RKD STUDIES

We treat Oldenburg and Schleswig-Holstein as politically connected lands. Here we count them as part of the German cultural landscape, regardless of their close connection to the state of Denmark, which also led to artists going back and forth. Incidentally, there are only a few names that have to be mentioned, since Jan Liss and other artists settled down abroad. Just as the Coninxloo family represented the Flemish-mannerist stage in Emden, the two brothers (?) Marten (active 1590-1630) and Govert van Achten (active 1593-1617) had developed an activity on a mannerist basis in the land of Holstein since the end of the 16th century. They had probably migrated from the Northern Netherlands and worked -- one could say: exclusively -- after mannerist prints from Maerten van Heemskerck, Frans Floris, Marten de Vos, Anthonie van Blocklandt, Bartholomeus Spranger, Hans van Aachen and Hendrick Goltzius. The most popular models, which were also used by other artists at the time, were the master prints from Goltzius, the Resurrection of Aegidius Sadelaer and the Resurrection of Lazarus by Jan Muller. In 1590-1591 the Van Achten brothers painted biblical scenes as decorations for the chapel of Gottorf castle, which are fine examples of slightly changed copies after prints, converted in scale and color [1-3].¹ Also minor masters like Johan von Enum II (c. 1560-1615)[4]² from Flensburg and Steffen Stager (active 1619-1645) did it this way, as well as other unknown artists whose paintings are found in Holstein’s churches.

1
Marten van Achten
The chapel of Gottorf castle, 1590-1591
Schleswig, Kulturstiftung des Landes Schleswig-Holstein - Schloss Gottorf

A curious allegory of 1598 by the Flensburg painter Nicolaus Andreae (c. 1550-in or after 1606) is located in the Flensburg Museum [5], the complexity of which would do full credit to a Netherlandish mannerist.³ These late mannerist German paintings can be considered as precursors of a specific Dutch influence.

This can be discerned most clearly in portrait painting. Both the Van Achten brothers were already praised as portrait painters. In the financial books of the Court of Gottorf, which were published by Harry Schmidt, Dutch names occur time and again. A Jacob von Voordt (active 1581-1607) received substantial payments; he painted many things, particularly in Husum. Nothing of his work has been preserved; the same goes for the original and copy portraits by Abraham (active 1604-1624) and Lorens de Keyster (1607-1665).⁴ Other unknowns are Jacob Peter Davids and Willem Pijl (active 1622-1623). ⁵ That they all painted in Netherlandish style, we deduce from several anonymous portraits of Schleswig rulers that might stem from one or the other [6].⁶

It appears that David Bailly, who visited many courts when he travelled in Germany, also visited Oldenburg. This is not unlikely, since he stayed in nearby Hamburg for more than a year (1607-1608). The portrait painter Jacob van Doort († 1629) -- we will encounter him in Copenhagen⁷ -- worked at Gottorf’s court for many years. He dwellt in Hamburg for a while and supplied the dukes of Holstein [7-9] with his own and foreign products.⁸

Anselm van Hulle -- we already met him in Münster -- painted a portrait of the Duke of Gottorf in 1653 and two years later payments were made to the ‘contrafaiter (portrait painter) Gerrit Uylenburgh’ and the Dutch painter David Uylenburgh.⁹ Also in these cases it is not impossible that the two acted as art dealers. In the 1670s the painters Herman Hendrik de Quiter I (1627/28-1708) and Johannes Voorhout I (1647-1717) painted some things here, the latter probably not portraits, but decoration paintings.¹⁰

6
Anonymous Northern Germany (area) dated 1640
Portrait of Magdalena Sibilla, dated 1640

7
and Hans Gudewerdt (II) Jacob van Doort
Portrait of Adolph, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein (1600-1631), c. 1620
Schleswig, Kulturstiftung des Landes Schleswig-Holstein - Schloss Gottorf, inv./cat.nr. 1985/573

More important is Wolfgang Heimbach (1613/16-1678) [10].¹¹ He received his training in the Netherlands around 1635. Subsequently he worked some years in Germany, almost ten years in Italy and on his way back, late 1651 or early 1652, again in Holland (and Brussels). Then he worked in 1665-1667 as a court painter in Copenhagen, with short intermissions (1665-1666) in Oldenburg at the court of Count Günther [11], before dying in Ovelgönne.¹²

His early genre paintings of 1636-1637 are essentially dependent upon the Haarlem and Amsterdam guardroom painters, in particular Willem Cornelisz. Duyster [12-14].¹³ He loved artificial light effects, which we know from the Utrecht school. But for example in a work in Dublin [15]¹⁴ these effects can also have been conveyed by the Rembrandt school, perhaps by works of Leonaert Bramer and Dirck Dircksz. Santvoort (1609-1680), such as The supper at Emmaus of 1633 in the Louvre [16]. In Italy he remains more or less faithful to the Dutch model (Honthorst, Fetti, Saraceni).

