w...

6.1 ‘Steting’: A Dutch Word for Strong Contrasts

... be observed in copies of oil paintings, for instance after Van Dyck, but can also be found in paintings of high quality. Although the suggestions made in the early catalogue of the British Library regarding the author and his master are likely to be rebutted, Gerard Soest’s elaborate Portrait of Lady Borlase may serve as an example to discuss and visualise effects of steting [2]. The way in which the sitter appears silhouetted in front of the landscape may be an instance of steting, for the painting is either not finished or the background was outsourced and treated in a visibly economical way. After all, the portrait was painted in the 1670s, when even high-quality portrait painting had become a rather rationalised process in many British and British-Netherlandish workshops.20In Lady Borlase’s face, we can observe how colours were merged and how they were contrasted. Our unknown writer put forward some practical advice regarding the use of pigments for flesh colours, which would match the face colours of the portrait. The manuscript reads: ‘[i]n fleshes you must use yellow ochre plentifully and red not sparingly, I mean in the carnation fleshes’.21 Soest used ochre and red pigments in the lady’s cheeks, as well as in the shaded areas of the face and the cast shadows of the pearl necklace. It helped him to achieve a healthy-looking complexion and to merge the colours avoiding abrupt transitions between the different hues. This may be an example of their ‘harmonious agreement’ that the author wished for, but the effects also result in spatial illusion of the woman’s face. The illusion is broken at the parts of the outlines of the headdress, where the colours of the hair, the underlying brown-grey dead colours and the colours of the sky and clouds are juxtaposed....

... ted by a comparison to a copy of this painting perhaps by a member of Hanneman’s studio [4]. The copyist was able to achieve the outline-like quality of the parts around the wide sleeves of the Henry Stuart’s voluminous shirt, but he either failed to render the more glowing effect around the boy’s head or he forewent to copy it.The discussion demonstrates that steting can be applied as an art critical term in a discussion of a painting and its qualities. Yet, it never made it into written English. The word that was preferred is of course ‘contrast’. It derives from the French and can be used universally for effects to be avoided as well as encouraged. Warnings against strong contrasts of colours and chiaroscuro are common in the early modern art literature of any origin....

12.3 The Griffier Family of Painters

... views of Badminton House are still in that collection. In the 1680s he was employed by a John Archer ‘to paint and copy for him sevall peices and pictures at the houses of severall persons of quality in and about the Cittyes of London and Westminster …’.39 One of these persons of quality was the Duchess of Portland, for whom Griffier made a copy of Moses Crossing the Red Sea at her house on Pall Mall; another was the Earl of Peterborough, at whose house on Millbank Griffier made a copy of a view of Edinburgh. Apart from being commissioned to make copies of old master paintings, however, Griffier would appear to have made a substantial living from his talent for imitating the styles of 17th-century painters. Houbraken writes as foll...

14.3 Shifting Views: Dutch Landscape Painters in Britain

... llery, was possibly exhibited in 1794, since the painting is dated the same year and corresponds to a work entitled Cattle that was presented at the Royal Academy [8].32 Schweickhardt also exhibited six works at the Society of Artists in 1790. His submissions at the London exhibitions displayed mostly summer and winter views, with cattle, horses and figures and without any topographical references. Leendert De Koningh, like Cuyp also from Dordrecht, went to London in 1801, but was forced to leave Britain a year later because of the Napoleonic wars. He returned to London in 1805 to stay until 1813. He requested a passport for London again in 1816.33 Between 1809 and 1812, De Koningh exhibited three works at the Royal Academy and five at the British Institution. Gerson described his work as ‘fully in the mood of Cuyp. Next to Cuyp’s cows, the shepherd and shepherdesses dressed in modern clothes look rather strange’.34 De Koningh had adapted the style of his fellow townsman in a modern setting, with modern costumes and, occasionally, in an English landscape. For instance, a view of Putney was shown at the British Institution in 1810.35 The third, Peter La Cave, was born in Amsterdam and moved to London presumably before 1795. He sent only two works to the Royal Academy in 1801: A mill near Totness, Devonshire and Chudleigh Craggs, Devonshire.36 Like De Koningh, Le Cave painted local subjects. One of Le Cave’s works, representing Lowestoft Beach, Suffolk, is now in the Lowestoft Museum [9]. The painting presents a contemporary depiction of the Suffolk coast, an anecdotal scene of boat passengers at the shore, loading their luggage from a horse carriage....

... nt of the old masters, Cuyp particularly.39 Noteworthy, however, are his exhibits at the British Institution in 1828, when Van Worrell submitted The Giraffe, accompanied by his keeper, which was published in lithograph the year before, dedicated by the artist to ‘the King's most excellent Majesty'.40 The second submission was his remarkable picture The last shooting excursion of his late royal highness the Duke of York, now part of the Royal Collection Trust [12]. The painting was in memory of the recently deceased Prince Frederick Augustus, Duke of York and Albany.An adoption to their new British life can be detected in the works of these migrant painters at the London exhibitions. While Schweickhardt and Meijer shifted from Dutch topographical views just shortly after their arrival to unspecified landscapes, others began to use their Dutch style and anecdotal features in an English setting. An exploration of their commercial position in the following section, will make clear whether keeping their Dutch signature would proof lucrative....

