p. 31-35 Rembrandt, Van der Helst
31 REMBRANDT.
... and perhaps this led to the painted portrait in the Amsterdam museum being identified with him [24] [25].1
This painting is very beautiful, very fine and very strong, full of expression. It hardly shows Rembrandt's usual practice, or even that of any of his pupils. It is, moreover, worthy of the master, and very embarrassing for the most profound connoisseurs. It would not be impossible for it to have been Rembrandt's, in one of the rather capricious periods of his early style, when he sought out such diverse effects and practices. It should be noted that Van Uitenbogaard was one of Rembrandt's close friends from the very beginning of his stay in Amsterdam.
The Herodias seems to be rightly attributed to Drost.2 It is an extremely energetic painting, magnifying the contrasts of light and shadow and the abruptness of brushstrokes characteristic of Rembrandt's later period. Drost, who was probably born in 1638, may only have been a pupil of Rembrandt around the time when the master, who had broken with the world after his misfortunes in 1656, surrendered more than ever to the fervor of his talent.3
The painting is in portrait format; the life-size figures are cut off at the knees. The tone is stunning, but the middle tones have darkened somewhat.
This Drost is very little known and very rare. The Paris catalog does not list him among the pupils and ...
24
Rembrandt
Portrait of Johannes Wttenbogaert (1557-1644), dated 1635
Amsterdam, Rijksprentenkabinet, inv./cat.nr. RP-P-1961-1155
25
Govert Flinck
Portrait of a man, probably Augustijn Wttenbogaert (1577-1655), probably 1643
Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv./cat.nr. SK-A-582
32 MUSEUM OF AMSTERDAM.
... followers of Rembrandt. The Amsterdam catalog does not know his first name, which is replaced by dots, and does not give his date of birth nor his date of death (1).
The catalog of the Vienna Museum,4 which owns two paintings by Drost, Argus and Mercury [26] and An old man teaching a boy to read [27], calls him Gerhard and adds that he lived about 1670. Smith calls him R. R. Drost and says he died in 1690. He mentions only one "capital" painting by Drost in the Kassel gallery (2), and he explains the rarity of works by this master by supposing that, because of the bravura they were often mistaken for originals by Rembrandt and sold as such.5
I do not think another painting by Drost can be found in Holland, Belgium, or France. Perhaps England has a few, but in the English collections I know of I have never seen one,6 except for the magnificent Adoration of the Magi from Mr. Thomas Baring's gallery in London [28], which instead of being a repetition by Rembrandt himself of his Adoration of the Magi at Buckingham Palace [29] as is assumed, was instead painted by Drost in Rembrandt's studio and with Rembrandt's ...
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(1) The new cat. knows no more than the old one, listing Drost's name without any date or information.
(2) This is a Magdalena, catalog no. 379, which includes Drost's name, with no further information, but preceded by two N.N.'s instead of Smith's two R.R.'s.7
26
Willem Drost
Mercury lulls Argus into sleep by making music, c. 1655-1659
Dresden, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden - Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, inv./cat.nr. 1608
27
Anonymous Venice 17th century
Teacher with a pupil, 17th century
Dresden, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden - Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, inv./cat.nr. 693
28
studio of Rembrandt
The adoration of the shepherds, 1646
London (England), National Gallery (London), inv./cat.nr. NG47
29
follower of Rembrandt
Adoration of the magi, c. 1660-1669
Great Britain, private collection The Royal Collection, inv./cat.nr. RCIN 405350
33 VAN DER HELST.
... help;8 that is not impossible.
VAN DER HELST. – Opposite the Night Watch hangs another masterpiece from the great Dutch school; it covers the entire paneling on the left side in the same room: the Banquet at the Crossbowmen's Guild (de Schuttersmaaltijd), by Bartholomeus van der Helst. The Amsterdam catalogue devotes only two lines to it (1): "No. 103. The Banquet of the civic guard, in den Doelen at Amsterdam, on the occasion of the Peace concluded at Munster, in 1648 [30].9
This painting, which I believe was relined fairly recently, has also been partially, but very lightly and skillfully, restored by Mr. Hopman.10 It is about 15 feet wide and 7 to 8 feet high (2). Like the Night Watch, it comes from the old City Hall, where it adorned the large Room of the Council of War, opposite the Colonels' seat,11 and like the Night Watch and the Syndics, it belongs to the city of Amsterdam itself.
