Research Master Thesis Art History of the Low Countries in its European Context Entertaining genre of Matthijs Naiveu - depicting festivities and performances at the dawn of the ‘Theatre Age’. Student: Adele-Marie Dzidzaria 0507954 Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Rudi Ekkart Utrecht University 2007 Table of contents Introduction....................................................................................................................3 1 Biography/Overview of Naiveu’s oeuvre ..............................................................5 1.1 From Leiden to Amsterdam...........................................................................5 1.2 From early genre to theatrical compositions..................................................8 1.3 Portraiture ....................................................................................................14 2 Historiographic context/ Theatricality in genre painting.....................................19 3 Naiveu’s genre paintings – innovating on old subjects and specialising in festivities..............................................................................................................24 4 Theatrical paintings - thematic sources and pictorial models..............................32 4.1 Out-door festivities and performances.........................................................32 4.2 In-door celebrations and amusements..........................................................56 5 Conclusion ...........................................................................................................62 6 Preliminary catalogue of paintings by Matthijs Naiveu ......................................64 II. Signed and dated paintings in chronological order .............................................64 II. Undated paintings in thematic order ...................................................................86 7 Abbreviations / Bibliography.............................................................................108 2 Introduction The oeuvre of Leiden-born artist Matthijs Naiveu (1647-1726) has primarily been discussed in précis writings on the Leiden school of painters including only some of his works that fit within the context of fijnschilderen. The principal reference added to Naiveu both in the art historical surveys and auction catalogues is him being the pupil of the famous Gerrit (Gerard) Dou, the founder and one of the central figures of ‘beau fini’ school in Leiden. Random works by Naiveu have been used as illustrations for the books on cultural history representing the fashions and customs of his time but only few of them have been examined in detail. As there is no overview of works by this last pupil of Dou, the peculiarity of his paintings has only been noticed and appreciated by few connoisseurs. The established biographical sources of the Dutch artists by Arnold Houbraken and Jacob Campo Weyerman both mention Matthijs Naiveu (Neveu) as a genre painter: ‘schilder van vrolijke gezelschapjes’ whose works were ‘bevallig voor’t oog’1, although there are also few still-lives and a considerable number of portraits known by his hand. Besides the ‘merry companies’ that the contemporary art writers saw as Naiveu’s characteristic yield and many other genre works that continue and improvise with the traditional themes invented by predecessors, Naiveu managed to generate an artistic niche of his own - curious paintings depicting both indoors and open-air theatrical performances. While the largest number of signed and dated genre paintings by Naiveu are related to the theme of entertainment, festive events and popular theatre, few of them have been published outside the auction catalogues and they have never been studied as a group. Naiveu’s genre paintings that show strong theatrical content relate to the previous genre subjects as much as to the following vogue of thespian paintings. Grown interest towards the art of the late 17th-century and early 18th- century that was previously seen solely as a decline of the Golden Age, has contributed to the appreciation of the works of artists from that period. However, Naiveu was not a 1 Houbraken 1718 (1953): 179, Weyerman 1729 : 62. Interestingly a slightly later artists’ biographer Johan van Gool (1750) has left Matthijs Naiveu out of his publication. 