The Great Theatre of Dutch Painters

Last updated
The Great Theatre of Dutch Painters and Paintresses
Schouburg I PlateTitleprint with Otto van Veen.jpg
Title page of the Schouburg with a portrait of Otto van Veen
Author Arnold Houbraken
Original titleDe groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen
CountryNetherlands
Language Dutch
SubjectArtist biographies
Publisher Arnold Houbraken
Publication date
1718–1721

The Great Theatre of Dutch Painters and Paintresses, or De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen, as it was originally known in Dutch, is a series of artist biographies with engraved portraits written by the 18th-century painter Arnold Houbraken. It was published in three volumes as a sequel to Karel van Mander's own list of biographies known as the Schilder-boeck . The first volume appeared in 1718, and was followed by the second volume in 1719, the year Houbraken died. The third and last volume was published posthumously by Houbraken's wife and children in 1721. This work is considered to be a very important source of information on 17th-century artists of the Netherlands. The Schouburg is listed as one of the thousand most important works in the Canon of Dutch Literature  [ nl ] from the Middle Ages to the present day. [1]

Contents

Background and influences

The Schouburg was not the first sequel to Karel van Mander's work. Various authors had attempted to illustrate Van Mander's work and in 1649, Jan Meyssen published Image de divers hommes in imitation of Anthony van Dyck's Iconography. Cornelis de Bie published his Het Gulden Cabinet in 1662, André Félibien published his Entretiens sur les vies et sur les ouvrages des plus excellents peintres anciens et modernes in 1666, and these were followed by Jacob von Sandrart's illustrated Teutsche Akademie in 1668. Houbraken was very familiar with Inleyding tot de Hooge Schoole der Schilderkonst, 1678, published by his teacher Samuel van Hoogstraten for students of art. Roger de Piles published L'Abrégé de la vie des peintres in the 1690s followed by Florent le Comte with his Cabinet des singularitez in 1699. As a gifted engraver, Houbraken wished to correct mistakes and omissions in these earlier works, while updating biographies with engraved portraits of artists. All of these works were used as sources for Houbraken and he mentions them in the first chapter of his first volume.

The Schouburg was published in three volumes, the first of which was simply meant as an addendum to Karel van Mander's work, and listed about 200 artists born between 1466 (starting with Erasmus) and 1613 (ending with Jacques van Artois) that had been omitted or whose lives extended beyond Van Mander's 1604 publication date. The popularity of this volume was such that a second volume was prepared immediately, while plans were made to continue the project up to the period in which Houbraken was writing at the start of the 18th century.

While leaning heavily on the sources already mentioned, Houbraken also consulted local history books of various cities in the Netherlands. Other, unpublished sources for his material came from various contacts via his professional network, mostly members of the Guild of St. Luke in Holland. He listed many men who became members of the Bentvueghels group in Rome while on their Grand Tour, but he also listed most of the men in a competency list drawn up by Vincent van der Vinne before he died in 1702. Houbraken kept to a system of importance where capitals meant very important, and lower case were honorable mentions. Though the capitalized names were meant for the index, the index of the first volume was far from complete at the time of publication. A later edition of all three books in 1756 contains an improved index and this book is now available online in the Digital library for Dutch literature.

Characteristic features

Notable omissions

The absence from Houbraken's work of several painters who are now much more highly regarded than others he considered noteworthy, is an interesting feature of the work, and reveals changes in taste since his time; the most notorious omission is Jan Vermeer, who is mentioned once in passing. Other notorious omissions are Jan van de Cappelle, Judith Leyster, Jan Wynants, Jacobus Mancadan, and Hendrick Avercamp. While Vermeer, Ruysch, and Leyster are mentioned, they are only briefly touched upon. [2]

