RKD STUDIES

The Dutch paintings that we admire today in the Viennese Picture Gallery stem for the larger part from the property of archduke Leopold Wilhelm (1614-1662) [1], who resided in the Southern Netherlands as stadholder from 1647 till 1655. Although he was not a clever politician, he certainly was a very artistic Governor; it has been calculated, that he employed 65 Netherlandish artists and that he was portrayed 34 times! Naturally, such consignments were awarded to the Flemish. As a collector he was very versatile but was not, as many of his contemporaries, keen on curiosities.¹ Although the Dutch paintings do not constitute the main focus of the collection, they are therefore no less exquisite. We can only highlight a few.

Two late portraits of Rembrandt (the Self-portrait of 1652 [2] and the Singing youth [Titus reading] [3]) he must have been acquired shortly after their creation; the Peasant wedding by Jan Steen and the Woman peeling apples by Gerard ter Borch [4] already were sent to Vienna before 1651. From the fine painters he owned works by Gerard Dou [5] and Frans van Mieris I [6].²

Furthermore pictures of the much loved Philip Wouwerman [7-8], of Jan Both, Herman Saftleven, Jan Ossenbeeck [9-10], who indeed worked for him and Pieter van Laer, who was not succesful at the Viennese court; on the other hand no landscapes in the national manner.³

3
Rembrandt
Titus reading, c. 1656-58
Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum, inv./cat.nr. 410

4
Gerard ter Borch (II)
Interior with a Woman peeling apples and a child, c. 1660
Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum, inv./cat.nr. GG 588

The School of Utrecht was represented by Joachim van Wtewael [11], Gerard van Honthorst, Jacob Duck [12] and Cornelis van Poelenburch [13]; the School of Haarlem only through an early Van Ostade [14], a painting in the manner of Frans Hals (van der Vinne) and Egbert van der Poel. To the School of Rembrandt belong the rare Reinier van Gherwen [15], Aert Janz. Marienhof [16], Leonaert Bramer, Christoph Paudiss [17], who we already met at the Viennese court, the Monogrammist J.S. and Jan Lievens (a.o. the painting from his Antwerp period, that he painted together with Jan van der Hecke [18]); a whole row of other paintings join them, among which the flower still-lifes of Rachel Ruysch and Jan Davidsz. de Heem [19] were not forgotten.

11
Joachim Wtewael
Actaeon is changed into a stag and killed by his own dogs, dated 1607
Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum, inv./cat.nr. GG 1052

When Leopold Wilhelm returned to his native country in 1656, he had his possessions transferred to Vienna, which wasn’t a small business, considering that the collection comprised (according to an inventory of 1659) no less than 517 Italian and 880 Netherlandish paintings, to which were added another 343 drawings and 542 statues!⁴ Everything was quickly installed in the Stallburg in Vienna [20]. It was the first important art collection of the 17th century that wasn’t a cabinet of curiosities.

At the death of the archduke, his nephew, the Emperor Leopold I, inherited his entire art collection. The emperor himself owned, as we have seen, paintings by Sandrart [21], Samuel van Hoogstraten, Paudiss and some other Dutch masters who had been active in Vienna. In the years 1728-1735 a preliminary illustrated book of the imperial collection was edited by Frans van Stampart (1675-1750) and Anton Joseph von Prenner (1683-1743/61) [22], from which we learn, that in the meantime some paintings by Philip Wouwerman, Johann Ulrich Mayr, Willem de Heusch, Palamedes Palamedesz, Jacob Ochtervelt and Frans Hals had enriched the holding with Dutch works.⁵ Charles VI added something in his turn, whereas Maria Theresia sold various items to the King of Poland and the Elector of Saxony from the property kept in Prague as well as in Vienna. On the other hand the inheritance from Lorraine and other legacies brought new acquisitions again. For example, there were exchanges with the Schottenstift (Scottish Abbey) in Vienna, that had a very nice little collection of Dutch masters from the 17th century. From the old Galerie Nostitz in Prague likewise came some good Dutch paintings.⁶

20
Nikolaas van Hoy
A view into the Staburg Gallery of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria, in or shorty before 1660
Vienna, Graphische Sammlung Albertina, inv./cat.nr. 9302

Prinz Eugen von Savoyen (1663-1736) had built himself two magnificent houses in Vienna, the Winter Palace in the city and the Belvedere just outside the city walls when his financial position around 1700 had stabilized itself. In those years the war hero became an avid collector. He filled his castles with paintings and antiquities, which at his death were estimated at 200.000 Gulden. C. 1708 he must have become acquainted with the battle painter Jan van Huchtenburg (1647-1733), who worked for him for many years. Thus he painted ten pictures (not counting the repetitions) of engagements, that occurred between 1697 and 1717, in other words a very up-to-date war reporting and glorification of the commander [23-32].⁷

The Prince loved such representations, as bit by bit he bought battle pieces by Philips Wouwerman [33-34],⁸ Jan Pieter van Bredael II [35-36],⁹ Joseph Parrocel and Jacques Courtois.