3 mainstream artist in his days and so have his paintings that do not conform to the classicist ideals of the time seldom been given an attention. For these reasons I will begin my thesis with the biographical information and give an overview of Naiveu’s early genre paintings and portraiture in the first chapter followed by the outline on the previous research into the relationship between theatre and genre painting in the 17th-century northern Netherlands. In the chapter 3 I will discuss the changes in Naiveu’s thematic choices and artistic style after his move from Leiden to Amsterdam and in the 4th chapter focus on the group of Naiveu’s theatrical genre paintings from his Amsterdam-period in more detail. The accompanying preliminary catalogue of Naiveu’s paintings that have been compiled together here for the first time is listed under chapter 6. For Naiveu’s works that will be discussed in this thesis reference will be made to the catalogue entries that besides the visual image also give the primary provenance information and bibliography on the paintings. 4 1 Biography/Overview of Naiveu’s oeuvre 1.1 From Leiden to Amsterdam The most comprehensive biographical information on Matthijs Naiveu to date has been published in the catalogue for the exhibition “Klein, maar fijn” held at the Leiden Stedelijk Museum De Lakenhal in1988 2 where also five paintings by Naiveu were exhibited. For this catalogue extensive research was done into the archival documents to confirm or add to the previous knowledge of the artists included in the publication. As a result two new conclusions were drawn concerning important events in Naiveu’s life. Artist’s move to Amsterdam was set to a year later (1678) and he gained five years of life. Baptismal register of the Dutch Reformed Church shows that Matthijs Naiveu was baptised on the 16th of April 1647 at the Hooglandse Church in Leiden. He was the eldest son3 of wine merchant and inn-keeper Matheus Naiveu from Rotterdam and Jannetgien (Janneken) Melcke from Leiden.4 It is known that his grandfather Mathys Willemsz had been a skipper in Liège.5 The biographical information concerning the artists future métier rests upon Houbraken’s account that mentions Leiden glass painter and drawing master Abraham Toorenvliet (c. 1620-1692), who also had taught Frans van Mieris the Elder (1635-1681), as Naiveu’s first teacher in the art of drawing. In March 1667 ‘Mathys Naveu de Jonge’ has been documented buying ‘een schylderback met bleck en kooper beslaegen’6 in order to begin his studies as a painter. Subsequently, Gerard Dou (1613-1675) is reported as his tutor in the art of painting.7 The latter has been confirmed by three receipts kept in the Leiden regional archive signed by Gerard Dou. Each of the three small documents attest to master 2 Sluijter 1988: 186 3 Two other sons were baptized in 1649 and 1651 of which one is later mentioned in 1674 together with ‘Matthijs Naiveu, Konst-Schilder’ as ‘Jan Naiveu, brootbacker’ to be the custodian of their underage sister Susannah - Transcription of a document in Bredius notes on Naiveu – Bredius Archive at RKD 4 RAL, Doopboeken Nederlands Hervormd 5 Transcription of a document in Bredius notes on Naiveu – Bredius Archive at RKD: “9. July 1665 Matthys Naiveu, wijnkooper te Leiden, is zoon van za: Mathys Willemsz, in zyn leven, mares schipper van Luyck. M. Beeckman, Den Haag.” 6 Ibid. 7 Houbraken 1718 (1953) III: 179 5 Dou receiving hundred guilders a year, in total 300 guilders (substantial sum of money for tutelage at a time) from Leiden notary Tersijden8, who was the custodian of late Matheus Naiveu the Elder’s four orphaned children. We can only speculate whether the decision to study at Dou’s studio that took place from 1667 to 1669 was Naiveu’s own (being under 25 years old and unmarried he was not yet considered as an amenable adult) or his custodian was acting according to the will of his parents who had died less than two years prior. Artist’s father was buried 4th of December 1665 and his mother Janneke Melcke less than two months later, 1st of February 1666, both at the graveyard of Pancras Church in Leiden.9 As this period of time is known for many plague-epidemics, the infection with a contagious malady could explain the proximity of death of both parents. It seems quite apparent that becoming Gerard Dou’s pupil and learning the highly polished style of the master involved an expectation for a lucrative income as an artist, hence the will to pay the high tutelage. The cost of paintings by fijnschilders, especially of Dou and his pupil Frans van Mieris the Elder were among the highest and they were sought after by high dignitaries of both local and foreign descent.10 Contemporaries admired the intricate fijn style and the astounding illusion of reality contained in these small cabinet size pictures. This is well illustrated by the significant fact that one of the fervent admirers and collectors of Dou in his hometown, Johan de Bye organised an exhibition in 1665 of 27 paintings from his collection painted by ‘Monsieur Douw’11 that became one of the required sightseeing spots for wealthy art lovers visiting Leiden. Already much earlier, in 1641 when Dou was only 28 years 8 Receipts from May 1667,