2.3 Dutch Painters in Hamburg
In Hamburg the artistic tradition had been vital since the 16th century and the exchange with the Netherlands always active. Like Emden, Hamburg was a place of refuge for the Reformed. Trade with Netherlandish towns did the rest to stimulate exchange -- not only in the field of commerce. ‘Hamburg is a kind of enclave of Dutch culture on German soil’, and ‘the mental face of Hamburg is turned to Holland’, says Alfred Lichtwark.1 We already mentioned Juriaen Jacobsz, Ernst Stuven and Philip Tideman, who received their training in the Netherlands. Vice versa we frequently find Netherlandish painters active in Hamburg since the 16th century.
The restless Hans Vredeman de Vries (1525/26-1609) was here in 1591-1592. Van Mander describes several of his history paintings ‘with a grand perspective’ that he painted for the Hamburg St. Petri church.2 After his stay in Danzig and other towns he revisited Hamburg.3 About the same time Gillis Coignet I (1542-1599) from Antwerp stayed in Hamburg.4 For the Petri church he painted a Last Supper that is still preserved, albeit in poor condition [1].5 With some justification we can consider him as one of the Dutchmen abroad, since he spent many years in Amsterdam after his flight from Antwerp. The third mannerist of stature we need to mention here is Hendrick Goltzius, although he was here in 1590 only in transit and probably will hardly have had the opportunity to paint. His influence however can be perceived in several cases. An Entombment in the Jacobi church, attributed to the Dutch painter Joachim van Schwoll († after 1596) [2], is nothing more than an copy after Goltzius’ print of 1596 [3].6 A Crucifixion and an Adoration of the Kings in the southern gallery of the Katharina church go back to Goltzius as well, whose style also lives on in portrait painting of the early 17th century.
1
Gillis Coignet (I)
The last supper, dated 1595
Hamburg, Sankt Petri (Hamburg)
2
attributed to Joachim van Schwoll after Hendrick Goltzius
Christ's entombment, after 1596
Hamburg, Sankt Jacobi Kirche
3
Hendrick Goltzius
Christ's entombment, 1596 (dated)
Amsterdam, Rijksprentenkabinet, inv./cat.nr. RP-P-OB-10.046
Dutch portrait painters, who otherwise always account for the majority of the immigrant artists, are rare in Hamburg. David Bailly was here for a year in 1608. In the 1620s the future Danish court painter Jacob van Doort had his workshop in Hamburg, from where he supplied the surrounding courts, among others Gottorf. Incidentally, the Dutch origin of this artist is far from certain. The list of artists could easily be continued with some lesser-known names. Cornelis Goudtsbloem (active 1635), for example, is thought to have gone to Hamburg (when?) with the Swiss painter Rouw.7 Only by the middle of the 17th century we come across more important artists. However, Philips Wouwerman (1619-1668) cannot yet be classified as such [4].8 A 20-year-old would not have had a lasting impact in a foreign town, but rather would have had something to learn.9
More important are the landscape painters. Among them is Herman Naiwincx, who probably died in Hamburg. Willem Dalens (c. 1628-1675) fled to Hamburg during the French invasion in 1671-1672 and died here; his son Dirck Dalens II (1657-1687) visited him in 1675.10 Perhaps Anthonie Waterloo (1609-1690) did work for some time in Hamburg, and not only visited the place on short trips, as we assumed above [5-11].11 Anyway, he fits well in this list.
