Cornelis Pietersz. Bega

Seated Man Wearing a Cap, his Left Hand on his Knee, Facing Right / verso: Sketch of Two Standing Figures and a Drapery Study

Haarlem, c. 1658 - c. 1660

Inscriptions

  • inscribed on verso: lower left, by Johann Edler Goll von Franckenstein, in brown ink, N 319. (L. 2987); below that, in pencil, 319; lower centre, in pencil, C. Bega

  • stamped on verso: lower centre, with the mark of the museum (L. 2228)

Technical notes

Watermark: None

Provenance

...; collection Johann Edler Goll von Franckenstein (1722-85), Amsterdam and Velzen (L. 2987); ? his son, Jonkheer Johan Goll van Franckenstein (1756-1821), Amsterdam and Velzen; ? his son, Jonkheer Pieter Hendrik Goll van Franckenstein (1787-1832), Amsterdam and Velzen;1Not in sale, Jonkheer Johan Goll van Franckenstein (1787-1821), Amsterdam (De Vries et al.), 1 July 1833 sqq. …; from the dealer J.H. Balfoort, Utrecht, fl. 20, to the museum (L. 2228), 1880

ObjectNumber: RP-T-1880-A-86(R)

The artist

Biography

Cornelis Bega (Haarlem 1631/32 - Haarlem 1664)

Baptized on 22 (?) January 1632, he was the youngest son of a prosperous Catholic family of artists in Haarlem. His father, Pieter Jansz Begijn (1600/05-1648), was a goldsmith, silversmith and sculptor, and his mother, Maria Cornelisdr (1611-1681), was the daughter of the renowned Mannerist artist Cornelis Cornelisz van Haarlem (1562-1638), half of whose estate (gold, silver, paintings, drawings and prints) she inherited. Bega was almost certainly named for his maternal grandfather. His brother Dominicus Jansz Bagijn (?-1636) was a carver, and several of his paternal forebears were civic architects, including his grandfather, Jan Pietersz Bagijn (?-1628), his great-grandfather Pieter Pietersz Bagijn (?-1600); and his uncle Claes Pietersz Bagijn (1558-1632), whose son (i.e. Bega’s cousin) was the still-life painter Willem Claesz. Heda (1594-1680), who took the name of his mother. Another cousin, on his father’s side, was the decorative painter Pieter de Grebber (c. 1600-1652/53).

According to Houbraken, Bega studied under Adriaen van Ostade (1610-1685).2A. Houbraken, De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen, 3 vols., Amsterdam 1718-21, I (1718), p. 349; M.A. Scott, Cornelis Bega (1631/32-1664) as Painter and Draughtsman, 2 vols., Ann Arbor (MI) 1984 (PhD diss., University of Maryland), I, pp. 8-9, 28. This was presumably before 24 April 1653, when he embarked on a journey through Germany, Switzerland and France, in the company of fellow Haarlemmers Vincent Laurensz van der Vinne (1628-1702) and Joost Boelen (?-?).3B. Sliggers (ed.), Dagelijkse aentekeninge van Vincent Laurensz van der Vinne, Haarlem 1979, pp. 28-29, 35. Bega was certainly back in Haarlem by September 1654, when he joined the Guild of St Luke, in which he was active for a decade, until 1664 (the year of his untimely death, probably from the plague).4M.A. Scott, Cornelis Bega (1631/32-1664) as Painter and Draughtsman, 2 vols., Ann Arbor (MI) 1984 (PhD diss., University of Maryland), I, pp. 13, 16. The costs of his expensive funeral at the church of St Bavo, Haarlem, were paid on 30 August 1664.5Haarlem, Noord-Hollands Archief, DTB 75, fol. 165: ‘Grote Kerk, “middentransept nr. 432”, begrafenisgeld 21 gulden’.

As a painter, Bega was strongly influenced by the genre works of his teacher Ostade, but as a draughtsman he belonged to a distinctive group of Haarlem artists, including Gerrit Berckheyde (1638-1698) and Leendert van der Cooghen (1632-1681), who from the 1650s onwards developed a style of figure drawing – mostly single figure studies – characterized by highly precise delineation and sharp hatching.6P. Schatborn, Dutch Figure Drawings from the Seventeenth Century, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksprentenkabinet)/Washington (DC) (National Gallery of Art) 1981-82, p. 99. These studies were executed mostly in red chalk on white paper or black and white chalk on blue paper. Bega’s figure drawings can be recognized by their regular hatching, pronounced light and dark contrasts, and clearly demarcated forms.

Carolyn Mensing, 2019

References
A. Houbraken, De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen, 3 vols., Amsterdam 1718-21, I (1718), pp. 349-50; M.A. Scott, Cornelis Bega (1631/32-1664) as Painter and Draughtsman, 2 vols., Ann Arbor 1984 (PhD diss., University of Maryland); M.A. Scott in J. Turner (ed.), The Dictionary of Art, 34 vols., London/New York 1996, III, p. 495; M.A. Scott, ‘Bega, Cornelis’, in J. Turner (ed.), The Grove Dictionary of Art: From Rembrandt to Vermeer. 17th-century Dutch Artists, London 2000, pp. 16-17; I. van Thiel-Stroman, ‘Cornelis Pietersz Bega’, in P. Biesboer and N. Köhler (eds.), Painting in Haarlem, 1500-1850: The Collection of the Frans Hals Museum, coll. cat. Haarlem 2006, pp. 100-02; P. Biesboer, ‘Cornelis Bega (Haarlem, 1631-1664): Eine Biografie’, in P. van den Brink and B.W. Lindemann (eds.), Cornelis Bega: Eleganz und raue Sitten, exh. cat. Aachen (Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum)/Berlin (Gemäldegalerie) 2012, pp. 25-29

Entry

The study on the recto is a beautiful example of Bega’s male figure drawings in red chalk. The man’s summarily worked-out face is cast in shadow by the broad brim of his hat. This allows the viewer to pay more attention to his pose and the detailed draperies of his clothes rather than the anatomy of the model.7P. van den Brink and B.W. Lindemann (eds.), Cornelis Bega: Eleganz und raue Sitten, exh. cat. Aachen (Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum)/Berlin (Gemäldegalerie) 2012, p. 133.

