RKD STUDIES

We have already drawn attention to Pieter van Roestraeten (1630-1700) and Thomas Wijck (1616/21-1677), the painter of the alchemists. Daniel Boone (1630/1 – 1692), who like van Roestraeten was friends with the sons of Frans Hals, settled in London as an art dealer not long after 1665.¹ His rare works show him to be an emulator of Adriaen Brouwer and Egbert van Heemskerck I (1634-1704). The latter, who went to England at a late stage in his life, is known for his scenes of sermons and meetings of Quakers (one from 1690 at the Hoech auction in Munich, 1899; another in Hampton Court; drawings in London and in the Louvre) [1-4]. His popular images of apprentices drinking certainly appear to have gone down well. He also painted ‘immoral’ scenes for Lord Rochester. Jacob Campo Weyerman talks of Egbert van Heemskerck II (c. 1676-1744) who is said to have died in 1744. There is no agreement to date on which paintings from this group should be attributed to the younger of the two Heemskercks.² Pieter Nijs (1624-1681) painted peasant scenes in England in the manner of Jan Miense Molenaer and Michiel Carrée.³ Francis Le Piper (c. 1640-1695), an amateur artist, must be mentioned at this point, although he came from a Flemish family who had settled in England. He travelled a lot, visiting amongst other places Amsterdam where he met Gerard de Lairesse, whose drawings he copied with great skill.⁴ Isaac Beckett’s mezzotints give us an idea of his style of drawing, which recalls works by Heemskerck and Rembrandt [5].⁵

1
Egbert van Heemskerck (I)
The Quaker Meeting, c. 1690
Philadelphia (Pennsylvania), Haverford College, inv./cat.nr. HC09-4861

Marcellus Laroon I (1648/9-1702) takes us on to another Dutch-English family of artists. A painter of portraits and genre scenes, he went to England, where he is reported to have studied under Balthasar Flessiers II (?) in the 1670s.⁶ He will probably have learnt the art of portraiture there as an assistant to Kneller. He distinguished himself as a skilful genre painter with a witty series of scenes entitled Cries of London [7-8] published in 1688. Marcel Laroon passed this talent on to his son, Marcellus Laroon II (1679-1772), who for a number of years swapped his drawing pencil for a rifle, serving as a soldier and officer from 1707 to 1732 [6].⁷ The drawing style of the two Laroons consists of a combination of elements both Flemish (David Teniers II, Pieter Angellis) and Dutch (Egbert van Heemskerck). They illustrate many aspects of contemporary everyday life but without William Hogarth’s (1697-1764) biting satire. On the contrary, one can well imagine that Hogarth learned and assimilated something from the skilfully animated drawing technique of the Laroons. The younger of the two was not a ‘distinguished’ artist; he was an opera singer and purchased paintings for Walpole. Jacob Campo Weyerman met him in London and provided a lively account of his life. The Duke of Beaufort in Badminton also patronised him.⁸

6
Marcellus Laroon (II)
Market tent in camp, dated 1707
London (England), Courtauld Institute of Art

In the second half of the century the style of refined genre images was greatly influenced by Gerard Dou (1613-1675) and Frans van Mieris I (1635-1681). Just how highly esteemed Dou’s paintings were in England can be seen from the fact that in 1660 the States of Holland added three works (the only ones by a Dutch artist!) they had purchased from him to the great gift they made to Charles II [9].⁹ Houbraken also reports that Charles II, ‘hebbende groot gevallen in zyne penceelconst’ [= taking much pleasure in his brushwork], tried very hard to attract Dou to his court. Although the artist never went to England, his works are far from rare there; James II’s (1633-1701) alone had four of them in his collection.¹⁰ Gijsbert Andriesz. Verbrugge (1637-1730), one of Dou’s pupils of whom very little is known, worked in London before settling permanently in Delft from 1699. If the painter Joost van Geel (1631-1698), who worked under Cromwell in England in 1657, was identical with the imitator of Gabriel Metsu (1629-1667), that would make him one of the first to take the style of the Leiden fine painters to England.¹¹

Godefridus Schalcken (1643-1706) appears to have devoted himself primarily to portrait painting during the time he spent in England from 1692 to 1694.¹² William III sat for him [10] and Robert Spencer, 2nd Earl of Sunderland (1641-1702), employed him in Althorp,¹³ where he trained a now completely unknown student, the portraitist Gramagli. We need not lament the loss of the latter’s unknown oeuvre, however, for contemporaries said of him that he was ‘een portretschilder, dog van de slegste soort’ [a portrait painter, but of the worst kind].¹⁴

To judge by descriptions of his work, Caspar Smits (c. 1635-1688) must have painted many pictures of the repentant Mary Magdalene in the manner of the Dou school [11].¹⁵ He achieved a certain renown in his time under the sobriquet of ‘Magdalene Smith’. Apart from these paintings his repertoire included still lifes [12] and floral images. Should the still lifes in Berlin, Madrid and elsewhere with the inscription T. Sauts or Smits really be by this artist, then he deserves genuine credit for helping to disseminate Dutch art.¹⁶ Later on in his life he went to Ireland, where he died around 1700 [=1688].¹⁷

9
Gerard Dou
Young mother, dated 1658
The Hague, Koninklijk Kabinet van Schilderijen Mauritshuis, inv./cat.nr. 32

10
Godefridus Schalcken
Portrait of William III of Orange (1650-1702) in candlelight, c. 1695-1696
Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv./cat.nr. SK-A-367

It would be inappropriate not to mention the name of Adriaen van der Werff (1659-1722) at the end of this section on Dutch fine painting abroad. The Hanoverian kings of England do not appear to have been very enthusiastic about his art but Sir Gregory Page (c. 1695-1775) a rich art collector, acquired ten valuable paintings [13-15] shortly before the artist’s death which his heirs sold along with other of his art possessions. The French royal house paid fabulous prices for some of these in the late 18th century.¹⁸