2.8 History and decorative painters
To round things off we must include a number of late Dutch history and decorative painters who worked in England. Strictly speaking, they do not fit into the category of foreign representatives of Dutch art, since their work was often more in the French than the Dutch style. We have already referred to Jacob de Wet II (1641/2-1697) who decorated the interiors of the Scottish castles at Glamis and Holyrood with history paintings and grisailles [1-3].1 In 1675 he was on the point of leaving Haarlem, while in 1688 there is a record of a payment he received for work carried out in Glamis Castle.2 In other words, he spent quite some time in Scotland.
Jacob Penn was active at the court of Charles II. A St. Lucas in Painters’ Hall is the only work by him that we know of before his death in England in 1680.3 Augustinus Terwesten I (1649-1711) stayed in England from 1675 to 1678 before being appointed court painter to the Great Elector of Brandenburg.4
1
Jacob de Wet (I)
Decorations for the chapel at Glamis Castle
2
Jacob de Wet (II)
The Apotheosis of Hercules, dated 1675
Holyroodhouse (Edinburgh), Royal Collection - Holyroodhouse, inv./cat.nr. RCIN 401239
3
Jacob de Wet (II)
The Finding of Moses
Holyroodhouse (Edinburgh), Royal Collection - Holyroodhouse, inv./cat.nr. RCIN 401241
A good example of the international, albeit distinctly French-influenced, large-figure style of this time are the paintings by Jacques Parmentier (1657/8-1730) and Robbert Duval (1649-1732). Another member of the same group was Daniël Marot I (1661/4-1752), who distinguished himself as a ‘decorator’ and garden architect under William III [4].5 Jacques Parmentier, who was born in France, was apprenticed to his uncle Sébastien Bourdon in Paris. He travelled to England as early as 1676 (i.e. before William III’s ascension to the throne). In 1680 he went on a study trip to Paris in the company of Simon and Herman Verelst and Adriaen de Hennin.6 Later on he was in Holland, where he was entrusted with large-scale decorations for the castles of William III and his loyal followers, such as Het Loo and Voorst, and for the Binnenhof or inner court in The Hague. He did not return to London until after William III’s death. His art is unlikely to have become markedly pro-Dutch. Robbert Duval (1649-1732) followed his teacher Nicolaes Willingh to Berlin, from where he travelled on to Italy. Here the Dutch artist was completely transformed by his twelve-year sojourn in the south and his studies of Venetian painting. In 1682 he was back in The Hague, where he married the daughter of a favourite of William III, as a result of which he soon took up an appointment in England as director of the king’s gallery.
We are fully aware that Dutch history painting in the classical French style was by no means as frowned on in its time as it is nowadays. Hence it comes as no surprise that paintings by Gerard de Lairesse (1641- 1711) and Willem Doudijns (1630-1698) should have been sent to England.7 One of Lairesse’s students, Philip Tideman (1657-1705) from Germany, was in Scotland shortly before his death in 1705. He executed mythological scenes for the staircase and dome vaults in Hopetown House which are said to be very much in the Lairesse style [5-7].8 Dutch painters continued to be brought in even during the reigns of George I and George II in the 18th century. They included Theodoor van Pee (1668/9-1746), who painted an allegory of George I,9 and Magnus de Quiter (1694-1744), a Dutch-trained Hanoverian court painter, who arrived in London in 1709. The foremost painter of frescoes in England in the early 18th century, however, was not a Dutchman but a Briton, James Thornhill (1675/6-1734), who trained in Italy and had no reason to fear comparison with his predecessor, the Italian Antonio Verrio (c. 1636-1707).
4
Daniël Marot (I)
Semi Circular Parterre at Hampton Court, dated 1689
Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen
5
Philip Tideman
An allegory of voyaging, 1703-1705
Hopetoun House, Hopetoun House Preservation Trust, inv./cat.nr. B/7005
6
Philip Tideman
Apollo playing against Pan before the mountain-god, 1703-1705
Hopetoun House, Hopetoun House Preservation Trust, inv./cat.nr. B/7001
7
Philip Tideman
The praise of study, 1703-1705
Hopetoun House, Hopetoun House Preservation Trust, inv./cat.nr. B/7006
Notes
1 [Hearn/van Leeuwen 2022[ On the apostle series in Glamis Castle: Guilding 1986.
2 [Gerson 1942/1983] Haverkorn van Rijsewijk 1899A, p. 191-192; Bredius 1919, p. 222. [Hearn/van Leeuwen 2022] In fact, De Wet II was active in Schotland in the years 1673-86 and 1687-90. It is not known where he stayed between 1686/87, but his wife took care of his business in Scotland at this time. He received his commissions from the royal family and the Scottish nobility for about 20 years. Jager 2016, p. 369-373; see also A. Jager’s lemma in Saur 1992-2022, vol. 116 (2022), p. 55. See also Van de Puttelaar 2021, vol. 1, p. 371-385.
3 [Hearn/van Leeuwen 2022] Hayward Pitman 1913, p. 68-69 (no image); listed as destroyed in the fire of 1941 (Borg 2005, p. 207). The sources differ in opinion about his death date: c. 1686 (Waterhouse 1988, p. 215, based on Buckeridge and Walpole); according to Weyerman he died in 1674 (Weyerman 1729-1769, vol. 4, p. 328); Thieme/Becker state he died in 1680 (Thieme/Becker 1907-1950, vol. 26 [1932], p. 380). According to Borg 2005, p. 138, note 39, however, he died in 1678.
4 [Hearn/van Leeuwen 2022] This interpretation of Terwesten’s timeline as described by Houbraken is derived from Von Wurzbach 1906-1910, vol.2, p. 704. According to the interpretation of the same text by Buijsen/Dumas et al. 1998, p. 243, he left Rome in 1677 and travelled in France and England before he arrived in The Hague in 1678, where he stayed until he left for Berlin in 1690.
5 [Gerson 1942/1983] Ozinga 1938, p. 88-96. The Boijmans Museum acquired in 1939 a drawing by Marot showing designs of the gardens of Hampton Court (signed and dated 1689; from sale Amsterdam (Mensing), 29 November – 1 December 1939, no. 706.[Hearn/van Leeuwen 2022] Jackson-Stops 1980, p. 244.
6 [Hearn/van Leeuwen 2022] Gerson derived this information from Walpole, who wrote (under Simon Verelst): ‘In 1680, Varelst, his brother Harman, Henny and Parmentiere, all painters, went to Paris, but stayed not long’ (Walpole et al. 1762/1876 [ed. Wornum], vol. 2, p. 115).
7 [Gerson 1942/1983] Hofstede de Groot 1893, p. 305; Van Zuiden 1912, p. 34.
8 [Gerson 1942/1983] Hofstede De Groot 1893B, p. 222.[Hearn/van Leeuwen 2022] In reality, Tideman executed 37 paintings for Hopetown House in Amsterdam in 1703/4. The decorations on the staircase Hofstede de Groot had seen before 1893 were sold or destroyed in the 1930s; 18 overdoors and overmantels have survived. On the commission: Skinner 1964.
9 [Hearn/van Leeuwen 2022] Gerson derives this information from Weyerman, who provides an extensive and detailed description of a large ceiling painting van Pee made in Amsterdam on commission for a ‘Baron Beck’ in London. The painting contained a portrait of George in a golden frame, carried to heaven by three putti to Apollo, several personifications, an a representation of Baron Beck. Weyerman 1729-1769, vol. 4, p. 397- 400.