RKD STUDIES

The landscape painters who made their way to England at this time can best be divided into two categories on the basis of their activities: on the one hand, those travelling around for their own education and pleasure who made sketches in England and, on the other, pure landscapists, vedute painters and animal-landscape artists, although the boundaries between the two categories are quite fluid.¹ The first group includes Lambert Doomer (1624-1700) and Willem Schellinks (1623-1678), both of whom were travelling artists par excellence.² Their drawings of English ports are now in the so-called Atlas Blaeu (or rather Atlas van der Hem) in Vienna [1] together with views Schellinks made of Cambridge [2], Winchester [3], Salisbury [4] and other places in the 1660s. The British Museum has other works from the journey Schellinks undertook through England, almost all of which have a place name, one sheet being dated 1662. Many drawings arose during the artist’s trips through Cornwall [5-7]; others depict Stonehenge [8] and the surroundings of Canterbury [9], where he spent three months as the guest of Arnold Braems (1602-1682) in Bridge.³ He is credited with a number of paintings showing the surprise attack on the English fleet near Rochester (June 1667) (Geneva and Amsterdam as ‘R. Nooms’?) [10-11].⁴ In the 1640s Schellinks and Doomer were together in France. This time, however, Schellinks travelled as a companion to the young Jaques Thierry II (1648-1709) on a journey to which we have already referred on several occasions.

1
Willem Schellinks
Salisbury from the South West, after 1662
Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek

In the case of Jacob Esselens (1627/8-1687) it was his business connections – he dealt in velvet and silk – which took him to England.⁵ He returned from his journeys with a large number of attractive drawings, many of which are again to be found in the Atlas Blaeu. His works are frequently to be found elsewhere, too.⁶ Worthy of special mention are three large, carefully executed views of London in the Copenhagen Gallery [12-14].⁷ A signed landscape painting with Hampton Court Palace in the background is in the collection of Sir William Worsley in Hovingham Hall [15].⁸

We cannot be certain whether Jan de Bisschop (1628-1671) and Jan van der Heyden (1637-1712) were ever in England. ‘English’ drawings, including a View of the Thames (collection of W. Craig Henderson) which reproduces exactly the same scene as a work by Esselens in Copenhagen, have been attributed to Jan de Bisschop, but he could just as easily have worked from a model, which he was accustomed to doing [16-17].⁹ The estate of Jan van der Heyden’s wife contained ‘een tekeningh de beurs van London’. However, since no artist’s name is inscribed on the drawing we cannot be sure whether Houbraken’s statement that he painted the London Stock Exchange is correct [18].¹⁰

Frans Post (1612-1689), whom we unexpectedly came across earlier on in France, must also have paid a visit to England, because an Honsholredijk inventory of 1764 says: ‘na ’t Leven het Koninklijke Casteel van Winsor bij Londen gesch(ild)ert door Frans Post’ [= ‘after Life the Royal Palace of Windsor near London painted by Frans Post’].¹¹ According to these documentary notes there were also several drawings.

A Michiel van Overbeek [= Monogrammist MVO, active c. 1650-1680] was in London before the Great Fire of 1666. He made drawings of the city [19-20] and of various smaller towns on his route such as Dover, Margate and Greenwich [21-22]. Frits Lugt and Arthur Mayger Hind have compiled the largely unknown works of this artist, about whom art historians still know comparatively little. He was probably a relative of the ‘archaeologist’ Bonaventura van Overbeek, who devoted his great work on the Roman ruins to Queen Anne of England. ¹²

Mention should be made in conclusion of Constantijn Huygens II (1628-1697), who as secretary to William III (1650-1702) included drawings in his ‘Dagverhaal eener Reis naar Engeland’ [= diary of his trip to Engeland], and of Jacobus Houstraet (c. 1630-after 1671), whose ‘lantschap met de bergh van Doeveren’ was sold in Amsterdam in 1669.¹³ This group of artists is not that significant for our study, however, since their works were not very well known abroad and they will, therefore, not have had any influence.