However, Houbraken himself died before publishing the final volume, and he repeatedly mentions the impossibility of a complete list. In his first volume he includes painters that he complained were oversights by Karel van Mander, who he regarded as his greatest example. He highly respected all artist biographers who came before him, such as Sandrart, De Bie, and De Lairesse. In fact, Houbraken was quite keen to include painters that he thought were overlooked before him and was quite thorough in his endeavours. Therefore, his omissions are equally the omissions of previous biographers, though it is Houbraken who receives all the blame. The exact state of his book at the time of his death is unknown: his son Jacob, his daughter Antonina, and his wife all helped to patch things up for publication, and it is quite possible that their own opinions slipped into the finished work.[ citation needed ]

Biases

In general, Houbraken tends to follow the contemporary prejudices of the hierarchy of genres and undervalue landscapists, marine artists and painters of still life.

The Houbraken family appeared to manifest certain other prejudices or biases. These may be categorised, broadly, as:

Schilderessen

Translated, the title of the book is Theatre of Painters and Paintresses, indicating that Houbraken wrote about women painters, or schilderessen. However, the list of women he included in the book is really quite short. Though he included short biographies of many painters who were closely related to women painters, the only paintresses he included by name were:

Of these, he included illustrations of only three women: Schurman, Merian, and Koerten-Blok. Houbraken also mentioned two women poets; Gesina Brit and Catharina Questiers.

Contents

Volume I

The engraved portraits included as illustrations in Volume I are below, followed by the artists listed in order of appearance in the text. The first illustration is of Houbraken himself.

Commons-logo.svg Media related to Schouburg I at Wikimedia Commons

Volume II

The engraved portraits included as illustrations in Volume II are below, followed by the artists listed in order of appearance in the text.

Commons-logo.svg Media related to Schouburg II at Wikimedia Commons

Volume III

The engraved portraits included as illustrations in Volume III are below, followed by the artists listed in order of appearance in the text.

Commons-logo.svg Media related to Schouburg III at Wikimedia Commons

Notes

  1. ↑ The name appears in the entry as "GELSDORF" but refers to George Geldorp. Houbraken calls him an "Engelsman" ('Englishman') who "made many pourtretts in England" and reports that Joachim von Sandrart considered Geldorp a poor draughtsman, who used guides drawn by others as the basis for some figures in his paintings: [lower-alpha 2]
    Sandrart, meld ook in dien tyd van eenen Engelsman GELSDORF genaamt, die veel pourtretten in Engeland heeft gemaakt. Dog hy kon niet teekenen, waarom hy ook genootzaakt was door iemant anders den omtrek van 't wezen op papier te laten teekenen, 't geen hy dan met een naalt doorgeprikt, op zyn paneel doorsponste. Diergelyke soort ontmoet ons nu en dan al meer. Dog wy hebben onze pen niet voor krukken en breekebeenen versneden.
    — "Gelsdorf", Groote Schouburgh Part II, p. 88
    George, born and trained in Cologne, was the son of Flemish portraitist Gortzius Geldorp; he moved to London from Antwerp in 1623, holding positions at court.
  2. Arnold Houbraken (1719). "Gelsdorf". De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen (in Dutch). Vol. Part Two. p. 88 – via DBNL.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nicolaes Pieterszoon Berchem</span> Dutch painter (1620–1683)

Nicolaes Pieterszoon Berchem was a highly esteemed and prolific Dutch Golden Age painter of pastoral landscapes, populated with mythological or biblical figures, but also of a number of allegories and genre pieces.

De Grootste Nederlander was a public poll held in 2004 by the broadcasting company KRO of the Publieke Omroep. The series has the BBC's 100 Greatest Britons TV format. During the series, it included individual programmes on the top ten, with viewers having further opportunities to vote after each programme.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Netherlands at the 1936 Summer Olympics</span> Sporting event delegation

The Netherlands competed at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany. 165 competitors, 145 men and 20 women, took part in 75 events in 15 sports.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bentvueghels</span> Former artist society in Rome, Italy

The Bentvueghels were a society of mostly Dutch and Flemish artists active in Rome from about 1620 to 1720. They are also known as the Schildersbent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bartholomeus Breenbergh</span> Dutch painter (1598–1657)