The scene takes place in the antechamber of the doele of St. George (St. Joris Doele).12 Captain Cornelis Jan Wits or Witsen,13 lieutenant Johannes van Waveren14 and their company of arquebusiers and crossbowmen are gathered there for a banquet in honor of peace.
On the right side of the large table spanning the ...
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(1) The new cat. devoted three pages to it, with all the necessary details.
(2) The new cat. gives: 5.38 by 2.27.15
30
Bartholomeus van der Helst
Banquet of the Amsterdam Civic Saint George Guard in Celebration of the Peace of Munster, June 18th 1648, 1648 (dated)
Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv./cat.nr. SK-C-2
34 MUSEUM OF AMSTERDAM.
... entire width of the canvas, is seated the stout Captain Wits, seen in three-quarter view, dressed in black, with a breastplate and blue sash around his waist. He has black hair and a large black hat with white feathers. In his left hand, he holds a huge silver drinking cup on his thigh, with an equestrian figure of St. George, patron saint of the guild, as a handle; this "drinking horn" (drinkhoorn) is still kept today in the curiosity room of the Amsterdam City Hall.16 With his right hand, he shakes the hand of his lieutenant, who is sitting next to him, almost in profile. No doubt they are congratulating each other on the peace.
Lieutenant Van Waveren is also very richly dressed: pearl-grey doublet and breeches, decorated with gold;17 blue sash, green stockings, cauldron boots18 and spurs. His black hat has brown feathers.
Behind them are three men, one of whom, with his body in profile and his head in a three-quarter position, holds his gray hat with large tricolored feathers in his left hand; a fourth wears a halberd; in the background comes a maid with a large pie bearing the shadow of a turkey.
At the other corner of the table, on the left side of the painting, a few seated guests are drinking and several standing men armed with muskets are talking in front of an arcade that connects to the interior of the doele.
Between these two prominent groups, balancing each other at the two ends of the composition, stand ...
35 VAN DER HELST.
... three extraordinarily lifelike figures; together with the captain and lieutenant, they stand out the most.
In the center, and slightly forward, is the standard-bearer, Jacob Banning,19 seated in three-quarter view, head forward, legs crossed, and his black hat with white feathers hanging from the end of his right hand. His left hand holds the blue flag, on which is a painted image, the top of which is hidden behind the frame. He is dressed entirely in black, with a wide blue sash. In front of him a drum from which hangs a paper on which are written four lines by the poet Jan Vos (1).
To his left sits a man, one of the sergeants I think, wearing a lemon yellow doublet,20 breastplate, gray breeches trimmed with gold, red stockings,21 soft buffalo boots,22 a napkin spread across his thigh; he is holding a leg ham in his hand23 and turns towards a standing man, who, hat in hand, respectfully presents him with a magnificently sculpted hanap.24 This old cupbearer has a gray beard and hair; on his black silk doublet, trimmed with yellow,25 rests a large collar; red sash around his waist, yellow stockings.26
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(1) Here is the translation: “Blood is repugnant to Bellona and yes Mars curses the thunder/ of the pregnant metal. And the sword loves the scabbard./ That is why the brave Wits presents the noble Van Waveren with the horn of peace, to celebrate the perpetual alliance.” – See the article on Van der Helst by Scheltema, in Revue universelle des Arts, t. V, p. 203.27
Notes
1 The sitter in the painting is either Augustijn Wtenbogaert (1577-1655), who lived in Amsterdam or his younger brother Pieter Wtenbogaert (1582-1660) from Utrecht. The etching Rembrandt made was of the Remonstrant pastor Johannes Uytenbogaert (1557-1644), who was a distant cousin and close friend of Augustijn Wtenbogaert (Bikker 2023).
2 A painting depicting Herodias does not appear in Bikker 2005.
3 Willem Drost was a pupil of Rembrandt in the late 1640s or early 1650s (Bikker 2005, p. 10). Thoré-Bürger writes several comments about Drost in his notes opp. p. 36.
4 In 'musée de Vienne', 'Vienne' has been crossed out and replaced in the margin by 'Dresde'.
5 Smith 1829-1842, vol. 7 (1836), p. 248-249.
6 The section on Rembrandt that began on p. 6 and ends here on p. 32 (the 6th line from the bottom) was first published in l’Artiste, see: Burger 1858c.