Apart from these for a commander after all rather obvious acquisitions, he owned a row of pretty precious Dutch cabinet paintings by Gerard Dou [37-38], Frans van Mieris [39], Jacob Toorenvliet, Caspar Netscher [40], Adriaen van der Werff [41], and further flower paintings by the Van der Mijns, Coenraed Roepel, Jan van Huijsum and Abraham Mignon [42]; furthermore some pleasant landscapes of Herman Saftleven and Jan Griffier [43] (16 pieces!) and various others. Even a painting by Rembrandt [44] graced the collection. The Dou, especially, was a valuable piece: it was a present from the Elector Johann Wilhelm, who spent 30,000 guilders on it. Princess Victoria, Eugene’s lucky heiress, sold all the paintings after years of negotiations to Charles Emanuel III, king of Sardinia. Here in Turin in 1796, the French general Claudel took possession of the Dou (which was by no means given to him), so that Dou’s Dropsical woman ‘that passes as the masterpiece of Flemish painting’ [sic!],¹⁰ nowadays enraptures the enthusiasts of the Leiden finepainting in the Louvre, while the rest of Prince Eugene’s property remained in Turin.¹¹

39
Frans van Mieris (I)
Young woman with two children, c`. 1670
Turin, Galleria Sabauda

That is apart from the drawings and the copper engravings (and some more things that are of no interest to us here), which the imperial court acquired as Prince Eugene had been an avid collector of graphic art. He was supported in this by excellent connoisseurs as Pierre Jean Mariette. ‘The ‘Dutchmen abroad’ have him to thank especially, as he acquired in 1732 the so-called ‘Atlas van der Hem’ [45], that now still resides undivided in the Viennese Nationalbibliothek. This Atlas van der Hem is a collection of Dutch drawings by Doomer, Savery, Schellinks, Hackaert and many others, who made particularly meticulous sketches of different countries in Europe for Van der Hem. He kept them in a copy of the eleven-volume Atlas Blaeu, that was taken apart just for this purpose. Over time it swelled to 50 volumes. We well could call this ‘Europe in pictures’.¹²

We can treat the other Viennese collectors somewhat shorter. Prince Karl Eusebius von Liechtenstein (1611-1684) was the founder of the famous gallery and in his last will he gave his son very precise directions for the proper maintenance of the paintings. It was assumed until now, that he only gave bigger consignments to Rubens and some other Flemings. But the industrious art dealers Forchondt of Antwerp, who had a branch office in Vienna, sold him a large number of Dutch pictures too, admittedly no expensive stuff though.¹³ Among them we find above all genre and peasant pictures, that are described as ‘1 Hollants stucksken Lierman’ [=a hurdy-gurdy player], ‘een troni van Livens’, ‘2 tronikens van Rynbrandt’ (the two together for 10 Thaler!), a ‘toeback smorder [= a pipe smoker] van Ostadie’ and similar paintings by Herman Saftleven, Pieter van Laer, Egbert van der Poel and others. The successor of Karl Eusebius principally employed Italians and the two Dutch still-life painters Dirk Valkenburg (hunting pieces in the manner of Jan Weenix) and Willem van Royen. In the 18th century we hear about some other purchases, but only in the 19th century the number and the quality of the Dutch paintings grew considerably.¹⁴

The Forchondts dealt with other Austrian grandees as well of course, like the counts Berckel, Prince Eckenberg, Count von Hoger and others. They did not have their clients only in Vienna, but also in ‘Lins’ [Linz], ‘Craets’ [Graz], in Moravia with the bishop of Olomouc [Olmütz] and who knows where.¹⁵ Especially peasant pictures, landscapes, marines and battle scenes were especially easy to sell, to say nothing of Flemish paintings. To the older collectors of Dutch art we can add the court quartermaster von Wenzelberg, whose belongings came to Melk, Johann Cunibert von Wenzelsberg (1614-1680), whereas Count Kaunitz-Rietberg and Baron Bruckenthal (now in Sibiu, Rumania [formerly Hermannstadt in Siebenburgen]) first became buyers of pictures in the 18th century.¹⁶

44
Rembrandt
The visitation (Luke 11:39-42), dated 1640
Detroit (Michigan), Detroit Institute of Arts, inv./cat.nr. 27.200

45
and Laurens van der Hem Joan Blaeu (I)
Atlas Blaeu-Van der Hem, 1660-1678
Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek