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£3 PRINTS AND DRAWINGS / SEPTEMBER 11-NOVEMBER 4 / PRINT GALLERY THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART "Certain art collectors have some interesting landscapes by Bloemaert. Most of these pictures are farm scenes, with farm implements, peasants, trees and fields - sights to be seen often and in variety near Utrecht. Bloemaert works mostly from nature; he did these farm scenes from life. He has a clever way of drawing with a pen, and, by adding small amounts of water-color, he produces unusual effects. "Bloemaert has had wide experience in various branches of painting. He gives much character and beauty to many and various subjects. Occasionally he has introduced sunshine, or darkness, or fiery sky-effects, according to his sub­ ject. Animals, cattle, dogs and other objects appear in his works, and each has been done from life. He has painted many little scenes. Although they are not overloaded with detail, they are excellent. They cannot be surpassed, in my opinion. "He has painted various studies of ponds, with water lillies, iris, and other flowering plants, floating on the water, and there is additional foliage in the foregrounds. These paintings are on canvas; the details are not crowded. "Because Bloemaert has not wanted anything to distract his mind from creative work, he has not been interested in painting portraits from life. Many of his subjects, compositions, and figures, which he drew with a pen and painted afterwards, in black and white oils, have been engraved in copper by the able Joan Muller. The famous Saenredam has made engravings after Bloemaert1 s work, because he found great interest in the drawings. Saenredam did his best to repre­ sent beautifully and artistically the work of the artist. "Bloemaert is, in 1604, thirty-seven years old . ." (Quotation from Carel van Mander's Schilderboeck, published at Haarlem in 1604 and translated by Constant Van der Wall, New York, 1936, pp.415 f.) Not known ever to have been to Italy, Abraham Bloemaert as a young man spent three years in Paris, where he was exposed to the work of Rosso, Prima- ticcio, and the School of Fontainebleau in general. He worked in Amsterdam in the early I590's, but spent most of his life in Utrecht. What he learned from the Utrecht Caravaggisti is not represented in this exhibition. The only print signed by Abraham Bloemaert is a small etching of a single standing figure, Juno. It is signed "A Bloem: Fe." (Fe. being an abbreviation of the latin word fecit, meaning: he made it), and was published by Boetius Bolswert, an engraver who himself made over ninety plates after Bloemaert's drawings and paintings. The only other prints ever supposed to have been made by Abraham Bloemaert himself are now thought to be by others. One is an etching of the Holy Family at the Foot of a Tree now called Gerrit Pietersz. Sweelinck, and two land­ scapes with figures, unsigned, which used to be considered as by Bloemaert are now attributed to de Gheyn because one of them is after a signed de Gheyn draw­ ing in Amsterdam, dated 1603. It may be significant that Juno is an etching - a print technique easier for a beginner who already knew how to draw, since it does not require the skilled strength of an engraver's hands. It may also be significant that Juno looks very like the work of Bolswert, who published it, and that the signature has an obscuring flourish in front of the Fe. which ordinarily implies that the artist put the design on the copper himself. In any case, Juno by herself could not represent the importance of Abraham Bloemaert's work. His paintings, of great interest today to students of mannerism, are not easy to see, for they are scattered, and are apt to hide in private collections. It was not until 1972 that the Metropolitan Museum of Art acquired its Bloemaert painting, Moses Striking the Rock. Bloemaert's drawings, on the other hand, are usually represented in any sizable collection of Dutch drawings. He must have spent an immense amount of time drawing; even in his own lifetime he was known for his "clever way of drawing with a pen", and must have taught many others his technique. His son, Frederik, reproduced some of his father's sketches in the "Drawing Book", so that anyone learning to draw could see how to represent the human body seen from various angles or bent in various positions. The ability to attach convincing wings to human bodies was obviously not difficult for Bloemaert, for flying angels, big and little, along with winged deities fill his pictures. Poultry and farm ani­ mals, especially the ever-present