1.5 Jonson van Ceulen and minor masters
Before we look at English portrait painting at this period, we must first turn our attention to a number of artists who formed a bridge between the two countries, although it is impossible to establish with any degree of certainty which of the two schools they can be assigned to. The most prominent figure in this group was the London-born Cornelis Jonson van Ceulen (1593-1661).1 His parents were Dutch or Flemings but his first creative period (1618-1643) places him firmly in the context of English art [1]. In his earliest works he travelled the road on which Daniel Mijtens had embarked, remaining loyal to his model up to the early 1630s.2 A look at his numerous dated works makes it easy to ascertain the point at which his style changed. Portraits from 1631 and 1632, the year in which he was appointed ‘Picture drawer’ by Charles I, are still very much in the Mijtens style [2]. By the time Mijtens left for the continent in 1634, Cornelis Jonson was no longer the artist he had been in the past. From that moment on he painted more or less in the manner of van Dyck, although he interpreted the master in his own way [3]. His paintings began to acquire a very distinctive greenish-white hue, whereas his earlier works were more colourful and in their marbled fictive framing often recalled the works of the miniaturists. Cornelis Jonson seems subsequently to have retired to the countryside for a few years (because he was irritated by van Dyck’s success?). He found accommodation with the Flemish merchant, Arnold Braems (1602-1681), in Bridge [in Kent] and had ample opportunity to make financial gain from his artistic talent.3 Walpole lists a series of families whose members were painted by Jonson. Some of these portraits have survived. Walpole still had Jonson living in England in 1648. However, we know that he had already left the country by 1643, when he settled initially in Middelburg.4 Cornelis Jonson was very proud of his English origins. He signed many of the works he produced in Holland: Corus Jonson Londini (or Londinus!). From this time on his portraits gradually regained their Dutchness. Some works by him dated 1640 already exhibited the broad, robust painting style of Mierevelt and show not the slightest trace of van Dyck’s delicate elegance. Perhaps the Kent countryside had enabled him to shrug off any fashionable city airs and graces he might have acquired.
1
Cornelis Jonson van Ceulen (I)
Portrsit of Susanna Temple, later Lady Lister, dated 1620
London (England), Tate Gallery, inv./cat.nr. T03250
2
Cornelis Jonson van Ceulen (I)
Portrait of Peter Courthope (1577-1657), dated 1631
London (England), private collection Julian Opie
3
Cornelis Jonson van Ceulen (I)
Portrait of Arthur Capel, 1st Baron Capel (1604-1649) with his family, c. 1640
London (England), National Portrait Gallery, inv./cat.nr. NPG 4759
The two Luttichuijs – Simon (1610-1661) and Isaack (1616-1673) – may have been among Cornelis Jonson’s students in London.5 They, too, were born of Dutch parents in London and emigrated to Holland around 1645.6 The troubled times which preceded the overthrow and violent death of Charles I will no doubt have prompted them to leave the country, along with many others. No paintings from their time in England appear to have survived [4].7 All we are familiar with is their Dutch style. Abraham Ragueneau (1623-after 1681) left London in 1645 at the age of 22. In view of these circumstances, there is little prospect that any of the early works he produced in England have survived, if indeed he painted there at all.8 The situation as regards Herbert Tuer (died 1685) is far from clear. Walpole says he was born in England; others claim he came to London as a young man when Charles I was still on the throne but left again in 1648.9 The only portrait that he is known to have produced is that of Sir Leoline Jenkins, which he painted in Nijmegen in 1679 (National Portrait Gallery; another copy is at Jesus College, Oxford) [5-6]. Stylistically, of course, this work no longer has anything in common with the portraits that were popular at the court of Charles I.