7 Willem Drost, Noli me tangere, c. 1651-1653, Kassel, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, inv. no. GK 261.
8 Bikker 2005 does not mention any Adoration, not even among the rejected paintings; nor does Sumowski 1983-1994, vol. 1 or 6. The two paintings depicting the Adoration of the Magi in London are now attributed to Rembrandt's studio [28]; one of the paintings, however, has been in the National Gallery since 1824 (acquired from the Angerstein collection). The other painting in the Royal Collection [29] is called Follower of Rembrandt and was purchased from Thomas Baring in 1814. Neither painting has ever been associated with Willem Drost, except by Thoré-Bürger.
9 Bartholomeus van der Helst, Banquet at the Crossbowmen's Guild in Celebration of the Treaty of Munster, 1648, Amsterdam, Amsterdam Museum, inv. no. SA 7328 (on loan to Rijksmuseum, inv. no. SK-C-2, since 1808); Aanwijzing 1853, p. 12, no. 103, Helst (Bartholomeus van der; 1613-1670), De Schutters-maaltijd, in den Doelen te Ammsterdam, ter gelegenheid van den te Munster gesloten Vrede, in 1648 (The Banquet of the Militia, in the Doelen at Amsterdam, on the occasion of the Peace concluded at Munster, in 1648 (tax.: fl. 500,000); Amsterdam 1858, p. 55-58, no. 117.
10 Van Gent 2011, p. 200, 201 (note 18), no. 43: In 1853, the painting was re-lined, as evidenced by the restoration file in the Amsterdam Museum. There was talk of enlarging the canvas (because a drawn copy indicated that the painting had been larger), but this was abandoned because there is cusping on both sides, indicating that little or nothing was cut off on those sides.
11 The capital 'C' in 'Colonels' has been crossed out and replaced in the margin by a 'c' in lower case. The 'Seat of the Lords Colonels' was located in the large Room of the Council of War and is mentioned in Van Dyk 1758, p. 22, 33 and 35.
12 According to Van Gent 2011, p. 199, no. 43, this scene takes place in the 'Oude Sael' on the second floor of the Footbow or St George's Doelen.
13 Middelkoop 2019, p. 819, S. 89, no 1, Captain Cornelis Jansz Witsen (1605-1669).
14 Middelkoop 2019, p. 819, S. 89, no 2, Lieutenant Johan Oetgens van Waveren (1613-1670).
15 Middelkoop 2019, p. 818-819, no S. 89: 232 x 547 cm. See also Van Gent 2011, no. 43, p. 198-202.
16 Attributed to Fredrik Jans, Drinking horn of the St George's or Footbowmen's Guild, 1566, Amsterdam Museum, KA 13965; Amsterdam 1841, p. 19-20; Amsterdam 1843, p. 23; Vreeken et al. 2003, p. 56, p. 95-96, no. 9.
17 Comment Bianca du Mortier: gold bobbin lace.
18 Comment Bianca du Mortier: Thoré-Bürger does not mention the canons, the (white) linen stockings that protect the (green) silk stockings from the poorly tanned leather.
19 Middelkoop 2019, p. 819, S. 89, no. 3, Ensign Jacob Banning (1608-1651).
20 Comment Bianca du Mortier: it is a 'kolder' and not a doublet.
21 Comment Bianca du Mortier: again Thoré-Bürger does not mention the canons, the (white) linen stockings.
22 Comment Bianca du Mortier: these boots will not have been soft, nor of buffalo leather, usually they are of cowhide.
23 Despite the presence of a sign with 24 names from c. 1650 (see Van Gent 2011, p. 200), it was only possible to identify 9 people. We do not know the name of this man, courtesy of Norbert Middelkoop, oral communication 29 May 2024.
24 The 1648 will of Hendrick Calaber mentions two gilt silver cup screws (Van Gent 2011, p. 199, note 13).
25 The black doublet is not trimmed with yellow, but the black fabric is incised so that you can see the yellow fabric underneath.
26 Middelkoop 2019, p. 819, S. 89, no. 9, Hendrick Calaber (1587-1648).
27 ‘Belloone walgt van bloedt ja Mars vervloeckt het daveren/ van ’t zwangere metaal, en ’t zwaardt bemint de scheê: / Dies biedt de dapp’re Wits aan d’eedele van Waveren / Op ’t eeuwig verbondt, den hooren van de Vreê’; Scheltema 1857a, p. 203.