10
Wolfgang Heimbach
Self-portrait of Wolfgang Heimbach (c. 1613/1616-c. 1678), dated 1660
Münster (city, Germany), LWL - Museum für Kunst und Kultur, inv./cat.nr. 2037 LM

After his return to the North he rather endorses Pieter de Hooch and his circle, without abandoning candlelight painting completely. The interior paintings, although uneven in execution and composed after ever changing models, are the most charming. The Family kitchen (painted in Italy!) of 1648 [17] would do full credit to an Isaac Koedijck.¹⁵

A biblical scene of 1657 [18] looks like a work of one of the Pre-Rembrandtists.¹⁶ A guardroom scene of 1665 (Museum Oldenburg) echoes a composition of David Teniers II [19].¹⁷ His portraits [20] are weaker than those of the court painters working in Denmark at the time, such as Abraham Wuchters. Heimbach is a pleasant, receptive, but dependent German painter from the province. He emulates the Dutch model constantly, but lacks technical skill and painterly feeling, which make his paintings look a bit dry and unsophisticated. Outside the borders the painting culture of the Netherlands gets lost quickly, particularly when individuals strive for it, rather than being supported by a mutually stimulating community.¹⁸

17
Wolfgang Heimbach
A family in a kitchen doing household tasks, dated 1648
Nuremberg, Germanisches Nationalmuseum, inv./cat.nr. GM 1346

Much more ‘Dutchificated’ than Heimbach was Jürgen Ovens (1623-1678).¹⁹ Since the early 1640s he was in Amsterdam, where he is mentioned as a pupil of Rembrandt.²⁰ He stayed there for many years. Only in 1651 he returned to Holstein, where he mainly worked for the Duke of Gottorf [21-22]. His activity as a court painter brought him to Stockholm in 1654. In a series of paintings he captured the festivities on the occasion of the marriage of the Holstein Princess Hedwig Eleonore of Gottorf with King Charles X Gustav of Sweden [23-24].²¹ From 1657 until 1663 we find him for a second time in Amsterdam and finally from 1663 again in Friedrichstadt, where he executed many portraits and altarpieces for German and Danish clients.

22
Jürgen Ovens
Portrait of duke Friedrich III of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorf (1597-1659), late 1650s
Schleswig, Schleswig-Holsteinisches Landesmuseum, inv./cat.nr. 1988/1260

Incidentally, while in Amsterdam he had not lacked assignments either. He painted portraits and history paintings, among others The conspiracy of the Batavians under Claudius Civilis for the Town Hall [25]²² as a replacement for the refused work by Rembrandt. Ovens absorbed different foreign, Dutch and Flemish influences in his works. Rembrandt’s spirit and atmosphere is still clearly visible in his portrait of Nicolaes Tulp (Six Collection, Amsterdam) [26], that must have been painted around 1645, during his first stay in Amsterdam.²³ Strangely enough the influence of Van Dyck predominates in an earlier painting from 1642 [27].²⁴ Anyway, his portraits turn out best. His works from the 1650s and early 1660s look like the late works of Rembrandt-pupils such as Lievens, Bol and Maes. Some recall clearly the style of portraits painters like Bartholomeus van der Helst, Luttichuys and Jonson van Ceulen.

As a painter Ovens in no way took a back seat to his Dutch colleagues. He is far superior to an artist like Heimbach. Only the late works that originated in Friedrichstadt [28] become dry and arid. When his painterly routine declines, the eclecticism ̶ the mixing and adopting of Flemish, Dutch and even Italian forms ̶ turns particularly unpleasant. Apart from that, Ovens is an important figure in the expansion of the classic Dutch portrait style and of Rembrandt’s chiaroscuro in North Germany and Denmark. Since he was a productive artist and highly regarded in his own country, one should not underestimate his importance as an agent of Dutch cultural assets.

