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The Rijksmuseum Bulletin the rijksmuseum bulletin 78 the rijks rooms without houses,museum paintings without walls bulletin Rooms without Houses, Paintings without Walls Researching and Presenting Fragments of Late Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Painted Rooms* • lisette vos, ige verslype, richard harmanni and margriet van eikema hommes 1 • n the seventeenth- and eighteenth- < Fig. 1 behangsels), as they were called, origi n- Icentury Netherlands many paintings The salon in ally referred to as ‘salon pieces’ (zaal- were commissioned for specific loca- Petronella stukken), ‘painted rooms’ (geschil derde tions as part of decorative interior Oortman’s dolls’ kamers) or ‘rooms in the round’ (kamers house (c. 1686- schemes. The refurnishing of the in ’t rond).3 In the course of the eight- c. 1710) with painted Beuning Room occasioned a commis- wall hangings by eenth century, painted wall hangings sion for painted wall hangings, which Nicolaes Piemont became so popular that, alongside was awarded to ‘behangsel-schilder’ from around individual ‘behangsel-schilders’ like Jurriaan Andriessen (1742-1819). Only 1690-1709. Andriessen, large-scale workshops in seven of his painted rooms have sur- Amsterdam, which several painters worked together vived in situ. As with most ensembles, Rijksmuseum, on painted wall hangings under the inv. no. bk-nm-1010. the individual elements were separated supervision of one painter appeared and scattered among institutions and on the scene. These workshops were museums as isolated objects. Just three called ‘painted wall hanging factories’ canvases of the ensemble Andriessen (behangsel fabrieken).4 painted for the Beuning Room survive, A limited number of painted rooms and only as fragments. This article have survived in situ.5 As well as these explores the interrelated topics of remaining painted ensembles, there are analysing, conserving and exhibiting several other sources of information paintings that were originally part of a about how these painted wall hangings painted ensemble. Examples of current were placed and how they functioned museum presentations of dislocated – contemporary dolls’ houses, pictures fragments are followed by the case study of interiors, designs and (contem- of the Andriessen Beuning Room porary) descriptions of ensembles ensemble. Combined art historical (fig. 1). Mantel­­piece, stucco ceiling and study and conservation research painted wall hangings, for example, suggests alternatives for the treatment were designed together as a whole. This and presentation of these fragments. site specific art also followed illusionistic conventions, such as taking the natural Painted Wall Hangings direction of the light into account. The tradition of painted wall hangings An example of a painted ensemble for wealthy citizens’ residences started that still survives in its original context in the Netherlands in the second quarter is the room Jurriaan Andriessen painted of the seventeenth century and became for 524 Herengracht, Amsterdam, in fashionable in the last quarter.2 These 1771, now in the Rijksmuseum collec- ‘painted wall hangings’ (geschilderde tion (fig. 2). In 1997, one of the canvases 79 the rijksmuseum bulletin Fig. 2 jurriaan andriessen, Arcadian Landscape and Two Trophies, 1771. Oil on canvas wall hangings in situ in the garden room of the main floor at 524 Herengracht, various dimensions. Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv. nos. sk-a-4854-a to J and sk-a-4855-a and B; H.L.P. Jonas van ’s Heer Arends- kerke-Lefèvre de Montigny Bequest. was taken out of the room and displayed context, while at the same time accom- separately in an exhibi tion about the mo dating the physical situation in representation of the landscape in the museum galleries, persists. eighteenth and nine teenth centuries The Rijksmuseum houses several (On Country Roads and Fields, Rijks- examples of paintings that were once museum). The indivi dual display of the part of ensembles. Different types of fragment – as if it was an easel painting – display have been considered as a way outside the room for which it was of showing these works outside their specifically designed, subverted the original context in their new museum very meaning, understanding and setting. For example, the set of five appreciation of the work. This was monumental allegorical paintings, illustrated by a newspaper review of painted in grisaille by Gerard de the 1997 exhibition. When discussing Lairesse (1640-1711) for the vestibule Andriessen’s painting, the journalist of ‘Messina’, Philips de Flines’s house commented that it must have felt at 164 Herengracht, Amsterdam (fig. 3) cramped to live among these painted has been displayed in different arrange- wall hangings. He concluded that this ments. The set was acquired by the must have been why the fashion for museum in 1970. At that time, the painted ensembles did not last long. condition of three of the five paintings To call a tradition that lasted for over was fairly sound but two were severely a century and a half a short-lived trend damaged.7 The restorations proved illustrated how limited the knowledge problematic and the condition of one of these ensembles then was.6 Since of the allegories remains such that its this exhibition, general awareness, display is not possible even today. The understanding and appre ciation of series has consequently never been painted wall hangings has im proved, installed in its entirety. It was not but the difficulty of exhibiting ensemble until 1981 that two of the five grisaille paintings outside their original setting paintings were exhibited for the first in a way that respects their original time in the Rijksmuseum as part of 80 rooms without houses, paintings without walls Fig. 3 gerard de lairesse, the Gods, Saints and Heroes exhibition. Between 1998 and 2002, two of the Allegory of Riches, The two damaged paintings were three remaining untreated paintings 1675-83. restored for the occasion. When the were successfully restored, and from Oil on canvas, exhibition closed, one of the pictures 2003 to 2013 four of the five grisailles painted in grisaille was kept on permanent display. In his were presented together in the Rijks- for ‘Messina’, Philips de Flines’s house at 1992 monograph on De Lairesse, Alain museum’s Philips Wing. In 2010, the 164 Herengracht, Roy wrote about the difficulty of order of the pictures in the gallery was 288 x 153 cm. picturing the original effect of the five changed so that the painted light and Amsterdam, grisailles in the vestibule of the canal shade in the paintings coincided with Rijksmuseum, house for which they were specifically the actual direction of the natural inv. nos. sk-a-4174 designed. It was made even harder, he light in the exhibition space (fig. 4). to 4178; purchased explained, because the Rijksmuseum De Lairesse always took great care to with the support of the Stichting was exhibiting only two of the grisailles depict the light in his paintings so that tot Bevordering and (although they were painted for a it corresponded with the actual light van de Belangen van vestibule) had placed them at the end in the room for which they were made, het Rijksmuseum. of a hallway.8 a prerequisite he discussed at length in his highly influential treatise, the Groot Fig. 4 Display of Allegory of Riches (fig. 3), second configuration, after 2010. Philips Wing, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Photo: Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, ha-0026766. 81 the rijksmuseum bulletin Schilderboeck, first published in 1707.9 Two of the allegories in the ensemble have been on display since the Rijks- museum reopened in 2013. The paint- ings were installed on either side of a cabinet specifically to underline their function as part of a decorative scheme (fig. 5). A label explains their original context. Another example of the presentation of a painted room in the Rijksmuseum is that of an ensemble designed by Andriessen in 1776 for number 22 Nieuwe Doelenstraat in Amsterdam. In 1898 the painted wall hangings and wainscoting were sold to the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and reinstalled in one of the period rooms in the Suasso Fig. 6 Wing. Two of the three overdoors in the rooms in the Suasso Wing were needed Display of Andriessen’s original ensemble were not included in to show modern works, the painted wall hangings (see this new configuration, and the current room was dismantled once again and fig. 7) in the Stedelijk Museum 1898-1979. whereabouts of these canvases are put into storage.11 The stewardship of Photo: Stedelijk unknown. The exhibition gallery had this room passed to the Amsterdam Museum. less floor space and was not as deep, Museum, where it remained in storage but wider than its initial location, so until 2011. It was then transferred to Fig. 5 the original arrangement of the canvases the Rijksmuseum in preparation for Display of Allegory of 10 Riches (fig. 3), current was altered (figs. 6-7). Towards the the reopening of the museum in 2013. display showing end of the nineteen-seventies, when The available exhibition space and Sciences and Fame. the Stedelijk Museum had shifted its the condition of the painted wall Photo: Amsterdam, focus to modern art and the period hangings led to the decision to install Rijksmuseum, ha-0028680. 82 rooms without houses, paintings without walls Fig .7 three non-consecutive parts of this and Cuban mahogany panelling, was jurriaan set of six paintings in a rather narrow commissioned in 1744-48 by the rich andriessen, gallery. Presenting them together with merchant Matthijs Beuning (1707-1755) Wall Hangings with contemporary furniture and decorative and his wife Catharina Oudaen (1704- a Dutch Landscape, 12 1776. objects such as candelabras and a 1764). Of the painted decorations Oil on canvas, Parisian-made gilt-bronze mantel clock from this period, only the overmantel 326 x 296 cm. created the suggestion of a room (fig. 7). has survived. St Philip Baptizes the Originally in the Although the display of these works Eunuch, painted by Jacob de Wit (1695- house at 22 Nieuwe was carefully considered and thought 1754), signed and dated 1748, is in place Doelstraat.
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