The Rijksmuseum Bulletin
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the rijksmuseum bulletin 4 the rijks the hidden youth of dirck jacobsz leeuw:museum a portrait by govert flinck revealed bulletin The Hidden Youth of Dirck Jacobsz Leeuw: A Portrait by Govert Flinck Revealed • margriet van eikema hommes, ruud lambour, bianca m. du mortier, marieke de winkel, gwen tauber, * matthias alfeld, koen janssens and joris dik • he earliest signed and dated Fig. 1 Until now relatively little has been T painting by Govert Flinck govert flinck, known about the clothing customs (1615-1660) is a full-length portrait of Portrait of Dirck of the Mennonites at that time. Con- his cousin Dirck Leeuw (Amsterdam Jacobsz Leeuw temporary writings present a contra- (1614/15-after May 1614/15-after May 1664 and before dictory picture. True, their authors 1664), signed and 1 1671) he made in 1636 (fig. 1). Dirck dated g. flinck. f 1636. assume that Mennonites advocated was the youngest son of the prominent Canvas, 64.4 x 47.2 cm. a modest style of dress, but at the Mennonite merchant Jacob Leeuw Amsterdam, same time they reproach them for (?-1635), Flinck’s mother’s brother.2 Rembrandt maintaining only the semblance of The portrait has been the property of House Museum, plainness and restraint.4 This un- the United Mennonite Congregation inv. no. lb0072; familiarity comes about because until on loan from the of Amsterdam since 1837, and from quite recently Mennonite probate United Mennonite 1899 to 1953 was on loan to the Rijks - Congregation, invent ories have only been research ed museum, where it originally hung in Amsterdam. to a very limited extent, and no one of the side rooms of the Gallery Photo: Rijksmuseum. distinc tion has been made between of Honour. It has been on loan to Mennonites from different towns and the Rembrandt House Museum cities and from different factions.5 since 2006, and is on show in the Detailed research into the probate Sydelcaemer – the anteroom in which inventories of the Amsterdam Men - Rembrandt had his art dealership. nonites has been undertaken with a Studies of Govert Flinck mention view to inter preting the clothes Dirck Dirck’s portrait only in passing – Leeuw wears in his portrait and those and yet behind this seemingly un- worn in the likeness hidden beneath remarkable painting lies an extra - it.6 The results of the research into the or dinary story. Recent scientific materials and techniques used played research and technical examination a major role in our study since they of the canvas made a sensational not only led to the discovery of the discovery: under the present portrait over painted portrait but also made it was the likeness of a man in a different possible to precisely determine the pose, wearing fashionable, colourful clothes worn by the hidden man and clothes.3 As we demonstrate in this establish his identity. Portraits of other article, the underlying portrait, taken Amsterdam Mennonites provided in conjunction with the final likeness important comparative material for of Dirck Leeuw, sheds surprising new our study. A series of Mennonite light on Mennonite dress conventions sermons not previously consulted for in the seventeenth century. publications on the history of art and 5 the rijksmuseum bulletin the history of costume also provided wife Eva Baltus (1656/57-1720).14 Eva, considerable insight. lastly, had previously been married to the merchant Jacob Dircksz Leeuw The Identity of the Subject (1639-1703), the only son of Dirck Leeuw The identification of Dirck Leeuw is (see appendix, ii.c.1). Although his based on the provenance, taken in name does not appear on the portrait, conjunction with a name attached to the provenance points very compel- the portrait in the past and the date. lingly in his direction. Taking this The portrait came from the estate of together with the dating of the portrait Veronica van de Rijp Centen (1740- in 1636 and Dirck Leeuw’s age then, 1832). She had inherited the usufruct we may safely assume that the portrait of it, along with eight other family por - Flinck painted was of his first cousin. traits, from her uncle Jan van de Rijp Centen (1712-1764), who had founded Dirck Leeuw and his Family the Rijpenhofje almshouses with her Dirck’s father, Jacob Leeuw, was the father Job van de Rijp Centen in 1737. son of a Mennonite painter and lay Jan van de Rijp Centen, in turn, had preacher (teacher) in Cologne. We inherited these paintings from his do not know when Jacob settled in mother Maria van de Rijp (1675/76- Amsterdam; he is not registered as a 1763), on condition that he should citizen. From 1593 on he was living