Also decorative painting must have been familiar there, if Albert Meyering (1645-1714) [12] and the brothers Johannes (1646-c. 1726) and Johann Gottlieb Glauber (1656-1703) not only used Hamburg as a transit station.12
4
Philips Wouwerman
Military camp with soldiers playing cards, dated 1639
5
Anthonie Waterloo
Passage on Hamburg territory near Nobisteich with a view of Altona, c. 1658-1660
Hamburg, Hamburger Kunsthalle, inv./cat.nr. 22682 verso
6
Anthonie Waterloo
Hamburg, view of the old city centre with the Sankt-Gertrudenchapel, c. 1658-1660
Hamburg, Hamburger Kunsthalle, inv./cat.nr. 44474 verso
7
Anthonie Waterloo
Entrance of the municipal bell-foundry at Hamburg, c. 1658-1660
Hamburg, Hamburger Kunsthalle, inv./cat.nr. 44474 recto
8
Anthonie Waterloo
Hamburg, a part of the city wall called 'Kurzen Mühren', c. 1658-1660
Hamburg, Hamburger Kunsthalle, inv./cat.nr. 22680 recto
10
Anthonie Waterloo
View of the 'Blaue Turm' (Blue tower) in Hamburg, 1658-1660
Hamburg, Hamburger Kunsthalle, inv./cat.nr. 1998-77, recto
9
Anthonie Waterloo
Hamburg, view over the inner Alster on the city, c. 1658-1660
Hamburg, Hamburger Kunsthalle, inv./cat.nr. 22679
11
Anthonie Waterloo
The city walls of Hamburg, c. 1660
Netherlands, private collection Heirs Johan Quirijn van Regteren Altena
12
Albert Meyering
Bank of the Elbe river at Neumühlen (Hamburg)
Hamburg, Hamburger Kunsthalle, inv./cat.nr. 22150
Of the marine painters besides Hendrik Vroom (1562/63-1640) only Jacob Bellevois (c. 1621-1676) was in Hamburg in the 1670s.13 Johannes Voorhout (1647-1717) [13], to whom Houbraken owed most information on Dutch artists who stayed in Hamburg in the last quarter of the 17th century, also said that he met Jan Theunisz. Blankerhoff (1628-1669) there in 1674. This must however be a mistake, since Blankerhoff was buried on October 2nd 1669 in Amsterdam.14 Like Dalens, Voorhout fled from the Netherlands and was probably in Friedrichstadt for a short time before he settled in Hamburg. Aside from the Glauber brothers he also met Horatius Paulijn (1644-in or after 1682), who wanted to go on a pilgrimage, which failed.15 Diana Glauber (1650-after 1721) of Utrecht, sister of Johannes and Johann Gottlieb Glauber and like these a child of German parents, still lived in Hamburg in 1721 as a portrait and history painter.16 Whether the unknown Dutchman Frans Amama (active 1689-1699), who was Balthasar Denner’s teacher in 1696, belonged to the same circle, is difficult to say.17
Dirk Stoop (c. 1610-1686) apparently honoured Hamburg with a visit, after he worked in Portugal and England. Already in 1667 [14-15] he was involved in a law suit. In 1674, the painters’ guild protested against his employment by the Hamburg cathedral chapter. Eight year later he still is included on the list of artists who had a dispute with the guild as ‘Rodrigo Stoff’.18 Probably he is one of the carriers of the Wouwerman tradition, which continues here quite long. Maybe he is also identical to ‘Cornelis Stoop, an Englishman, who paints grottos and caverns’ [16-17].19 Furthermore we mention Christian Jacob Norwic (1677-1748) as a battle and landscape painter. He was a pupil of the Dutch Van Bemmel family in Nuremberg and worked in Hamburg since 1707.
13
Johannes Voorhout (I)
Musical company, 1674
Hamburg, Museum für Hamburgische Geschichte
14
Dirk Stoop
Grotto Interior with an Classical Ruins and Travellers, dated 1667
15
Dirk Stoop
Italianate landscape with travellers halting at a cave, dated 1667
Minneapolis (Minnesota), Minneapolis Institute of Arts
16
Dirk Stoop
Travellers in a grotto with a statue in the foreground, dated 1651
Göttingen (city, Lower Saxony), Kunstsammlung der Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, inv./cat.nr. 85
17
Dirk Stoop
Grotto interior with sculptures
Berlin (city, Germany), private collection K. Mühsam
18
Marianna van der Stoop
A still life with a bunch of grapes, a porcelain bowl with fruit and apricots on a partially draped table, last quarter 17th century
Niendorf an der Stecknitz, private collection Josias Friederich Ernst Freiherr von Heintze-Weissenrode, inv./cat.nr. 107 (cat. 1866)
19
Cornelis Norbertus Gijsbrechts
Trompe l'oeil of a stained-glass window with letters and printed matter, dated 1665
Rouen, Musée des Beaux-Arts et de la Céramique de Rouen, inv./cat.nr. 975.4.75
The name Stoop pops up again with Marianna van der Stoop (active last quarter of the 17th century). I know at least one still-life by her hand [18],20 which is in the style of Ernst Stuven. This brings us to the painters of still-life. We have to mention here Cornelis Norbertus Gijsbrechts (c. 1640-in or after 1675) [19] and Ottomar Elliger I (1633-1679). They also worked in Denmark, as is more often the case with artists in Hamburg.21 Gijsbrechts is a ‘trompe-l’oeil’ painter and Elliger a flower and fruit-painter in the smooth style of an Otto Marseus van Schrieck (1614/20-1678).22