Bega used a combination of different drawing techniques; the contours are scribbly, whereas in other areas, the red chalk was moistened and smeared onto the paper, creating a smoother effect. The deep shadows in the folds of his coat are almost opaque; the red chalk seemed to have been pressed down with some force. Instead of using opaque white, Bega utilized the cream colour of the paper to create highlights in the shoulders, sleeve and the man’s left leg.

Bega was the maternal grandson of Cornelis Cornelisz. van Haarlem (1562-1638). When the latter died, his drawings, including many ‘academy’ studies of male and female nudes drawn from life, were inherited by Bega’s mother and later came into his possession.8A. Bredius (ed.), Künstler-Inventare: Urkunden zur Geschichte der holländischen Kunst des XVIten, XVIIten und XVIIIten Jahrhunderts, 8 vols., The Hague 1915-22, VII (1921), pp. 80-81. At the end of the sixteenth century, Cornelis van Haarlem, Karel van Mander (1548-1606) and Hendrick Goltzius (1558-1617) were the Dutch pioneers of drawing after models from life. They worked together at the so-called Haarlem Academy.9P.J.J. van Thiel, ‘Cornelis Cornelisz van Haarlem as a Draughtsman’, Master Drawings 3 (1965), no. 2, p. 126. Bega’s preference for full-page figure studies of a single man or woman in part harks back to that earlier tradition. However, his models are always clothed. Whereas his grandfather, who specialized in history scenes, drew many nudes, Bega, the genre artist, favoured garbed peasants and maidservants.

The tradition of the Haarlem Academy continued in Bega's time. The same model who posed for the recto study is represented in a black chalk study by an anonymous Haarlem School artist in the Maida and George Abrams Collection, Boston,10Sale, Amsterdam (Sotheby’s), 18 November 1985, no. 108. Further information courtesy of Susan Anderson (e-mail, 28 August 2019). and in another red chalk drawing in the Rijksmuseum (inv. no. RP-T-1888-A-1435), tentatively (but not universally) given to Bega.

Bonny van Sighem, 2000/Carolyn Mensing, 2019

Literature

M.A. Scott, Cornelis Bega (1631/32-1664) as Painter and Draughtsman, 2 vols., Ann Arbor 1984 (PhD diss., University of Maryland), p. 383, no. D38; P. van den Brink and B.W. Lindemann (eds.), Cornelis Bega: Eleganz und raue Sitten, exh. cat. Aachen (Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum)/Berlin (Gemäldegalerie) 2012, no. 20

Citation

B. van Sighem, 2000/C. Mensing, 2019, 'Cornelis Pietersz. Bega, Seated Man Wearing a Cap, his Left Hand on his Knee, Facing Right / verso: Sketch of Two Standing Figures and a Drapery Study, Haarlem, c. 1658 - c. 1660', in J. Turner (ed.), Dutch Drawings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.27406

(accessed 1 June 2025 12:00:19).

Footnotes

  • 1Not in sale, Jonkheer Johan Goll van Franckenstein (1787-1821), Amsterdam (De Vries et al.), 1 July 1833 sqq.
  • 2A. Houbraken, De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen, 3 vols., Amsterdam 1718-21, I (1718), p. 349; M.A. Scott, Cornelis Bega (1631/32-1664) as Painter and Draughtsman, 2 vols., Ann Arbor (MI) 1984 (PhD diss., University of Maryland), I, pp. 8-9, 28.
  • 3B. Sliggers (ed.), Dagelijkse aentekeninge van Vincent Laurensz van der Vinne, Haarlem 1979, pp. 28-29, 35.
  • 4M.A. Scott, Cornelis Bega (1631/32-1664) as Painter and Draughtsman, 2 vols., Ann Arbor (MI) 1984 (PhD diss., University of Maryland), I, pp. 13, 16.
  • 5Haarlem, Noord-Hollands Archief, DTB 75, fol. 165: ‘Grote Kerk, “middentransept nr. 432”, begrafenisgeld 21 gulden’.
  • 6P. Schatborn, Dutch Figure Drawings from the Seventeenth Century, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksprentenkabinet)/Washington (DC) (National Gallery of Art) 1981-82, p. 99.
  • 7P. van den Brink and B.W. Lindemann (eds.), Cornelis Bega: Eleganz und raue Sitten, exh. cat. Aachen (Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum)/Berlin (Gemäldegalerie) 2012, p. 133.
  • 8A. Bredius (ed.), Künstler-Inventare: Urkunden zur Geschichte der holländischen Kunst des XVIten, XVIIten und XVIIIten Jahrhunderts, 8 vols., The Hague 1915-22, VII (1921), pp. 80-81.
  • 9P.J.J. van Thiel, ‘Cornelis Cornelisz van Haarlem as a Draughtsman’, Master Drawings 3 (1965), no. 2, p. 126.
  • 10Sale, Amsterdam (Sotheby’s), 18 November 1985, no. 108. Further information courtesy of Susan Anderson (e-mail, 28 August 2019).