Van Hoogstraten as a Teacher of Printmaking
Also in 1677,François van Hoogstraten (I) (1632-1696) completed a Dutch translation of Thomas More's Utopia and published it in Rotterdam under his own imprint. The author portrait of More bears the initials of Arnold Houbraken (1660-1719) [40].1 The plate may well have been produced in Samuel van Hoogstraten's workshop in Dordrecht: Houbraken was his student from 1675 to 1678. Nearly half a century later, Houbraken's treatise De groote schouburgh der konstschilders en schilderessen ('The great theater of painters and painteresses'), with illustrations by Arnold's son Jacob (1698-1780) (a prolific printmaker), featured numerous reminiscences of his student days.2 He states that while he was studying with Van Hoogstraten, he 'was to have had the honor of joining him in etching the plates of his book on the art of painting, had not another disciple, who contested that advantage with me, prevented it from materializing, after I had made a print, which is on page 269, as a sample'.3 The illustration on p. 269 depicts a classical landscape with strong shadows cast by slanting sunlight [41]. Stylistically, it could easily have passed for the work of Van Hoogstraten himself, but it is signed in the lower right corner with linked initials AHB, exactly the same signature as on Houbraken's portrait of Thomas More, thus confirming Houbraken's claim. Houbraken does not mention who his rival was, but there is a possible candidate: Van Hoogstraten's nephew, Anthony de Vos (d. 1729). Although there is no documentation that he studied with his uncle, De Vos was active as a printmaker; in Balen's history of Dordrecht, the portrait of the statesman Johan de Witt bears his monogram [42]. The etching style is so similar to that of his uncle that Hollstein attributed the print to Van Hoogstraten.4
Godefridus Schalcken (1643-1706) had studied with Van Hoogstraten much earlier, around 1658-1660, and may also have learned the art of printmaking from him. Schalcken produced several independent prints, including an etched portrait of Gerrit Dou (1613-1675), with whom he studied in Leiden from 1662 to 1664.5 In the 1670s, Schalcken was back in Dordrecht when he, too, was called upon (perhaps by his busy former teacher) to contribute portrait prints to Balen's book. According to the inscription, his etched portrait of burgomaster Cornelis van Beveren was based on a painted portrait by Samuel van Hoogstraten [43].6 As indicated by the figure's antiquated dress and the birth and death dates inscribed at left, this is not the Cornelis van Beveren who was a contemporary of the artists, but an ancestor who lived in the sixteenth century. We suggest that Schalcken worked from a grisaille (or brunaille) prepared by Van Hoogstraten (in this case based on an earlier source), as Romeyn de Hooghe (1645-1708) did for the portrait of Balen discussed above. This method for preparing portrait prints was well-established, as in the extensive series of oil sketches prepared by Anthony van Dyck in the 1630s for the print series known as the Iconography. (Rembrandt produced a few oil sketches for prints, but no portraits in grisaille.) In any case, Van Hoogstraten used this method for his self-portrait in the Inleyding, discussed below (see [44]).
Schalcken's fluent linear style is close to that of Van Hoogstraten, with a touch of bravura that suggests familiarity with the etchings of De Hooghe. This is not surprising since Romeyn de Hooghe was also a contributor to Balen's book, and, as we have seen, Van Hoogstraten admired him.
40
Arnold Houbraken
Portrait of Thomas More (1478-1535)
Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv./cat.nr. RP-P-1890-A-15383
41
Arnold Houbraken
Of the shadows of sunlight, and how they fall, before 1678
The Hague, RKD – Netherlands Institute for Art History
42
Anthony de Vos after Jan de Baen
Portrait of Johan de Witt (1625-1672), before 1677
The Hague, RKD – Netherlands Institute for Art History
43
Godefridus Schalcken and after design by Samuel van Hoogstraten
Portrait of Cornelis (I) van Beveren (1524-1586), before 1677
The Hague, RKD – Nederlands Instituut voor Kunstgeschiedenis (Collectie Iconografisch Bureau)
44
Samuel van Hoogstraten
Self-portrait of Samuel van Hoogstraten (1627-1678), 1677
Dordrecht, Huis Van Gijn, inv./cat.nr. 1461
Notes
1 Houbraken may have based his portrait on a print by Lucas Vorsterman from 1631.
2 References are compiled and translated in H.J. Horn (ed. and trans.), 'Appendix. Arnold Houbraken's references to Samuel van Hoogstraten and his 'Introduction to the academy of painting', in Weststeijn et al. 2013, pp. 241-258. Houbraken had three earlier teachers: Johannes de Haen (1669-1670), Willem van Drielenburg (1672) and Jacobus Leveck, a former student of Rembrandt (1674-1675), but his longest apprenticeship was with Van Hoogstraten.
3 Houbraken 1718-1721, vol. 2, pp. 161-162; H.J. Horn (ed. and trans.), 'Appendix. Arnold Houbraken's references to Samuel van Hoogstraten and his 'Introduction to the academy of painting', in Weststeijn et al. 2013, p. 249.
4 The print exists in two states; the first bears a poem initialled ADV; the initials appear in the image in the second state, shown here. Regional Archives Dordrecht, access 16, inv. no. 27, item 877 (Keurboek houdende afschriften van keuren uit 1502-1699 of the Gold and Silvermiths Guild) contains two prints by Anthony de Vos, Philips the Handsome (signed A. de Vos) and Charles V, not mentioned in Hollstein Dutch & Flemish 1949-2010.
5 Hollstein Dutch & Flemish 1949-2010, vol. 10, cat. no. 4. For an impression in the Rijksmuseum, see Portrait of Gerard Dou and Portrait of Balthasar Lydius.
6 Schalcken etched the portraits of Dordrecht admiral Mattheus van den Broucke, burgomaster Cornelis van Beveren, and preacher Balthasar Lydius (father of Jacob), with laudatory inscriptions by Joachim Oudaen (1628-1692) and Jacob Cats (1577-1660); Hollstein Dutch & Flemish 1949-2010, vol. 24, pp. 153-155, cat. nos. 3, 4, 5. A proof impression of Schalcken's Portrait of Cornelis (I) van Beveren (1524-1586) bears the poetic text with a different title, handwritten in ink by Van Hoogstraten himself.