There are also portraits by Elliger’s hand, which are often set in a flower wreath. Incidentally, he also painted history and genre scenes. When Elliger married in 1660 in Amsterdam, he stated that he was from Copenhagen and that his father lived in Norway. He married the sister of the flower painter Jacob van Walscapelle (1644-1727). Was he ̶ together with his brother-in-law ̶ a pupil of Cornelis Kick (1634-1681), whose rare paintings are quite close to his? Six years later he worked in Hamburg [20-22] and shortly after he was appointed as a court painter in Berlin.23 His son Ottomar Elliger II (1666-1732), who was born in Hamburg, received his early training in Berlin and later in Amsterdam. He worked in Germany as well at some point, but not in Hamburg.24 Finally we have to mention the flower painter Eltie de Vlieger (active last quarter 17th century) [23-26], who is thought to have painted in Hamburg.25
20
Ottomar Elliger (I)
Fruits still life with peaches, grapes and butterflies, dated 1666
Braunschweig, Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum, inv./cat.nr. 555
21
Ottomar Elliger (I)
Still life with roses in a garland of fruit, dated 1666
Schleswig, Kulturstiftung des Landes Schleswig-Holstein - Schloss Gottorf, inv./cat.nr. 1993/1455
22
Ottomar Elliger (I)
Roses and butterflies an an marble ledge, dated 1666
Private collection
24
Eltie de Vlieger
Garland of flowers, after 1678
Dessau (Dessau-Roßlau), Anhaltische Gemäldegalerie - Schloss Georgium, inv./cat.nr. A.St. 552
23
Eltie de Vlieger
Still-life with flowers in a glass vase
Hamburg, Hamburger Kunsthalle, inv./cat.nr. 527
25
Eltie de Vlieger
Flowers in a glass vase with a watch, probably late 1670s
Whereabouts unknown
26
Eltie de Vlieger
Vase with flowers on a marble ledge
Riga (Latvia), The Latvian Museum of Foreign Art, inv./cat.nr. ÄMM-GL 949
Notes
1 [Gerson 1942/1983] Lichtwark 1899, p. 17; Lichtwark 1898, vol. 1, p. 86.
2 [Gerson 1942/1983] Van Mander/Floerke 1906, vol. 2, p. 98-116.
3 [Van Leeuwen 2017] Vredeman de Vries even returned to Hamburg twice and died there (Borggrefe/Fusenig/Uppenkamp 2002, p. 29).
4 [Van Leeuwen 2017] On Coignet: Uppenkamp 2015.
5 [Gerson 1942/1983] He also must have painted portraits. Leupe 1879-1880, p. 147.
6 [Gerson 1942/1983] Fig. 23 (1942), fig. 63 (1983). Also observed by Herman Röver (Röver 1926, p. 8).
7 [Van Leeuwen 2017] Houbraken 1718-1721, vol. 2, p. 356.
8 [Van Leeuwen 2017] This is the earliest dated work of Philip Wouwerman (1639), which may have originated in Hamburg; he only became a member of the guild in Haarlem in September 1640 (Van Thiel-Stroman 2006, p. 357
9 [Gerson 1942/1983] Wouwerman worked for the Hamburg history painter Evert Decker (Ϯ 1646). Mattias Scheits (1625/30-c. 1700) reports that Wouwerman came to Hamburg to marry (Lichtwark 1899, p. 42-46). [Van Leeuwen 2017] Against the will of his family, Wouwerman married the catholic Annetje Pietersdr. van Broeckhof from Haarlem in Hamburg in 1638 or 1639 (Van Thiel-Stroman 2006, p. 357).
10 [Gerson 1952/1983) Bredius 1915-1921, vol. 4 (1917), p. 1418-1419. [Van Leeuwen 2017] Actually, Bredius states that Willem Dalens abandoned his wife and left for Hamburg c. 1671/72 to marry Hedewegh Ridder. His son Dirck accompanied him and returned to the Netherlands after his father’s death, November 1rst 1675. The funeral of Willem in Hamburg was also attended by the Dutch painter Matthijs van der Voort (1643-1719). Bredius 1915-1921, vol. 4 (1917), p. 1419; Bakker 2008, p. 240.
11 [Van Leeuwen 2017] Waterloo indeed made trips to other places from Hamburg (Stubbe 1983, Stefes 2011, vol. 2, p. 602-693). Over 30 sheets of a sketchbook of Hamburg are known, 17 are in the Hamburger Kunsthalle (Stefes 2011, p. 603). Many online at the Hamburger Kunsthalle (Kupferstichkabinett).
12 [Van Leeuwen 2017] They travelled together from in Italy up north; it seems that their paths diverged in Hamburg: Meyering went to Amsterdam, Johannes Glauber went to Denmark to work for Ulrik Frederik Gyldenløve and then went to Amsterdam, while Johann Gottlieb Glauber went to Vienna and Prague and ended up in Breslau, where he died. When Johannes married in Amsterdam in 1704, he was assisted by his friend Albert Meyering (Ecartico database).
13 [Van Leeuwen 2017] Houbraken 1718-1721, vol. 3, p. 187.
14 [Gerson 1942/1983] Hofstede de Groot 1893, p. 83 and 445. [Van Leeuwen 2017] Hofstede de Groot states quite plausibly, that there was a mix-up of Blankerhoff with Bellevois (Hofstede de Groot 1893, p. 83, note 83). On Voorhout: Van Run 2009.