on leave them to her granddaughter Niezel and in the summer of 1625 he Veronica.7 In Jan’s will they were to be bought a house on Fluwelenburgwal, given a place, after Veronica’s death, in where he ran a successful business a second almshouse that was still to be selling kamerijksdoek or cambric (a fine built. In due course it was to be handed white linen).15 After Jacob’s death in over to the Mennonite congregation.8 1635 the business was continued by However, the capital he left, of which Dirck’s half-brother Ameldonck (ii.a), Veronica had the use during her life - his widow and their son David (iii.a).16 time, proved insufficient after her death. Jacob Leeuw’s family, most of whose The governors of the Rijpenhofje, members were part of the Waterlander which had a governors’ chamber added Mennonite Congregation ‘bij de Toren’, at the beginning of 1837, con se quently maintained close contacts with the decided to hang all nine portraits there. Amsterdam painter and art dealer They are speci fied one by one in the Hendrick Uylenburgh (1584/98-1661), minutes, and as number 4 we find a who belonged to the same congrega- ‘Portrait of Dom[inu]s Jacob Leeuwen tion. Jacob’s widow was actually one Dirksz by G. Flinck’.9 This is the first of the eighteen people who lent him record of the portrait, and there is no money to support his art business in mention of its date.10 1640.17 There is no known inventory In 1899 the Mennonite congregation for Jacob and his widow, but from that gave the painting to the Rijksmuseum of Jacob’s oldest son, Ameldonck, we on loan, but corrupted the name to learn that the Leeuw family owned read ‘Jonas Jacob Leeuwen Dirksz’.11 several paintings by Hendrick Uylen- The further provenance proves that burgh and his son Gerrit, as well as it is in fact Dirck Jacobsz Leeuw many other works that were probably (b. 1614/15).12 Veronica’s grandmother, acquired through Uylenburgh. The Maria van de Rijp, was the heir to her family also had no fewer than nine brother Arent van de Rijp (1664/65- paintings by Govert Flinck, who 1729), who died childless.13 Under started to paint for Hendrick Uylen- the terms of their will, he in turn had burgh’s art dealership in 1635.18 These inherited all the contents, including the included a number of portraits of paintings, in the house of his deceased members of the Leeuw family. 6 the hidden youth of dirck jacobsz leeuw: a portrait by govert flinck revealed After Dirck’s sister Grietje (i.7) Reyer Anslo (1626-1669), of whom married Jan Claesz Anslo in 1637, Flinck made a drawing, was Dirck’s Dirck married Anslo’s sister Maria wife’s first cousin. He was baptized at (ii.c) in 1639. Her grandfather Claes the Waterlanders in 1646, but conver- Claesz Anslo the Elder (1555-1632) had ted to Roman Catholicism in 1649.22 been a deacon of ‘bij de Toren’ since Dirck and his wife, however, were 1615.19 Her father Claes Claesz Anslo baptized in the Amsterdam Remon- the Younger (1586-1636) was also a strant Church in 1639.23 They had member there.20 After his death, Maria their only son Jacob Leeuw Dircksz was made a ward of, among others, her (1639-1703; ii.c) baptized as a Remon- uncle Cornelis Claesz Anslo (1590/91- strant as soon as he was born. 1646), a minister of the congregation. In 1643 Dirck paid 17,100 guilders Rembrandt made a portrait etching of for a substantial house on Laurier- him in 1641 (fig. 2) and painted him in a gracht, now number 80.24 By way of monumental double portrait with his comparison, the annual wage of a wife Aeltje Gerrits Schouten (1589/90- skilled labourer averaged 300 guil- 1657) in the same year.21 The poet ders.25 A year later Govert Flinck Fig. 2 rembrandt, Portrait of the Minister Cornelis Claesz Anslo (1590/91-1646), 1641. Etching and drypoint, 183 x 156 mm. Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv. no. rp-p-ob-524. 7 the rijksmuseum bulletin bought two adjoining properties (now Fig. 3 numbers 76 and 78), thus becoming Dirck Leeuw’s Dirck’s next-door neighbour.26 To - signature in 1664 as gether they bought the back house a witness to the marriage contract to numbers 76-78 in 1651.27 Flinck between Jacob Dell must have had a close relationship and Elisabeth with Dirck and with his half-brother Schouten, daughter Ameldonck, for the two cousins acted of his sister Elisabeth as witnesses of his marriage settlement Leeuw, living in Weesp. with the Remonstrant Ingetje Thoveling Photo: Ruud Lambour. (c. 1620-1651) in 1645.28 Until now, one ‘Dirck Lewen’, whose body was carried out from the Molenstraat and buried in the Oude Kerk in 1652, has been taken to be ‘our’ Dirck.29 This is incorrect, for ‘our’ Fig.