ox, Bloemaert studied carefully; his only failure seems to be the cat. Very few exotic animals (elephants, camels, lions) appear, but turkeys and peacocks are to be found in the barnyards as well as in the Gar­ den of Eden. Particularly tantalizing is van Mander's reference to Bloemaert's paintings of ponds with water lillies and iris as though they were numerous. \ 0^ There are any number of confusions in connection with the work of Bloe­ maert which may be cleared up when Dr. Jan Bolten of the University of Leiden publishes his book on the drawings of Bloemaert. Until that moment, when, pre­ sumably, a great many drawings can be seen and compared more easily simply by leafing through a set of illustrations sorted and arranged by a scholar, making definite statements about many of the drawings should be done with care, "signa­ tures" to the contrary. While every artist is allowed by art historians to change his style three times - from early to middle to late - Bloemaert's extremely wide range of drawing styles and techniques often creates suspicions about specific drawings. Actually, Bloemaert lived to be 87 years old, and if dates on some of the drawings can be believed, he was still working when he was 86. Over that span of time it would be strange indeed if his style did not change. Aside from the natural confusion of Bloemaert's earlier style where it touches the styles of Gerrit Pietersz. Sweelinck, Jacob de Gheyn II and Joachim Wytewael, there are additional confusions because Bloemaert's drawings and paintings were copied by his sons and pupils who were in the process of engraving them. De Gheyn too actually engraved four or five of Bloemaert's drawings, and did not always sign his prints: confusion compounded. See, for example, the cir­ cular Virgin Adoring the Christ Child in a Crescent Moon (number 75; Hollstein VII.172.333), which is a companion piece to a circular Madonna, Child and Little St. John (Hollstein VII.172.334) represented here by David Daniels' drawing (num­ ber 14). Not only were Bloemaert's drawings and paintings copied, but his prints too are sometimes found squared for transfer even when they were not made to be copied like the "Drawing Book". In at least one case the information offered by the printmakers is suspect: the Rest on the Flight into Egypt or Holy Family Under a Tree engraved by J. Honervogt, says it is after Abraham Bloemaert, but the same picture in reverse (illustrated in Hollstein V.262.29) was engraved by Z. Dolendo "after J. de Gheyn". If this exhibition helps eliminate any of the many confusions it will have been useful. If it reflects Bloemaert as an artist of his time aware of the latest fashions in painting but using them less and less until the theatrical tricks of mannerism are no longer visible, there will have been a certain measure of suc­ cess: Bloemaert was not just a mannerist. Our lenders, who so enriched this exhibition, must be mentioned with special gratitude. Most helpful and deserving of thanks are Dr. Julius Held, Mrs. Ann Lowenthal, C.F.Louis de Wild, Dean Walker and John Walsh. 188577 PAINTING ABRAHAM BLOEMAERT (1564-1651) 1. Moses Striking the Rock 1596 Gift of Mary V. T. Eberstadt, by Exchange, 1972.171 DRAWINGS ABRAHAM BLOEMAERT (1564-1651) 2. Farm Scene Pen and brown ink, brown wash over black chalk, incised. 6 1/4x8 7/16 inches (161 x 215 mm.) Lent from the Collection of Maida and George Abrams, Boston, Mass. 3. Two Men with a Poultry Basket Pen, brown ink, brown wash over black chalk. 4 3/4x3 1/2 inches (121 x 88 mm.) Lent from the Collection of Maida and George Abrams, Boston, Mass. 4. The High Priest Aaron Pen and brown ink, brown wash, over black chalk, heightened with white. 12 1/8 x 8 15/16 inches (305 x 229 mm.) Lent by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Mary L. Smith Fund, 57.610. 5. Piety Black chalk, heightened with white. 7 5/8x6 1/4 inches (193 x 159 mm.) Inscribed "A.Bloomart" bottom left, by a later and presumably English hand Collector's mark of Joseph Van Haecken (Lugt 2516), of John MacGowan (Lugt 1496) and of Richard Johnson (Lugt 2216). Engraved in 1610 by W. Swanenburgh. Lent by the Cooper-Hewitt Museum of Decorative Arts and Design, Smithsonian Institution. 6. Holy Family with St. John and Three Angels Black, red and white chalk, light gray wash. 6 5/16 inch diameter (160 mm.) Lent by J. Theodor Cremer 7. A Cottage Pen and brown ink over black chalk; pink, green, brown and gray washes 5 5/8x7 1/8 inches (143 x 181 mm.) Collector's mark of John Thane (Lugt 1544), and of John, Viscount Hampden (?) (Lugt 2837) Lent by J.

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