RKD STUDIES

We will pass by the Mannerist images of Cornelis Ketel (1548-1616) and his successors, since they arose before the specifically Dutch expansion began.¹ Pioneering the new dawn was Hendrick Goltzius (1558-1617), whose engravings were also sold in England.² When homage was paid to James I as King of England in London in 1604, the Dutch community did not wish to be seen as dragging its feet and so it had a triumphal arch erected by Conraet Jansen (c. 1543-after 1604) [1] which was painted by Daniël de Vos I (1568-1605) and Paulus van Overbeeck II. We know nothing else about these two artists; they might have been painters who fled from the southern Netherlands.³

More reliable information is available on Adriaen van Nieulandt (c. 1586/7-1658), who delivered a painting for Ham House in 1615 which is still there today [2]. The Earl of Holderness, then the owner of the house, commissioned a companion piece showing Caesar in his Tent from Jacques de Gheyn II (1565-1629) who, as we will recall, made his way to London at this time [3].⁴ Both these pictures were among the earliest non-Mannerist figure paintings made by Dutch artists for English clients. Cornelis Drebbel (1572-1633), one of the most talented pupils of de Gheyn and Goltzius, made regular visits to England. In his artistic work he concentrated solely on ‘perspective’ and engravings.⁵ James I was so impressed by the great variety of his creations that he granted him an annual salary. Works by Abraham Bloemaert (1566-1651) were regularly among the figure paintings ordered from Holland by customers in other countries, England being no exception in this respect. The Earl of Arundel (1585-1646), for instance, received some paintings by Bloemaert in 1629, but regrettably we know nothing about their content.⁶ Elisabeth of Bohemia (1596-1662), who held the painter in great esteem, visited him in 1626 and ordered a picture of her dog, which she presented as a gift to Sir Dudley Carleton (1573-1632).⁷ The Danish artist Francis Clein (1582-1658), who arrived in England in 1622, was employed at a weaving mill in Mortlake in 1625. We will return to him later, but it is clear that he cannot automatically be included among the Dutch-trained artists, particularly since he studied in Venice. Be that as it may, there are many points of contact in his oeuvre with the art of the so-called pre-Rembrandtists.⁸

Since Charles I employed various portrait painters from Utrecht at his court, it seems reasonable to assume that some genre images from Utrecht were to be found there, too. The fact that the Utrecht Caravaggists had connections with the world of Italian art must have been a strong recommendation in itself, since Charles greatly admired Italian paintings, as is evidenced by the works in his collection. Orazio Gentileschi (1563-1639), who belonged to the same group of artists, likewise worked for the English court.⁹ Gerard van Honthorst (1592-1656) not only painted portraits for English customers; it was under his aegis that work began on the great Odysseus series, which was certainly ‘Utrechtian’ in character. Various of his genre paintings from Utrecht have been discussed above.¹⁰ A genre painting by Honthorst is described in the catalogue of the collection of the Duke of Buckingham (1592-1628) as ‘a large piece of a tooth drawer with many figures’ [4].¹¹ In other words, pictures of this kind really were to be found in English collections. Charles I also owned a painting by Hendrick ter Brugghen (1588-1629) [5].¹² Louise Hollandine (1622-1709), Honthorst’s pupil, sent her uncle Charles I a picture of Tobias with the Angel together with various portraits.¹³ Another aspect of Utrecht art is represented by Cornelis van Poelenburch (1594/5-1667), whom we mentioned earlier when looking at the Dutch portraitists. Whether his landscapes with ruins and mythological staffage were painted in England or dispatched later from Utrecht is of little consequence. Charles I owned a whole series of them [6-7].¹⁴ The same taste is evident from the Italianate landscapes Charles I acquired from Bartholomeus Breenbergh (1598-1657). In his inventory they are referred to slightly incorrectly as works by a certain Bartholomea.¹⁵ Joachim von Sandrart reports that an ‘Englishman’ by the name of Cornelis Stoop (Stopp) painted caverns and grottos from a strange perspective. In Dresden a grotto in the manner of Abraham van Cuylenborch I was attributed to this otherwise completely unknown artist. Could it be that he also came from Utrecht? Judging by the description of his works they would fit in well with the group under discussion here.¹⁶

1
Willem Kip after Stephen Harrison after design of Conraet Jansen published by John Sudbury and George Humble
The Pegme of the Dutchmen, dated 1604
London (England), British Museum, inv./cat.nr. 1981,U.3018

2
Adriaen van Nieulandt
Diana with nymphs, dated 1615
Richmond (Greater London), Ham House, inv./cat.nr. NT 1139668

3
Jacques de Gheyn (II)
Julius Caesar on horseback, writing and dictating simultaneously to his scribes, c. 1618–1622
Richmond (Greater London), Ham House, inv./cat.nr. NT 1139674