18
Jan van der Heyden
A demonstration of fire engines at the foot of the monument to the Great Fire of London, ca. 1695-1700
Amsterdam, Koninklijk Oudheidkundig Genootschap, inv./cat.nr. Port. 22

The situation is different in respect of landscape painters like Claude de Jongh (1605/6-1663) (from Utrecht) and Jan Looten (1617/8-1680/1). Claude de Jongh was in London on several occasions, perhaps even during the reign of Charles I.¹⁴ We know of four delightful views he produced of London with the Thames and London Bridge (collection of the Earl of Northbrook; Victoria and Albert Museum; Kenwood House and fig. 33/105) [23-26]. The picture in Kenwood House arose as early as 1630; two others are exact copies from 1650. The appearance of the city does not seem to have changed much in the intervening twenty years.¹⁵ It was not until the 1660s that Jan Looten arrived in London, where he died in 1681.¹⁶ He played a crucial role in the development of English landscape painting not only by virtue of his landscapes in the manner of Jacob van Ruisdael and Meindert Hobbema, but also as the teacher of Jan Griffier I (1645/52-1718), who took the Dutch style forward into the next century. Looten sold many of his decorative wooded landscapes, which were well received at court, too; James II (1633-1701) had three of them. However, Pepys, who knew the artist and visited him, said he had ‘no good pictures’. Be that as it may, Griffier’s style of painting was held in great esteem not only by the Dutch artists who came to England but also by the first 17th century English landscape artists.

23
Claude de Jongh
View of the Old London Bridge, dated 1650
Great Britain, private collection Frances Arthur (4th Baron of Northbrook) Baring

Sunset made in 1679 by Robert Aggas (c. 1620-c. 1682), which is now in the Company of Painter-Stainers, is undeniably full of reminiscences of the Dutch style in the manner of Looten and Jan Both, although it must be admitted that he was also greatly influenced by Claude and his school [27]. The connection with the Dutch school is even more noticeable in the case of Robert Streater (1621-1679), a contemporary of the much celebrated ‘Sergeant Painter to King Charles II’. His teacher is said to have been a certain Du Moulin, a relative of Pieter de Molijn perhaps, who was born in London. Nowadays, Streeter’s pictures strike us as being very primitive and handcrafted and in many respects even more old-fashioned than the style embodied by Jan Looten [28-29]. He is somewhere in between Alexander Keirincx and Jan Looten, as it were.¹⁷

27
Robert Aggas
Landscape at Sunset, dated 1679
London (England), Painters' Hall (The Worshipful Company of Painter-Stainers)

Francis Place (1647-1728) was an amateur artist who fits in here. He cannot really be counted among the landscape painters since, as far as we know, he worked only as an etcher and draughtsman. He was very familiar with Wencelaus Hollar and made engravings after his etchings. He also emulated Hollar in the latter’s natural observation of the landscape, which links him to Dutch draughtsmen such as Esselens and Breenbergh [30-31].¹⁸ Place’s drawings are much crisper and more uninhibited than his etchings, the linework of which is quite stiff and old fashioned. The line leading from Hollar to Place in England came to a temporary end. There is nothing we can say about the art of Richard Farrington (c. 1625-after 1664), since we have yet to come across any work by this artist, who lived in Dordrecht for a long time but returned to London in 1664 [32-33]. Could he have been the first to make Aelbert Cuyp’s landscapes known in England?¹⁹

After that brief digression we return now to the ‘genuine’ Dutch artists. A series of minor talents followed Keirincx and Looten to England. Willem van Bemmel (1630-1708) from Utrecht was in the country for a short time around 1653,²⁰ while the art dealer and painter, Gerrit Uylenburgh (1625-1679), was looking for somewhere to hide after going bankrupt in London in 1677.²¹ Lely employed him to paint views and landscapes in his pictures. Thomas Wijck (1616/21-1677) and Lieve Verschuier (1627-1686) presented a colourful depiction of the Great Fire which raged through London in 1666 [34-35]. Verschuier, who does not appear to have been in London, was obliged to rely on his imagination and other models. Thomas Wijck’s vedute of London are among the most attractive of their kind (fig. 34/106) [36].²² They reveal the eye of a painter who doesn’t pretend something is there which isn’t. His meticulousness does not degenerate into pedantry. George Vertue, who had seen plenty of vedute, said of a painting owned by Lord Burlington that it was ‘the best view of London’. Thomas Wijck went to London together with his son Jan Wyck (1652-1700) (to whom we shall return elsewhere).