Bartholomeus Breenbergh was a Dutch Golden Age painter of Italian and Italianate landscapes, in Rome (1619-1630) and Amsterdam (1630-1657).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gerard Hoet</span> Dutch painter

Gerard Hoet was a Dutch Golden Age painter and engraver.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Theodorus Schrevelius</span> Dutch Golden Age writer and poet (1572–1649)

Theodorus Schrevelius was a Dutch Golden Age writer and poet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kunst zij ons doel</span>

Kunst zij ons doel, or KZOD, is the name of an artists club in the Waag, Haarlem.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henri Frédéric Boot</span> Dutch painter and printmaker

Henri Frédéric Boot, was a Dutch painter and printmaker mostly active in Haarlem.

<i>The Lives of Dutch painters and paintresses</i>

The Lives of Dutch painters and paintresses, or De levens-beschryvingen der Nederlandsche konst-schilders en konst-schilderessen, as it was originally known in Dutch, is a series of artist biographies with engraved portraits written by the 18th-century painter Jacob Campo Weyerman. It was published in four volumes as a sequel to Arnold Houbraken's own list of biographies known as the Schouburgh. The first volume appeared in 1729, and the last volume was published in 1769. This work is considered to be a very important source of information on 17th-century artists of the Netherlands, specifically those artists who worked in The Hague and in London.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oud Eik en Duinen</span> Cementry in the Netherlands

Oud Eik en Duinen is a cemetery in The Hague, the Netherlands, formerly called Eik en Duinen and also nicknamed "the Dutch Père-Lachaise". The cemetery is built around a chapel constructed around 1247 by William II of Holland in honor of his father, Floris IV, Count of Holland. This chapel was partially demolished in 1581, and in the 17th century the area was again used as a cemetery. When Eik en Duinen was full, a new cemetery, Nieuw Eykenduynen, was constructed in 1891 across the road, and since then the old cemetery is known as "Old" Eik en Duinen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Onze Kunst van Heden</span> Exhibition in the Rijkmuseum, 1939–1940

Onze Kunst van Heden was an exhibition held in the winter of 1939 through 1940 at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. Due to the threat of invasion in the years leading up to World War II, the Netherlands' government stored many items from the Rijksmuseum's permanent collection. The resulting empty gallery space was utilized by contemporary Dutch artists to exhibit and sell their art. It was organized by the director of the Rijksmuseum Frederik Schmidt Degener. The show was open to all artists, with each artist allowed to enter four pieces. 902 artists exhibited 3,200 works of art in 74 rooms and cabinets of the Rijksmuseum.

„De kunstenaar kan in tijden van maatschappelijke benauwenis weinig positiefs doen om rampen af te wenden, maar wel kan hij door mede te helpen nationale uitingen op het eigenaardigst naar voren te brengen het gemeenschapsbesef versterken. Wanneer de belangstelling van het publiek uitgaat naar deze manifestatie, die in zulk een omvang in Holland nog niet gezien is, dan zal menige kunstenaar zich op zijn beurt gesterkt voelen".

"The artist can do little positive in times of social distress to avert disasters, but he can, by helping to bring out national expressions in the most idiosyncratic way, strengthen the sense of community. When the public is interested in this event, which has not yet been seen to such an extent in Holland, many artists will feel strengthened in turn."

References

  1. ↑ "Beschikbare titels - periode 1550-1700 - basisbibliotheek" [Available titles - period 1550-1700 - basic (essential) library]. De Digitale Bibliotheek voor de Nederlandse Letteren DBNL | The Digital Library for Dutch Literature (in Dutch). KB Nationale Bibliotheek van Nederland.
  2. ↑ Cornelis, Bart (1998). "Arnold Houbraken's Groote Schouburgh and the Canon of Seventeenth-Century Dutch Painting". Simiolus: Netherlands Quarterly for the History of Art. 26 (3): 145–161. doi:10.2307/3780895. ISSN   0037-5411. JSTOR   3780895.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.