9.1 Retailing India Goods

... 48), among the wealthiest and highest-ranking members of the late Stuart nobility [8].30 At least nine itemised and receipted bills, dating from 1692 to 1714, can be found among her personal papers in the Petworth House Archives.31 Queen Mary II herself was a customer (she also continued to patronise retailers in The Hague), and there is an itemised bill among the privy purse accounts outstanding at her death in December 1694.32 Another bill, from 1708, is made out to Thomas Wentworth, 3rd Baron Raby (1672-1739), later 1st Earl of Strafford, and another, from January 1718, is among the papers of Lydia, Lady Davall (1693-1750), later Duchess of Chandos.33 Mostly written in Van Collema’s own hand, the bills list the goods purchased, the date of purchase, and the price of each individual item [9]. Together with newspaper advertisements advertising the sale of his stock after his death, they provide a great deal of information about the goods he offered and the shopping behaviour of his customers....

... highly-prized types of porcelain that particularly attracted Van Collema’s wealthy customers to his shop.Besides porcelain, Van Collema also sold a range of lacquerware, art objects, small furnishings and personal items, the great majority of which were also imported from China and Japan. Lacquer cabinets and chests were among the most prized furnishings of the period. Van Collema sold ‘a fine Right Japan Cheste’ to Mary II for the large sume of £77, the term ‘Right Japan’ term signifying genuine Japanese lacquer rather than European imitation lacquer [14].43 There were several ‘fine old Japan cabinets’ among his stock at his death, including one bequeathed to his friend Mary Liddell (dates unknown), described as ‘a right Japan cabinett and ffram on which is raisd work on the door of a cuffelo and Rider on the other door an India fashioned house’.44 ‘Raisd work’ suggests that this was Japanese lacquer, rather than the less-prestigious incised Chinese ‘Coromandel’ that had dominated the market since the early 1690s, when supplies of Japanese lacquer had largely dried up. He sold small lacquered items for personal use, such as the ‘Rt japan sett for a toylet’ sold to the Duchess of Somerset in May 1707 and the red lacquer standish supplied to Queen Mary in August 1694.45 Occasionally he stocked works of art. He sold ’20 long Indian pictures’ to the duchess in 1701, and among the goods advertised after his death were ‘three Chinese Bronze Figures, of excellent Workmanship, inlaid’.46 Finally, Van Collema sold many different types of fan, at least some of which were imported from Asia, supplying them to Mary II and Queen Anne (1665-1714), as well as the Duchess of Somerset.47...

4.4 Patrons of Perspective Paintings

... e two lucrative posts in the 1660s as treasurer to the Duke of York and to the Tangier Committee.52 The latter role he resigned in favour of the diarist Samuel Pepys (1633-1703), who admired Povey’s good taste and used his contacts with painters to acquire pictures but was scathing about his overblown personality and business acumen.53 Povey was one of the original member...

... Abbey [24], Van Hoogstraten alludes to this pictorial type.68 The well-dressed man and woman stand in the south transept of the church, the cor...

4.1 Samuel van Hoogstraten in London

... of movement was moving’.14 Given its riverside location, this optical device may well have been set up in a room at the Vauxhall Operatory.Van Hoogstraten did not live continuously in London between 1662 and November 1667, when he is first documented in The Hague, his place of residence for the next four years. We know that in August 1665, he was in Dordrecht, where he witnessed a notarial act.15 This was the year of the Great Plague, when London lost approximately 15% of its population, and the death rates were highest during the summer months. Privileged Londoners fled the city; among the exodus were patrons like Thomas Povey (1613/14-c. 1705), who went to live in his country villa near Brentford in Middlesex and wrote in October that ‘death is now become so familiar and the people so insensible of danger that they look upon such as provide for the public safetie as tyrants and oppressors’.16The date of Van Hoogstraten’s return to England is unknown, but he had certainly returned by September 1666 when he witnessed the second catastrophe to visit the city in successive years: the Great Fire. He initially misjudged its seriousness, confusing ‘reddish smoke’ for billowing clouds when the light in his room in ‘Wijtstriet’ suddenly turned ‘red and glowing’. 17 The likely location, where he could watch the fire develop from a safe distance, was White Street in Southwark, south of the river, in the parish of St. George. This unassuming street was briefly described by John Strype (1643-1747) in his 1720 survey of London.18 Although Southwark had been inhabited by Dutch and Flemish textile workers, brewers, glassmakers and potters from the 16th century, it was less affluent and some distance from the fashionable districts. However, property was cheaper to rent here, and Van Hoogstraten may have needed a larger workspace to accommodate his sizeable architectural paintings. Most Dutch artists lived in the burgeoning west end, in Convent Garden and the Strand, and this geographical clustering aided the exchange of ideas, materials and contacts.19There is some suggestion that Van Hoogstraten may have painted a sign for a tavern called The Rose, which was located in Poultry, a street connecting Cheapside and Cornhill and the centre of the poultry trade in the City. According to the anonymous author of a pamphlet published in 1852, a fragment of an account book had survived the Great Fire of London in 1666, when the tavern perished, which recorded a payment to Van Hoogstraten:Pd. To ...