4
Simon Luttichuys
Portrait of Thomas Morton (1564-1659), c. 1637-1638
Cambridge (England), St. John's College (University of Cambridge), inv./cat.nr. 172
5
Herbert Tuer
Portrait of Sir Leoline Jenkins (1623-1685), 1679
London (England), National Portrait Gallery, inv./cat.nr. NPG 92
6
Herbert Tuer
Portrait of Sir Leoline Jenkins (1623-1685), 1679
Oxford (England), Jesus College (University of Oxford), inv./cat.nr. PCF32
Notes
1 [Gerson 1942/1983] For images by Cornelis Jonson (or Janssen van Ceulen): Finberg 1917-1918; Finberg 1921-1922; Edwards 1932; Collins Baker 1912, vol. 1, p. 74. The young Cornelis Jonson van Ceulen II (1634-1715) went to Holland with his father, but returned to England in 1675; he died in Holland. [Hearn/van Leeuwen 2022] Cornelis Jonson’s parentage was, in fact, German and Flemish; his earliest definite surviving works are dated 1619.
2 [Hearn/van Leeuwen 2022] Gerson’s account of the development of Jonson’s style is inaccurate: at the start of his career he had two different styles simultaneously – one very Dutch, and the other a rather English one that echoed Marcus Gheeraerts II and William Larkin.
3 [Gerson 1942/1983] Willem Schellinks later spent three full months living with Braems in 1661. [Hearn/van Leeuwen 2002] On Schellinks and Braems: Schellinks/Exwood/Lehmann 1993, p. 40 (note 16), 42, 43, 45, 63, 64, 65, 69. See also p. 2.3. Although Gerson followed Walpole in stating this, in reality Braems did not acquire his estate at Bridge in Kent until 1638, and it is not clear whether Jonson really did move out of London.
4 [Hearn/van Leeuwen 2022] The correct date of 10 October 1643, on which he received a passport ‘to pass beyond the seas’ was published in Goulding 1914-1915, p. 40.
5 [Hearn/van Leeuwen 2022] There is no evidence for this statement, which Gerson took from Collins Baker: Collins Baker 1912, vol. 2, Appendix II, p. 207. See Ebert 2009, p. 77. Ebert was unable to suggest the name of any possible teacher.
6 [Gerson 1942/1983] Isaac was already in Amsterdam in 1638 (Valentiner 1938, p. 155). He is said to have painted Charles II and his brothers in Breda in 1660 (engraved by van Cornelis van Dalen). However, such a picture also appears in the estate inventory of Simon Luttichuys: Bredius 1915-1921, vol. 4, p. 1288-1295 ('Der Nachlass-Inventar von Simon Luttichuys’); Valentiner 1938. [Hearn/van Leeuwen 2022] Isaack probably went to Amsterdam in the early 1630s to learn from an unidentified master in the Dutch Republic; his first dated work is from 1638 (RKDimages 33548). Simon is first documented in Amsterdam on 26 October 1646 and had possibly arrived there with his wife Anneke van Peenen (‘Joanna Payne’) (Ebert 2009, p. 46). The series of paintings of Charles II and his brothers that was probably painted in Breda in 1660 is indeed by Simon Luttichuys, see Ebert 2009, p. 184-195. RKDimages 304866, 304874 and 304875.
7 [Hearn/van Leeuwen 2022] On Simon Luttichuys‘s work in Cambridge (such as the portrait of Thomas Morton): Ebert 2009, p. 72-82, Ebert 2012. Simon may have stayed in contact with the Painter-Stainers’ Company (the painters’ guild) in London after his move to Amsterdam and may be the 'Lilligchosen' mentioned in the 'Court Minute Books' of the Company in 1657 (Ebert 2009, p. 194).
8 [Gerson 1942/1983] Hofstede De Groot 1899. [Hearn/Van Leeuwen 2022] In fact, Ragueneau had already been listed as a member of the Walloon congregation in The Hague at Easter 1640, when he would have been aged 16.
9 [Hearn/van Leeuwen 2022] The latter seems to be a misinterpretation by Von Wurzbach; all other sources repeat Walpole’s statement that Herbert Tuer came of a British family. Several portraits appear in the visual documentation collections of the RKD and the Witt Library, London, where Tuer is listed under ‘British School’. After he had settled in the Dutch Republic he returned to London at least once: on 1/11 August 1671 he was documented at the Dutch church in London, together with his first wife Maria van Gameren (Hessels 1882, p. 91, no. 1291). Tuer probably worked with Cornelis Jonson in Utrecht, see Hearn 2015, p. 62.