Item | Waddesdon Manor

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artist or maker

Cuyp, Aelbert (b.1620, d.1691)

Date

1655-1660

dated stylistically

Place of production

Dordrecht, Holland, Netherlands

Medium

oil on canvas

Type of object

paintings

Accession number

2565

Large oil painting of a landing party on the Maas at Dordrecht during the assembly of the Dutch fleet in July 1646. There is a large sailing boat in the left foreground at anchor containing around seventeen men. A drummer stands on the stern. In the centre of the boat, stands a man wearing a feathered hat and sash of an officer. In front of the boat, there is a rowing boat containing nine men and a woman wearing a blue dress and lace collar. In the right foreground, there is a large rowing boat with five sets of oars. In contains a group of nine officers and eleven men some of whom row. Three men blow trumpets with banners bearing heraldic devices. A large number of boats, including a galleon, are moored behind the boat on the right, receeding into the distance. Many people are aboard the boats, including a prominent standing man with a feathered hat and sash. Behind the boats, on the right, there is a spire of the Grote Kerk, church of Dordrecht, and, in the centre, a firing cannon. In the far left background, there are more buildings. The sky is silvery grey with clouds and birds. There are reflections in the water.

Two paintings by Aelbert Cuyp appear to show an event in the closing stages of the Eighty Years' War that culminated in the establishment of the Dutch Republic. The other canvas is now in the National Gallery of Art, Washington (1940.2.1). Each painting shows Cuyp's native town of Dordrecht from a different viewpoint.

Commentary

It has been argued that the paintings could show another visit of the Stadtholder Frederick Henry and his family to the town. However the number of people in the two scenes does suggest they represent an important event in the final stages of the Eighty Years' War between the North and South Netherlands. In the summer of 1646, two years before the Treaty of Münster, 30,000 soldiers were anchored at Dordrecht. They sailed on 12 July as a last show of force against the Southern Netherlands before the negotiations for a truce.

In the Waddesdon painting, Cuyp shows the dignitaries of Dordrecht being ferried out to pay homage to the fleet's leaders. Trumpeters in the bow of the boat sound their arrival, whilst a cannon blasts from the city's ramparts in the centre of the composition. The boats in the background probably contain the Frisian and English troops that contemporaries described as being moored near the Groothoofdspoort (port building), which appears on the left.

In the 18th century, the two paintings belonged to Johan van der Linden van Slingelandt of Dordrecht. Arthur Wheelock (2001) suggests he may have been a relative of Matthijs Pompe van Slingeland, a city official who was the brother of one of Cuyp's most important patrons.

Phillippa Plock, 2011

Physical description

Dimensions (mm) / weight (mg)

1148 x 1678

Signature & date

not signed or dated

Labels

Morning Room
Cuyp. Left of fireplace
Centre
Label
on verso on stretcher

Morning Room
Left of fireplace, centre
Label
on verso on stretcher

16
Label
circular label on verso

History

Provenance

Owned by Johan van der Linden van Slingelandt of Dordrecht (b.1701, d.1782), before 1752; bought by Rens from the Johan van der Linden van Slingelandt sale, Dordrecht, 22 August 1785 lot 69 for 1,825 florins; bought by Pieter van Winter (b.1745, d.1807) from Rens for circa 7,300 florins a few years after the van Slingelandt sale in 1785; by descent to his daughter Lucretia van Winter (b. 1785, d. 1845); through Lucretia's marriage to Hendrik Six van Hillegom (b.1790, d.1847); by descent to the heirs of Hendrik six van Hillegom; acquired by Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild (b.1839, d.1898) from the Six van Hillegom Collection in 1897; inherited by his sister Alice de Rothschild (b.1847, d.1922); inherited by her great-nephew James de Rothschild (b.1878, d.1957); bequeathed to Waddesdon (National Trust) in 1957.

