RKD STUDIES

Copper engraving, 232 x 164 mm, signed lower right: J. V. Velde. Sculpsit.
Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv.no. RP-P-OB-76.146

After a lost modello by Frans Hals, which was also the example for the painting in Berlin [1]. The poem below the portrait can be translated as:

‘Thus Acronivs fervently struggles against his enemies,
thus he thunders towards his fiery speech.
The venerable man is passionate in finding words for Heaven’s approach
and shies away from the paths of doom.
It is to the credit of your efforts, pastor reverend, that we know:
those who regard Christ as their wealth, elect fruitful labour!’¹

A disconcerting detail of the portrait in this engraving is the improbable light reflex in the right eye, which is not present in the painted variant. It is remarkable that Pieter de Molijn (1616-1661) is recorded as the publisher of the print. Not only does Molijn appear in documents as an expert working with Hals in picture valuations, he was also involved in the execution of the backgrounds for several works by Hals (for instance: A2.7, A3.30).

C11

Copper engraving, 235 x 170 mm, signed lower right: J. V. Velde. Sculpsit.
Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv.no. RP-P-OB-15.284

This is another state of the print, featuring a poem in Latin.

C11a

Mezzotint, 270 x 209 mm, signed lower right: W. Vaillandt fec. Et exc.
Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv.no. RP-P-1911-93

This engraving was created after the painting that was last reported at a London sale in 1998 [2]. Both artworks differ from Hals’s original composition in Kassel [3] in many aspects. They feature a more recent clothing fashion, particularly the white cuffs on the sleeves and the absence of a white collar. Additionally, they show the intact state of the hands and neck of the boy in front. At an unknown date, a wrongly foreshortened hand of the left boy was inserted into the original painting in Kassel and the partly raised hand of the lute player was overpainted in part.

C12

2
Anonymous
Two boys singing
panel, oil paint, 33.5 x 28 cm
sale London (Sotheby’s), 17 December 1998, lot 367
cat.no. B5

3
Frans Hals (I)
Two boys singing, 4. 1625-1625
Kassel, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister (Museumslandschaft Hessen Kassel), inv./cat.nr. GK 215
© Museumslandschaft Hessen Kassel, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister
cat.no. A1.24

Copper engraving, 188 x 118 mm, signed lower centre: Velde fecit.
Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv.no. RP-P-OB-15.290

Reversed engraving after Verdonck in Edinburgh [4], featuring the following verse below:

‘This is Verdonck, the brazen fellow,
Whose jawbone assails one and all.
He cares for none, neither great or small,
And thus to the workhouse was sent’.²

Engraving, 172 x 113 mm, signed lower right: I de Ram excu
Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv.no. RP-P-1884-A-7657

Reversed copy after the print by Jan van de Velde (1593-1641), published by Johannes de Ram (1648-1693), who was active in Amsterdam between c. 1663-1693.

C13a

Copper engraving, 153 x 186 mm, signed lower left: Lucas Kilian. Dated upper right: 1629.
Braunschweig, Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum, inv.no. LKilian AB 3.222

After a lost modello by Frans Hals. The verse underneath the portrait reads as follows:

‘He who wants to learn to write thoroughly neatly,
Must be able to cut quills, large, medium and small,
With his own hand, and hold them with good sense:
As in the figure shown here,
diligence makes nearly everything go well’.³

The engraving depicts a vivid image with a distinct area devoted to the depiction of the hands. In particular, a brightly illuminated finger is pointing at a line of writing which is hard to decipher. It may well be the sitter’s motto. We know that Arnold Möller (1581-1655) was a writing master in Lübeck, where he had gained citizenship in 1606. He prepared copper plates for his writing templates and created elaborate etchings on large metal plates. The division of labour in the assignment of the present commission is remarkable: from a citizen of Lübeck to the Haarlem painter Frans Hals and then to the Augsburg engraver Lucas Kilian (1579-1637). The medium for the modello must have been fairly fast-drying and easily portable. It was most likely a portrait on paper.