Jan Wyck struck up a close friendship with Jan Vincentsz. van de Vinne (1663-1721), who was said to have ‘fled’ to London in 1686 to escape his stepmother.²³ Apart from London and Windsor Van der Vinne must also have been in Oxford and Bristol, for he made a number of drawings showing scenes from this region [37-41].²⁴ He spent only two years in England, though. Daniël de Bondt (active 1659-1672), of whom it was laconically said in 1671 that he ‘woont in Englant’ [lives in England], drew in the manner of van de Vinne.²⁵ Incidentally, van de Vinne’s father Vincent Laurensz. van der Vinne I (1628-1702), who was renowned for his diaries, carried out commissions for English clients. He provided the designs for a book on art and science that was due to be published by Richard Blome but never appeared. The British Museum possesses various studies and engravings made in preparation for this failed enterprise, some of them with a dedication to Henry Pierrepont, 1st Marquess of Dorchester [42].²⁶

34
manner of/circle of Thomas Wijck or possibly circle of Jan Griffier (I) or possibly Waggoner
The Great Fire of London, after 1666
London (England), Society of Antiquaries of London

35
Lieve Verschuier
The Great Fire of London in 1666, after 1666
Budapest, Szépmüvészeti Múzeum, inv./cat.nr. 380

Dutch artists did not always bring a purely Dutch style and Dutch manner of painting with them to England. Adriaen de Hennin (active 1665- 1710), who went to England in 1677/8,²⁷ had assimilated Nicolas Poussin’s style after a two-year stay in France and adhered to it when he was in England. Although Jacques Rousseau (1630-1693) studied under Herman van Swanevelt in Paris, the decorative pictures he painted for Hampton Court [43-46] and Montague House [47] were works of French painting in the manner of Claude Lorrain and Poussin. Gerard van Edema (1652/6-1700?), on the other hand, was a pupil of Allaert van Everdingen.²⁸ He had arrived in London a few years earlier after travelling widely. Both artists numbered English aristocrats among their customers and so will have fared reasonably well. Edema painted views of Sir Richard Edgcumbe’s (1640-1688) estates at Mount Edgecumbe in Devon [48-51]. It was here that he met Willem van de Velde II, who was enjoying Sir Richard’s hospitality for a while. Jan Wyck, who had likewise been summoned here, supplied the staffage for Edema’s panoramic views. These do not rank among his best works, however.²⁹ The paintings of forests in Hampton Court (in stock), on the other hand, are proficient, decorative works in the style of Jan Looten and Allaert van Everdingen [52-55].

47
Jacques Rousseau
Decorative Landscape from Montagu House, c 1692
Boughton House (Northamptonshire), Bowhill House (estate), Montagu House (Bloomsbury), private collection Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry

Hendrik van der Straaten (c. 1665-1722) was an artist who revered the Old Masters. He is said to have painted landscapes in the manner of Hobbema and Ruisdael, but Jacob Campo Weyerman (1677-1747), who met him in London in 1715, said he worked in the style of van der Does and occasionally painted Alpine landscapes.³⁰ The two drawings in the British Museum essentially confirm both characteristics [56-57]. Around 1690 van der Straaten went to London, where he died in 1722. He seems to have been more important as a pioneer and communicator of 18th century English art than can now be deduced from the modest oeuvre he left. He also painted some animal landscapes, to which we will return below.

After arriving in England the landscape painter Jan Griffier (c. 1645?-1718), a pupil of Jan Looten, found a patron in the Henry Somerset, 1st Duke of Beaufort (1629-1700), who also employed Caspar Netscher’s ‘pupil’ Samuel Browne (active 1680-1691). Griffier was in England in 1667 and in his native country from 1695 to 1705 but then returned to London, where he settled for good. He had a boat in which he sailed on the Thames, capturing views of London and its environs (fig. 107) [58]. This gentleman of Utrecht, as the Englishmen called him, also painted Italian ruins and scenes from the Rhineland in the style of as well as imitations of Ruisdael and Everdingen. It was probably he and not his son, Jan Griffier II (1698-1773?) who painted ‘antique ruins’ and little bathing nymphs, a pictorial theme that had not been addressed since van Poelenburch was in England. A certain John [Jan] Stevens (died 1722), who was ‘said to have been a Dutchman’, painted in the manner of Griffier. Horace Walpole counted him among the successors to Adriaen van Diest.³¹ Henry Ferguson (1665-1730), who earned a living by undertaking menial work for Lely and Kneller, must also have painted little pictures of ruins.³² The art of Griffier and others like him, whom we have already mentioned, ultimately had its origins in Jacob Ruisdael and Allaert von Everdingen and occasionally in the darker and more chaotic variations of a Roelant Roghman or Jan Looten.