Collection

Waddesdon (National Trust)
Bequest of James de Rothschild, 1957

Bibliography

Gerard Hoet; Catalogus of Naamlyst van Schildereyen; 1752; vol. 2, p. 490
Jean-Baptiste Descamps; La Vie des peintres flamands, allemands et hollandois; Paris; [n. pub.]; 1753-1763; vol. 2, p. 80
George Agar-Ellis; Catalogue of the principal pictures in Flanders and Holland, 1822; London; W. Nicol; 1826; p. 70
John Smith; A Catalogue Raisonne of the Works of the most Eminent Dutch, Flemish and French Painters Part III Containing the Lives and Works of Anthony Van Dyck and David Teniers; London; Smith and Son; 1831; vol. 5, no. 13
Willem Bürger; Trésors d'Art exposés à Manchester en 1857; Paris; Jules Renouard et Cie; 1857; p. 266
Jan F. van Someren; Oude Kunst in Nederland: Etsen van Willem Steelink; Amsterdam; [n. pub.]; 1890; pl. 3
Emile Michel, Une famille d'artistes hollandais: Les Cuyps, Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 34, 1892, 5-23, 107-17, 224-38; p. 227
Cornelis Hofstede de Groot; A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century. Vols 1-4 [1907-1927]; Bishops Stortford; Chadwick Healey; 1976; vol. 2, no. 36
Simon van Gijn; Dordracum Illustratum; Dordrecht; De Dordrechtsche Drukkerij-en Uitgevers-Maatschappij; 1908; no. 325
Eugène Fromentin; The Masters of Past Time: Dutch and Flemish Painting from Van Eyck to Rembrandt [1948]; Oxford; Phaidon Press; 1981; p. 149
♦; Sir Francis Watson, The Art Collections at Waddesdon Manor I: The Paintings, Apollo, 69, June 1959, 172-182; p. 181, fig. 14
Christopher White, Dutch and Flemish Paintings at Waddesdon Manor, Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 54, August 1959, 67-74; p. 68, fig. 1
Ellis Waterhouse, Anthony Blunt; Paintings: The James A. de Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor; Fribourg; Office du Livre, The National Trust; 1967; pp. 134-135, cat. no. 55
J Q Van Regteren Altena, Review of The James A. de Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor. Ellis Waterhouse, Paintings., Oud Holland, 85, 1970, 59-61; p. 60
S. Reiss; Aelbert Cuyp; London; Zwemmer; 1975; p. 146, no. 106
Margarita Russell, Aelbert Cuyp. The Maas at Dordrecht: The Great Assembly of the Dutch Armed Forces, June-July 1646., Dutch Crossing, 40, 1990, 31-82; pp. 34-35, fig. 4
Ben Broos; Great Dutch Paintings from America; Zwolle; Waanders Publishers; 1990; p. 215, fig. 2
Alan Chong; Aelbert Cuyp and the Meanings of Landscape; New York University; 1992; p. 408, cat. no. 160; as 'The gathering of the fleet at Dordrecht'
Arthur K Wheelock Jr.; Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century: The National Gallery of Art's Systematic Catalogue; Washington, D.C.; National Gallery of Art; 1995; p. 129
♦; Ruud Priem, The "Most Excellent Collection" of Lucretia Johanna van Winter: The Years 1809-22, with a Catalogue of the Works Purchased, Simiolus: Netherlands Quarterly for the History of Art, 25, 1997, 103-196; p. 118, fig. 19
♦; Ruud Priem, Catalogue of Old Master Paintings Acquired by Lucretia Johanna van Winter, 1809-22, Simiolus: Netherlands Quarterly for the History of Art, 25, 1997, 197-230; p. 219, no. 38
♦; Arthur K Wheelock Jr.; Aelbert Cuyp; National Gallery of Art, Washington, 7 October 2001 - 13 January 2002; National Gallery, London, 13 February - 12 May 2002; Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 7 June - 1 September 2002; New York; Thames & Hudson; 2001; pp. 146-149, fig. 1; as 'Dordrecht viewed from the North'
Wouter Th. Kloek; Aelbert Cuyp: Land, Water, Light; Amsterdam, Zwolle; Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Waanders Publishers; 2002; p. 30, fig. 40
Michael Hall; Waddesdon Manor: The Heritage of a Rothschild House; New York; Harry N Abrams Inc; 2002; p. 88, ill.
♦; Ariane van Suchtelen, Arthur K Wheelock Jr.; Dutch Cityscapes of the Golden Age; Royal Picture Gallery Mauritshuis, The Hague, 11 October 2008 - 11 January 2009; National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1 February - 3 May 2009; Zwolle, Washington, D.C.,; Waanders Publishers, National Gallery of Art, Royal Picture Gallery Mauritshuis, The Hague; 2008; p. 104, ill.
Peter Hecht; 125 Jaar openbaar kunstbezit : met steun van de Vereniging Rembrandt; Zwolle; Waanders Publishers; 2008; pp. 12, 14, 209 n. 98, fig. 8
Arthur K Wheelock Jr.; "Aelbert Cuyp/The Maas at Dordrecht/c. 1650", Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century, NGA Online Editions, [http://purl.org/nga/collection/artobject/576 accessed December 07, 2014].; Washington, D.C.; National Gallery of Art; 2012; fig. 2.

Related files

- http://www.nga.gov/collection/gallery/gg47/gg47-576.html [accessed 14 July 2011, National Gallery of Art, Washington painting, 1940.2.1]

Other details

Subject person

Prince Maurits of Orange, Previous identification
Frederick Henry, Stadtholder, possibly pictured

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