Support The panel consists of two horizontally grained oak planks (approx. 10.3 and 7.7 cm). As it is secured in the lid of a clavichord, dendrochronological analysis was not possible.
Preparatory layers The single, beige ground was probably applied after the panel had been mounted in the clavichord lid, as indicated by a barb near the left edge. It contains coarse white pigment particles and earth pigments in a beige matrix.
Underdrawing No underdrawing could be detected with the naked eye or infrared photography.
Paint layers The paint was applied after the panel had been mounted in the clavichord lid, as indicated by a barb near the left edge. The composition was roughly laid in with fluid brown paints, introducing light and dark areas and some volumes. In several places this layer was left exposed in the paint surface, most clearly in the wheels of the carriage. After the figures had been applied, the sky was blocked in around them. The paint was worked quickly, wet in wet, in what appears to be one layer. The wheel edges were indicated in one pressed stroke of the brush. Thicker paints were used in the light fabrics, in the woman’s left hand and in the foliage of the trees. The contour of the woman’s left arm was shifted to the right, slightly broadening it.
Lisette Vos, 2010

L. Vos, Op jacht naar Dirck Stoop: De restauratie van twee schilderijen en onderzoek naar de schildertechniek van een 17de-eeuwse kunstenaar, PI thesis, University of Amsterdam 2010

Fair. There is discoloured retouching throughout the sky. The varnish has yellowed.

…; from D. Brugman, Amsterdam, fl. 250, to the museum, 1892

Object number: BK-NM-9487

The scene of a decorous couple out walking in a landscape with their dog on this lid of a clavichord was already being attributed to Dirk Stoop when it was acquired in 1892 by the Rijksmuseum, albeit without the artist’s forename. It was first published in the 1905 collection catalogue as an autograph work of his, but then suddenly in 1916 an air of caution crept in when it was merely ‘attributed’ to him. However, there is no reason to doubt his hand. The characteristic creamy handling of the paint, with suggestive touches for details that catch the light are instantly recognizable. All sorts of elements are rendered in the same way as in the other two works of his in the museum,⁹⁹SK-A-395 and SK-A-1714. such as the hands, which are almost shapeless but are nevertheless convincing within the larger whole, and the eyes depicted as two little black dots. Moreover, carriages of every kind are recurrent motifs in Stoop’s Italianate landscapes.¹⁰¹⁰For instance A Hunting Party in a Hilly Landscape near Overgrown Ruins, signed and illegibly dated, c. 1649, present whereabouts unknown; illustrated in the catalogue for the sale, London (Christie’s), 7 July 1972, no. 23. Southern Harbour View with Classical Ruins beyond, falsely signed ‘Weenix’, datable to the 1660s, Portugal, private collection; photo RKD. Southern Harbour View with Ruins beyond, datable to the second half of the 1650s or ’60s, Bowhill (Scotland), Duke of Buccleuch; photo RKD.

It proved impossible to carry out a dendrochronological examination, but the clothing of the strolling couple is consistent with the fashion of the early 1650s.¹¹¹¹J.H. der Kinderen-Besier, Spelevaart der mode: De kledij onzer voorouders in de zeventiende eeuw, Amsterdam 1950, pp. 119-21, 133-52. The man is dressed in grey, with his cloak hanging over his left shoulder and draped around his hips. The white material of his shirt can be seen through a split in his sleeve. Instead of the customary wide trouser legs his are gathered at the knees with black garters, while his shoes are decorated with matching black ribbons. His companion’s apparel consists of a black dress over a red petticoat adorned with thin bands of gold braid. Her attire is completed by a collar, cuffs and a small cap in white, dark headgear and a small basket on her left arm. The man and woman have the air of portraits through their isolated prominence in the foreground, and because they are looking straight at the viewer. Pollerus suspected that these are indeed the likenesses of the patron and his wife.¹²¹²H. Pollerus, Tasteninstrumente als kunsthistorische Objekte – Cembalo, Clavichord, Spinett, Virginal: ‘Meine Seele hört im Sehe’, diss., University of Graz 2018, p. 200. However, the faces do not look detailed enough for portraits. The scene was painted when the panel had already been let into the lid of the clavichord, so it was undoubtedly intended to decorate the instrument from the outset.¹³¹³See Technical notes. The dimensions of the painting are 18 x 73 cm. The skyline in the far distance on the right could be that of Utrecht, where Stoop was working by then, with the striking, high Dom Tower looming over the landscape.

Although the clavichord was a common instrument at the time, played not only by professional musicians but also by wealthy amateurs at home, only eight signed and dated examples survive worldwide from the seventeenth century, as well as 24 that are anonymous.¹⁴¹⁴B. Brauchli, The Clavichord, Cambridge 1998, p. 95. It must have been popular in the Netherlands too, although the clavichord with Stoop’s decorated lid is the only Dutch one preserved from that period.¹⁵¹⁵Written communication, Giovanni Paolo Di Stefano, RMA, 19 August 2019. It is signed with the initials ‘PL’, which do not match any documented Utrecht builder. Although harpsichords for the Dutch public were often ordered from the Antwerp firms of Ruckers or Couchet, it was usually local workshops that produced clavichords. Since the lids were also painted by local artists, it is likely that this instrument was built in Utrecht.

Eddy Schavemaker, 2026

See Key to abbreviations, Rijksmuseum painting catalogues and Acknowledgements

A.J. Gierveld, ‘The Harpsichord and Clavichord in the Dutch Republic’, Tijdschrift van de Koninklijke Vereniging voor Nederlandse Muziekgeschiedenis 31 (1981), pp. 117-66, esp. p. 128; C. Rueger, Musical Instruments and their Decoration: Historical Gems of European Culture, Newton Abbot 1986, p. 57

1905, p. 317, no. 2261a; 1934, p. 272, no. 2261a; 1976, p. 527, no. NM 9487 (as attributed to Dirk Stoop)

Eddy Schavemaker, 2026, 'Dirk Stoop, Couple Taking a Walk in a Landscape (painting on lid), c. 1650 - c. 1655', in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200412306