Object data
pen and brown ink, on vellum; traces of framing line in black chalk
height 318 mm × width 368 mm
Gerrit Adriaensz. de Heer
Portrait of a Gentleman in a Landscape
c. 1645 - c. 1650
Inscriptions
-
signed: lower right, in brown ink, G. de Heer
-
inscribed: centre left (on the well), by the artist, MEMENTO MORI
Condition
Laid down; several large stains; cockled in upper half, losses at upper right (in the tree)
Provenance
…; ? sale, Samuel van Huls (1655-1734, The Hague), The Hague (J. Swart), 14 May 1736 sqq., Album V, no. 1113 (‘G. de Heer, La figure d’un Homme se tenant debout, dans un fort grand Païsage, à la plume sur du velin, très curieusement terminée.’); …; donated by Adam Anthony Stratenus (1779-1836), The Hague, to the museum, 1809
Object number: RP-T-00-328
Credit line: Gift of A.A. Stratenus
Copyright: Public domain
The artist
Gerrit Adriaensz de Heer (Leeuwarden 1606 – Amsterdam 1670)
He was the son of the glassmaker Adriaen [Arjen] Willems de Heer (?-?) and his wife Elisabeth Gerritsdr (?-?) and was baptized in 10 August 1606. His older sister Margaretha de Heer (1600/03-1658/65) was an artist as well, painting genre, history and flower pieces. At the time of Gerrit’s wedding on 23 May 1629 to Trijntje Jansdr (?-?) in Leeuwarden, he was described as a ‘glasschriever van Leeuwarden’, so his artistic origins must have been in the field of glass painting, like his father.
Between 1642 and 1646, Gerrit moved from Leeuwarden to Amsterdam, where he worked as a painter and draughtsman, as well as a vendor of beer. His son Willem de Heer (1637/38-1681) followed in his footsteps as a draughtsman, likewise specializing in tightly hatched pen-and-ink drawings on vellum. Of the four etchings traditionally listed under Gerrit’s name, one is dated 1634 (before Willem was born) and must be counted among the earliest works by the artist. Due to the risk of confusion with works by his son, only those drawings and prints dated in the 1630s and ‘40s can be assigned to Gerrit with certainty, especially since Willem sometimes also signed his work ‘G. de Heer’ (for Guillaume de Heer).
Annemarie Stefes, 2018
References
F.W.H. Hollstein et al., Dutch and Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts, c. 1450–1700, 72 vols, Amsterdam and elsewhere, 1949–2010, IX (1953), pp. 1-3; P. Bakker, Gezicht op Leeuwarden: Schilders in Friesland en de markt voor schilderijen in de Gouden Eeuw, Amsterdam 2008 (PhD diss. Universiteit van Amsterdam), p. 202; P. Groenendijk, Beknopt biografisch Lexicon van Zuid- en Noord-Nederlandse schilders, graveurs, glasschilders, tapijtwevers et cetera van ca. 1350 tot ca. 1720, Utrecht 2008, p. 392
Entry
There is the risk of confusing the drawings of Gerrit de Heer with those of his son Willem (1637/38-1681), who worked in a closely related style and sometimes even used the same signature, ‘G de Heer’ (‘G’ standing for ‘Guillaume’).1 That was exactly the case with the present portrait, which was long preserved under Willem’s name. Already in 1972, however, this conclusion was questioned by Schatborn,2 who observed the drawing’s stylistic connections with an etching by the father, Landscape with a Dilapidated Cottage (e.g. inv. no. RP-P-OB-55.323), dated 1634, when Willem was not even born.3 Still closer in their artificial rendering of nature are two portrait drawings from the same year, Portrait of a Gentleman in a Landscape and Portrait of a Lady in a Landscape in the Groninger Museum, Groningen, both signed ‘G. de Heer’ (inv. nos. 1931-167 and 1931-168).4 Moreover, the dress of the sitter in the present drawing – a tall, wide-brimmed hat, a small, flat collar and wide ‘bucket-top’ boots with boothose – points to a date in the late 1640s.
The gentleman’s dark silhouette is set against a delicately drawn rural landscape, with hunters and travellers resting at a well in the left background. The well features a sculptural programme showing the Triumph of Death, with water sprinkling from skulls and the words ‘MEMENTO MORI’ carved in stone. Like the sitter’s carefully rendered costume, the botanical elements of the landscape are accurately drawn, allowing for the identification of pelargonium, ribwort plantain, dandelions, red-root amaranth and butterbur. There is a frozen, ornamental quality in the depiction of nature, with each penstroke creating a decorative pattern of lines. Passages of parallel hatching and crosshatching, partly curved, partly straight, are set in clusters to give structure to the willow’s bark.
A considerably larger Portrait of a Hunter with Company in a Landscape in the Special Collections, Universiteit Leiden (inv. no. PK-T-296), mirrors the present composition.5 It appears to be a grander version of the present sheet, not only in size but also in subject, presenting a gentleman hunter in fancier costume, accompanied by his servant, dog and other members of a large hunting party. A more substantial selection of game is spread at the foot of the well, where a cheerful Bacchus replaces the figure of Death, thus removing the explicit allusion to vanitas from the scene.
Annemarie Stefes, 2018
Literature
W. Martin, ‘Oude Tekeningen in het Amsterdamsche Prentenkabinet’, Onze Kunst 7 (1908), p. 109; P. Schatborn and K.G. Boon, Dutch Genre Drawings of the Seventeenth Century: A Loan Exhibition from Dutch Museums, Foundations and Private Collections, exh. cat. New York (Pierpont Morgan Library)/Boston (Museum of Fine Arts)/Chicago (Art Institute of Chicago) 1972-73, p. 38, under no. 47
Citation
A. Stefes, 2018, 'Gerrit Adriaensz. de Heer, Portrait of a Gentleman in a Landscape, c. 1645 - c. 1650', in J. Turner (ed.), Dutch Drawings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.51369
(accessed 27 April 2024 09:16:24).