C14
© Herzog anton Ulrich Museum Braunschweig

Copper engraving, 218 x 173 mm, signed lower left: C. Dā. Sc. et excudit.
Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv.no. RP-P-1885-A-9027

Even though inscribed f. Hals pinxit, the painting reproduced in the present engraving is a monogrammed work by Judith Leyster (1609-1660) [5]. Leyster was most probably working in Hals’s workshop at the time, where she would also have found the model for the face of the boy in the foreground (A4.2.3b). The accompanying text for the engraving translates as: ‘Tell me if he, who laughs is happy, or does the face he shows not hide pain’.⁴

Cornelis Danckerts (1604-1656) was part of a family that ran a successful printing business, and he was active as an art dealer as well. As the signature indicates, the present print was most likely printed by his family’s printing business. The dimensions of the print match the octavo book format, so it is possible for the print to have been intended to be sold both as a loose print and as part of a publication.

C15

Copper engraving, 123 x 91 mm, signed and dated lower right: I.S. sculp. 1651
Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv.no. RP-P-OB-60.711

After a lost modello by Frans Hals, dated 1630. Nothing is known about the sitter.

C16

Mezzotint, 378 x 275 mm, signed lower right: James Watson Sculpsit.
Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv.no. RP-P-OB-33.506

After a lost model by the Hals workshop, perhaps the one by Judith Leyster (1609-1660), which was in the collection of John Stuart, 1st Marquess of Bute (1744-1814) by 1777. The smooth modelling of the main protagonist suggests a date of creation of the painted example around 1630. Details like the execution of the fingers match those in other representations of half-length figures, such as the violin players in Richmond, Vienna and private property (A4.2.8a, A4.2.8b, A2.2.9). Hofrichter references a note by Slive about a painted variant of the composition, which is presently in a private English collection (A4.2.51).⁵

C17

Copper engraving, 269 x 215 mm
Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv.no. RP-P-OB-60.667

Based on Hals’s painting in Kassel [6]. The inscription under the depiction reads:,

‘Look at Monsieur Peeckelhaering,
He praises a cooling, brimful mug,
And is constantly occupied with the wet vessel,
For his throat is always dry’.⁶

C18

Copper engraving, 187 x 127 mm
The Hague, Koninklijke Bibliotheek, inv.no. KW 224 G 16

Detail in reverse based on the painting of Peeckelhaering (A1.50). This popular book on entertainment was published in several editions in 1642, 1648, 1663, 1689 and 1720.⁷ Only the 1663 and 1648 editions include this illustration.

C19

Copper engraving, 245 x 316 mm, signed lower right: Edwardus Le Dauis Londini Sculp.
London, British Museum, inv.no. 1945,0512.56

Engraving combining the protagonists from Hals’s Leipzig Peeckelhaering (A1.51) [7] and the Portrait of a man (A3.34) of c. 1640 in the Hermitage, St. Petersburg [8]. The first impression of the print is inscribed: ‘The Mountebanck Doctor/ and his Merry Andrew/ Printed and Sold by Henry Overton/ at the White Horse without Newgate/London Franc Haultz Pinxt. Edwardus Le Dauis Londini, Sculp’.⁸ In the second impression under discussion here, Edward Davis (1640-1684) corrected the family name of the painter to Hault and added twelve lines of verse illustrating the role of the fool as embodied by the Peeckelhaering character, respectively those of his English colleague Merry Andrew and the quack doctor.⁹

The verses under the engraving read as follows:

‘I am a Fool but not for want of wit
I play the fool that wee by Fools may get
For whosoever does the Packets buy
In troth I think they’re greater fool then I
In parting with their Gold and Silver Coin
To Cure your Poor Consumptive Purse and mine
My Antick fool in my fantastick Dress
With Grinning Looks thy wonted words Express
And let thy Humours all be Acted well
That so I may my worthy Packets Sell
For tho I in a Velvet Coat Appear
I am not worth one single Groat a Year’.

This engraving is relevant for the history of the reception of Hals’s work; it proves that around 1670 two works by his hand had already come to England and caught attention there. It also confirms that it was the subject matter which attracted attention, not the name of the painter.

C20
© The Trustees of the British Museum

7
Frans Hals (I)
Peeckelhaering, ca. 1630-1631
Leipzig, Museum der bildenden Künste Leipzig, inv./cat.nr. G 1017
Photo: Museum der bildenden Künste Leipzig | Punctum B. Kober
cat.no. A1.51