25
and Jürgen Ovens Govert Flinck
The Midnight Conspiracy of the Batavians under Claudius Civilis (Tacitus, Historiae IV, 13-15, 61), November 1659-February 1660 and September 1662
Amsterdam, Koninklijk Paleis (Paleis op de Dam)

We know less of Heinrich Jansen (1625-1667) of Flensburg.²⁵ He came to Holland in 1645 and was Rembrandt’s pupil for three years. Then he returned to Flensburg, before he started out on a long journey in 1651 that took him to the Netherlands, Spain and Italy. Since he worked for several years (1657-1661) for the Danish court, we will encounter him again in our chapter on Denmark.²⁶ Apart from copies after Rembrandt, we only know some paintings and drawings in Dutch style [29-31].²⁷

Also of Broder Matthisen († 1666) we only know a small group of works, although we can follow his life path quite accurately on the basis of payments by the court of Gottorf.²⁸ Two still-lifes, one in Dresden [32], the other in Schwerin [33], give away a connection with the Leiden school, in particular with Willem de Poorter en Jan Vermeulen.²⁹ An etching of an old man [34] closely imitates Rembrandt.³⁰ One might assume that he spent time in Holland. For the Danish court he painted a ‘little kitchen piece’ in 1655 and in Berlin, where he stayed on and off, some portraits.³¹

So Rembrandt’s art is not represented very impressively in Holstein, despite Ovens, Jansen and Matthisen. One portrait by Ovens’ brother ³² Friedrich Adolf Ovens (1657-1699) has surfaced [35], which looks Dutch.³³ Nor has another Ovens follower, Barthold Conrad (1657-1719), who created an epitaph in 1708 [36], carried Rembrandt’s art into the 18th century.³⁴

32
Broder Matthisen
Vanitas still life with unfolded books, musical instruments, precious vessels and a globe, c. 1664
Dresden, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden - Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, inv./cat.nr. 1996 A

Naturally the Gottorf court did not only employ portrait painters. A Johann Liss, painter from Schleswig, was paid for decorative work in 1622.³⁵ In 1652 a landscape by Govert Camphuysen (1623/24-1672) was acquired; the painter must have travelled to Sweden through Gottorf.³⁶ In this context we must recall that Friedrichstadt at the Eider was a Dutch colony of Remonstrants, created by Duke Friedrich III (1597-1659).³⁷ Along with Dutch architects, merchants and clergymen, perhaps also the love for Dutch paintings moved into this town. Almost all Gottorf court painters mentioned up to now also painted in and for Friedrichstadt. Ovens died here and one of his last paintings is kept in the Sankt Christopherus Kirche [37].³⁸ In the Town Hall on the other hand is one of the earliest works that originated under Dutch influence: the portrait of two young couples in the style of Willem Buytewech [38].³⁹

Ovens himself possessed a very handsome collection, including Dutch, Flemish and Italian paintings; only Rembrandt’s work was not represented.⁴⁰ In Holland he acquired paintings and prints for the ducal court, among other things ‘the most beautiful work by P. Lastman ever seen in the country’ [39].⁴¹ In 1627 a resident of Friedrichstadt bought a ‘Storm by Porcellis’⁴² -- it is needless to list separately the many reports on purchases of paintings in the course of 17th century. Even in 1706 a bust of the deceased royal highness painted by the ‘chief court painter Ludwig Weyandt’⁴³ was sent to Holland to have it engraved [40]. The drawing for the ornamentation was sent along.⁴⁴

All in all one can agree with the local connoisseur Ernst Obsen George (1894-1970) : ‘we observe here a consistent impact of a higher and more evolved culture on a peripheral, but receptive region’ (in translation).⁴⁵ The land of Oldenburg and its court withdrew clearly behind Schleswig. Heimbach was the pride of the country which Jan Liss abandoned. In 1651 we hear from a certain Gerrit Plomp from the land of Oldenburg, who got reimbursed fl. 18 for travel expenses in Utrecht. No communication on the destination of this Plomp has survived.⁴⁶ The painter Jan de Baen ‘from Emden’ painted the portrait of the Count of Aldenburg, son of the ruling Count Anton Günter [41]. Probably he also visited Oldenburg.

37
Jürgen Ovens
The lamentation of Christ (Luke 23, 53), dated 1675
Friedrichstadt (Schleswig-Holstein), Sankt Christopherus Kirche

38
manner of Willem Buytewech (I)
Portrait of two couples standing in front of a colonnade, first quarter 17th century
Friedrichstadt (Schleswig-Holstein), Rathaus Friedrichstadt