RKD STUDIES

Less attention needs to be paid to the courts in Central Germany compared to the ones in Berlin and Düsseldorf. Kassel for example only came in close contact with Dutch art at the end of the 18th century. Before that time we only need to mention Anselm van Hulle (1601-after 1674), to whom a portrait of Landgrave Wilhelm VI of 1651 is attributed [1-2].¹ Before that, at the beginning of the 17th century, the Dutch (?) artist Caspar van der Borcht († 1610) [3-4] and his son are thought to have worked there.²

As a collector Landgrave Karl I von Hessen-Kassel (1654-1730) did favour the Italians, but already during his reign we encounter some Dutch court artists or Germans who were trained under Dutch influence. To this latter category belonged the painters Herman Hendrik de Quiter, father (c. 1627/8-1708) and son (active 1700-1730). Before the elder De Quiter came to Kassel, he had been active both as an architect and museum director in Bonn and Bremen for Elector Maximilian Heinrich of Cologne. In Kassel he made many portraits that are already mentioned in the earliest inventories of the collection, among others the portrait of the envoy at the Reichstag Johann Joachim d’Orville [5].³ His many reproductive prints after Sir Peter Lely [6] make it likely that he also took that artist as a model. His son travelled the Netherlands, England and other countries before he settled in Kassel as a court painter (paintings there and in Gripsholm [7-8]). In this capacity he was succeeded by his younger brother Magnus (1694-1744), who previously had been gallery inspector in the Brunswick Salzdahlum. His paintings are hardly distinguishable from those of the two others [9-10].

5
Herman Hendrik de Quiter (II) published by Herman Hendrik de Quiter (I)
Portrait of Jean Jacques d'Orville (1633-1688), 1678-1679
Braunschweig, Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum, inv./cat.nr. HHQuiter AB 3.24

6
Herman Hendrik de Quiter (I) after Peter Lely
Portrait of Eleanor (Nell) Gwyn (?-1687), c. 1678
Chicago (Illinois), The Art Institute of Chicago, inv./cat.nr. 2015.294

Also the brothers Roos, Johann Heinrich and Theodor, painted at the court in Kassel for a while. Previously they had worked in Mainz, Mannheim and Strasbourg. We will meet them again in Frankfurt.⁴ It was not unusual to wander from one court to the other. Adam de Clerck(c. 1645-1705), for example, travelled in 1681 from Berlin to Kassel, where he created some portraits [11]. Nicolaes van Ravesteyn II (1661-1750) found employment as the Kassel court as well. In 1702 he portrayed the landgrave, after he already had painted several German rulers, such as the Counts of Erbach and Von Sachsen-Hildburghausen as well as the Prince of Waldeck [12], in the small town of Culemborg.⁵

However, the most successful portraitist was Philip van Dijk (1683-1753).⁶ In 1725 and in 1736 he stayed in Kassel, where he immortalized the landgrave, surrounded by his family and complete princely household, in a large painting [13].⁷ Besides this, he made several other portraits and genre pieces [14-15]: he was the ‘Jan Frans van Douven of Kassel’ and, like him, supportive in the expansion of the art gallery of Landgrave Wilhelm VIII (1682-1760). His pupil Louis de Moni (1698-1771) accompanied him to Germany. As less independent artist than his master, he clung to the sublime prototypes by Gerard Dou and Frans van Mieris [16-17].⁸

13
Philip van Dijk
Family portrait of Landgrave Charles of Hesse-Kassel (1654-1730) and his family with a self-portrait of the artist, dated 1725
Kassel, Museum Schloss Wilhelmshöhe, inv./cat.nr. GK 327

Besides these late portrait and fine painters, the last offshoots of Holland's great art, we also find here some landscape and prospect painters such as Willem van Bemmel (1630-1708), who settled in 1652 in Kassel for six years, or Jan van Nickelen, who moved here after the death of Johann Wilhelm von der Pfalz in 1716.⁹ The former set himself the task of introducing Italianate landscape painting in the taste of Jan Both and Herman van Swanevelt into Germany, while the latter was a ‘court painter for all seasons’: he created eight ideal views of the pleasure palace Weissenstein and the Hercules systems [18-19],¹⁰ but also portraits of the deceased princely children and immortalized rare animals that his patron had shot during the hunt [20]. The landgrave sent him on a trip to Italy at his expense.

20
Jan van Nickelen
The white roebuck, c. 1716-1721
Kassel, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister (Museumslandschaft Hessen Kassel), inv./cat.nr. GK 1130

The future court painter and gallery inspector Johann Georg Freesen (1701-1777) [21] was Van Nickelen’s pupil. He also taught his daughter Jacoba Maria (c. 1690-1749),¹¹ who married the painter Willem Troost I. She was taught flower painting [22] by her second teacher Herman van der Mijn. Also in Kassel there was no lack of paintings by Jan van Huijsum [23], who was greatly admired by Landgrave Wilhelm VIII. We know how delighted he was when he saw several works by this artist during a visit to the collection of Jan van Gool in Holland.¹²

21
Johann Heinrich Tischbein (I)
Portrait of Johann Georg Freesen (1701-1777), dated 1772
Kassel, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister (Museumslandschaft Hessen Kassel), inv./cat.nr. 1875/1337

The Kassel gallery postdates those of the Düsseldorf and Dresden. Until the middle of the century it was merely a portrait gallery. Naturally the Dutch relatives were represented here as well, and the portraits that were not available as originals, were borrowed to be copied by local artists. It was to Landgrave Karl’s credit that he enlarged and improved the collection with works of art, rather than curiosities or works that were only of concern to the family. Around the turn of the century he commissioned the building of a museum, which he filled with paintings. Besides Italian works, this gallery and his castle included – according to an inventory of 1731 – Rembrandt’s beautiful Bust of a man wearing a golden chain with a cross [24], two paintings by Anthony van Dyck, a Cornelis van Poelenburch, Adriaen van der Werff and naturally paintings by his court painters Philip van Dijk [25] and Jan van Nickelen.¹³

Within a few years his younger son, and successor, Wilhelm VIII managed to expand the collection in an undreamt-of way. Among many other acquisitions he succeeded in purchasing the cabinet of Mrs. de Röver in Delft in 1750: 64 paintings for 40.000 guilders. It was a choice collection with eight Rembrandts, Rubens, Philips Wouwerman, Jacob van Ruisdael, Paulus Potter, Jan van der Heyden, Godefridus Schalcken and other fine painters. The art dealer Gerard Hoet II (1698-1760), who in 1752 described each work in his ‘Name list of paintings’, had mediated the deal for a commission of 5%. Gallery director Johann Georg Freesen also had an active share in the whole affair. We will not go into detail about the other acquisitions of the landgrave, although such superb paintings as Jacob’s blessing by Rembrandt [26] were among them. At the death of Wilhelm VIII, Kassel possessed one of the finest collections of Dutch painting, one that could compete very well with the ones in Dresden and Düsseldorf. Kassel has always retained the reputation of being a noteworthy gallery of Dutch painting. However, through theft and confiscations, many things were lost during the war years of 1806-1813; far from everything was recovered afterwards.¹⁴

24
follower of Rembrandt
Bust of a man wearing a golden chain with a cross, before 1731
Kassel, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister (Museumslandschaft Hessen Kassel), inv./cat.nr. GK 231

25
Philip van Dijk
The penitent Mary Magdalene, dated 1722
Kassel, Museum Schloss Wilhelmshöhe, inv./cat.nr. GK 326