58
Jan Griffier (I)
View of Hampton Court Palace, c. 1710
London (England), Tate Britain, inv./cat.nr. T00408

As a rule, the Dutch landscape painters in England earned a living more from painting vedute than anything else.³³ Their task was to portray country seats and palaces for the aristocracy, for instance, or a view of London before and after the Great Fire for town and city dwellers. This was not particularly helpful in furthering the art of landscape painting. Claude de Jongh’s views of London Bridge and Thomas Wyck’s urban scenes are loving depictions of the old city. Griffier’s and Edema’s panoramic views take second place to them. Abraham Hondius’ (c. 1631-1691) depiction of the severe winter in London in 1676/7 (Museum of London) [59] also deserves an honourable mention. Hendrick Danckerts (c. 1625-1680) and Johannes Vorstermans (1643-1686) painted ‘views’ of the royal palaces for Charles II (1630-1685) [60-62], whereas Johannes Danckerts I (1615/6-1686), who was only in England for a short time, mainly worked for engravers.³⁴ Paintings by Hendrick Danckerts were held in high regard. James II possessed no less than 28 of his landscapes. Charles II extolled their ‘careful execution’, while Pepys, who ordered a number of copies in 1669, compared the prospects of Greenwich with nature and deemed them ‘very like and very pretty’. The paintings, which are now in Greenwich and Hampton Court, stand out from the usual topography thanks to their aesthetic light and pleasant, painterly colouring [63-64].³⁵ Johannes Vorstermans appears a little rougher and less refined, if a non-inscribed view of Greenwich (National Maritime Museum) is anything to go by [65].

59
Abraham Hondius
Frozen Thames, looking eastwards towards Old London Bridge, London, dated 1677
London (England), Museum of London, inv./cat.nr. 35.190

An otherwise unknown painter by the name of Cornelis Bol (1589-1666) (from Holland?) must have been in London in the 1660s and witnessed the Great Fire of London. The Museum at Dulwich has two views of the Thames bearing the monogram CB, which are attributed to him, although they look more like less successful works by Abraham Storck [66]. The British Museum has a drawing with a view of Gravesend [67]. Bol appears to have travelled widely, given that views of Amsterdam, Paris, Constantinople and two of London are listed in an inventory of 1661.³⁶

Leonard Knijff (1650-1722) must have painted his very large, panoramic, bird’s-eye views of English country seats between 1670 and 1690 [68].³⁷ Houbraken says the same about Jacob Knijff (1639-1681).³⁸ Adriaen van Diest (1655-1704) is another of these ornamental painters and scenic artists. Resident in London from 1673, he painted numerous views of the West of England for John Granville, 1st Earl of Bath (1628-1701). He may have been the son of the marine painter, Jeronymus van Diest II (1634-in or after 1684).³⁹ Adriaen married the daughter of Adam de Colonia II (1634- 1685) (see below), who provided the staffage for his paintings. His brother-in-law, Adriaan de Colonia (1668-1701), on the other hand, was his pupil. We came across his son, Johan van Diest (died after 1757), during our look at the portraitists.

In conclusion, mention must be made of Robert Griffier (c. 1675-after 1727), the son of Jan Griffier I who, like his father, continued the Saftleven style on into the 18th century, during which the Dutch panoramic approach was taken up again by English vedute and sporting painters. Robert Griffier was in Ireland in 1696 and then spent some time in Amsterdam, where he was active as an art dealer selling copies he made after Jacob van Ruisdael, Adriaen van de Velde and Philips Wouwerman, which ultimately entailed him leaving Holland and returning to England. Many of his panoramic views are very English in their approach to landscape and the way they are enlivened by riders and hunters [69].⁴⁰ He clearly pursues the path taken by Danckerts and Vorsterman. A view of London on Lord Mayor’s Day in 1748 is particularly attractive (collection of the Duke of Buccleuch) [70].

68
Leonard Knijff
Bird's-eye view of Clandon, dated 1708
Guildford (Surrey), Clandon Park, inv./cat.nr. NT 1441485