15 [Gerson 1942/1983] Kramm places a certain Jan de Wet in Hamburg (Kramm 1857-1864, vol. 4, p. 1845). If he is related to the Dutch De Wet family, one could welcome him and Paulijn as two representatives of the Rembrandt school. [Van Leeuwen 2017] It must have been Jacob de Wet I (c. 1610-after September 1677) who was mentioned as member of the Guild in Cologne in September 1677. Van Meurs 1900 wrongly assumes that this was Jacob II. Jacob de Wet I settled his affairs in September 1675 with the intention to go abroad (Biesboer/Köhler et al. 2006, p. 339, note 46). The fact that the catholic painter Jacob de Wet I left Haarlem shortly after the 'Rampjaar 1672', which certainly was a disaster for Catholics due to the puritan/protestant takeover of the city government (the 'Alteratie'), makes his departure for catholic Cologne very plausible (communication J. Kosten).
16 [Van Leeuwen 2017] Gerson erroneously states 1729, instead of 1721. As far as we know, no works of Diana Glauber survived. In an inventory of Salzdalum palace six paintings were mentioned, five of which represented the five senses (Huiskamp 2014).
17 [Gerson 1942/1983] A Pieter Pietersz, who was reimbursed for travel expenses in 1653, is completely unknown (Van der Willigen 1870, p. 36). [Van Leeuwen 2017] Amama also had a pupil with the Dutch sounding name Hiddinga, from whose estate many flower ‘portraits’ by Amama were sold in 1792 (Saur 1992-, vol. 3, p. 67).
18 [Van Leeuwen 2019] It took Dirk Stoop al least 14 year before he was accepted by the painter's guild in Hamburg. Together with a group of painters, he ('Rodrigo Stoff') was engaged in legal proceedings against the Hamburg painter's guild in 1667. In 1674 he was working for the government of the cathedral in Hamburg, against which the guild's painters protested. In 1681 the painter's guild finally granted him the freedom to work and promised to invite him to all their meetings (Ed. Trautscholdt in Thieme/Becker 1907-1953, vol. 32 [1938], p. 113). As Dirk Stoop is not listed in the death registers of Utrecht until 1725, he may well have died in Hamburg, possibly in 1686.
19 [Gerson 1942/1983] ‘Cornelis Stoop, einem Engeländer, mahlt gar eigentlich die Speluncken und abscheuliche Höhlen mite sonderbaren Weiten und Pespectiven’ (cited from Sandrart/Peltzer 1675/1925, p. 349). In the Hamburger Museum there are two grotto paintings by Dirk (Rodrigo) Stoop. Others are found in Göttingen and on the art market. Since Stoop was in England first, Sandrart may have thought he was English. [Van Leeuwen 2017] The paintings in Hamburg Gerson mentions possibly were loans to the Hamburger Museum (now Museum für Hamburgische Geschichte), one probably indentical to RKD 279565.
20 [Gerson 1942/1983] Auction London, 5 March 1937, no. 4. [Van Leeuwen 2017] Auctioned again 7 October 1944, no. 333. Thieme/Becker suggest she might be related to Dirck Stoop (Thieme/Becker vol. 32 [1938], p. 116). According to Fred Meijer (RKD) the painting is not in the style of Ernst Stuven, but rather from the Southern Netherlands (Van der Willigen/Meijer 2003, p. 191).
21 [Van Leeuwen 2017] Gerson/Van Leeuwen/Roding 2015, § 2.14.
22 [Van Leeuwen 2017] On Gijsbrechts in connection with still-life painters from Hamburg: § 2.5.
23 [Van Leeuwen 2017] See § 2.10. Paintings by Ottomar Elliger I which are dated 1666 probably originated in Hamburg.
24 [Van Leeuwen 2017] In Berlin he was trained by his father; in Amsterdam by Gerard de Lairesse. See § 2.5.
25 [Gerson 1942/1983] Lichtwark 1899, p. 28. [Van Leeuwen 2017] According to Wurzbach and Willigen/Meijer the painter Eltie de Vlieger could be indentified with Neeltje (Cornelia) de Vlieger, daughter of the painter Simon de Vlieger and wife of Paulus van Hillegaert II. Thieme/Becker and Kloek et al. 1993 identify Eltie with the sister of Simon de Vlieger, also named Neeltje/Cornelia (born c. 1600-1610). However, the flower painter Eltie de Vlieger was at least one or two generations younger (R. van Leeuwen and H. Nijboer, 2017). According to Nijboer Eltie is probably a male name (Eeltsje, Eelke, Eelco, Elias). Lichtwark (and Gerson) placed E(e)ltie de Vlieger in Hamburg. Until recently only three still-lifes were documented (Willigen/Meijer 2003, p. 208, as Neeltje de Vlieger). We discovered a fourth signed work in the Latvian Museum of Foreign Art in Riga (all illustrated here).