JAN RUTGERSZ VAN NIWAEL (Gorkum, circa 1595 – Utrecht 1674)
A Lady Dressed as a Shepherdess
signed .f in the lower right
oil on panel
26.77 x 21.65 inches (68 x 55 cm.)
PROVENANCE
Anonymous sale, Van Marle & Bignell, The Hague, January 27, 1942, lot 56, illustrated,
where purchased by
Ploeg (?)
Wald – Vervey Collection, The Hague, 1944
H. Dernison, Haarlem, 1945
Kunsthandel St. Lucas, The Hague, by May 1968, from whom purchased by
Private Collection, Texas, May 1968 until 2026
LITERATURE
Antiek, volume II, no. 1, June – July 1967, p. 41, illustrated in an advertisement for Kunsthandel St. Lucas at the Delftse Antiekbeurs
Stephanie Levert, “Jan Cornelisz van Loenen et Jan Rutgersz van Niwael : Les Flamans Paintres demeurant à la maison de Collavoy” in Oud Holland, volume 130, May 15, 2018, p. 177, fn. 56
In this charming portrayal an elegantly dressed lady has taken on the role of a shepherdess. She wears a gold satin dress with a low cut bodice that displays the edge of a white chemise trimmed with blue bows. Her hair is free flowing crowned by a lace cap from which a gossamer veil extends topped by a rose. Draped in pearls, her left hand displays flowers while her right a houlette the traditional attribute of a shepherdess, and key to understanding the painting’s meaning.
During the first half of the seventeenth century pastoral literature was extremely popular. It represented a vision of Arcadia as a paradise ruled by Pan, inhabited by nymphs, satyrs, shepherds and shepherdesses as well as other acolytes, dedicated to the pursuit of love. It further suggested a perfect world without the mundane tribulations of daily life, particularly those encountered in town and court. Such works as Pieter Cornelisz Hooft’s play Granida from 1615 and Johan van Heemskerck’s Batavische Arcadia published in 1637 celebrated these ideals. Interest in painting pastoral figures sprung directly from this literary tradition.[1]
For Van Niwael though perhaps the most direct source of inspiration for this panel came from Crispijn de Passe’s book of engraved pastoral portraits, Les vrais portraits de quelques unes des plus grandes dames de la Chrestiente, desguisées en bergères (The True Portraits of Some of the Greatest Ladies of Christendom Dressed up as Shepherdesses) from 1640. It featured queens, princesses and noble women particularly of Holland, in half-length with plunging necklines, shepherds’ crooks, pearl necklaces with pear shaped pearl earrings, ornate headdresses and veils, with many holding flowers. Paintings displaying such features came to be widely popular, spreading across Europe, commissioned by royalty and the nobility, but also the rising middle class who sought to elevate their own state, at least by pictorial means.[2]
Such highly secularized shepherdesses as well as shepherds first appeared in 17th century Utrecht.[3] Only two shepherdess by Van Niwael are known to survive including this one painted when Van Niwael is known to be living in Utrecht. The other dates from 1639 in which the sitter’s ornamentation is more restrained, and was in the collection of the Pommers Museum, Gdansk by 1941. Ours, which must date from the 1640s reflects the increasing flamboyance of these images.
It is thought that Van Niwael began his apprenticeship in Utrecht, possibly in the studio of Abraham Bloemaert. It is probably during this period that he met Jan Cornelisz van Loenen with whom he had a lifelong friendship.[4] Around 1615, when both artists were in their twenties they decided to travel together to Italy and Flanders, and eventually took up residence in Grenoble. There they worked on municipal projects, commissions, dealt art and even painted houses. Around 1631 Van Niwael returned to Gorkum where he was born, possibly due to the death of his father. By 1637 Van Loenen had returned to Utrecht and married Petronella Quirijnsdochter van Cuijlenborch. In 1639 Van Niwael married the bride’s sister Bastiaentgen Quirijnsdochter van Cuijlenborch, and all moved into the same house and in all likelihood shared a workshop on the premises.[5]
The majority of their output was portraits, typically the size of our panel. Their patrons came from the middle class, as well as the nobility. Some allegorical, historical, Biblical, and genre as well as still lifes are also known to have been painted by Van Niwael in Utrecht.[6] Paintings by the artist are in the Centraal Museum, Utrecht; Église Saint Pierre de Sassenage, Sassenage; Musée d’Art et d’Histoire de Montbéliard, Montbéliard; and the Palais des Beaux – Arts de Lille, Lille. For decades astonishingly, few works by Van Niwael had been obtainable which made this portrait’s reappearance after 52 years particularly gratifying.
[1] James Hall, “Arcadia” in Dictionary of Subject and Symbols in Art, Harper & Row Publishers, New York, 1979, pp. 30-31; Alison McNeil Kettering, The Dutch Arcadia, Pastoral Art and its Audience in the Golden Age, Totowa, New Jersey, 1983, pp. 10-11, 70-71; and Lara Yeager- Crasselt, “Elegant Shepherdess Listening to a Shepherd Playing the Recorder in an Arcadian Landscape” in The Leiden Collection Catalogue, New York, 2023, at theleidencollection.com.
[2] Sarah S. Gibson, “Shepherds and Shepherdesses” in Encyclopedia of Comparative Iconography, Themes Depicted in Works of Art, Routledge, 1998, p. 821.
[3] Ibid, p. 821.
[4] Stephanie Levert, op.cit., p. 157; and for a masterwork by Van Loenen, Portrait of Willem van der Muelen, sold by our firm to the Niedersächsisches Landesmuseum, Hanover see Lawrence Steigrad Fine Arts, Portraits and Recent Acquisitions, 2013, no. 4, illustrated.
[5] Levert, op.cit., pp. 157, 161, 164, 168 – 169.
[6] Ibid, pp. 170 – 171, 177.