Roelant Roghman

View of Abcoude, Seen from the North

Abcoude, c. 1646 - c. 1647

Inscriptions

  • inscribed on verso: centre left, in a nineteenth-century hand, in pencil, Z 379; below that, in an early twentieth-century hand, in pencil, Abcoude, Roghman; lower left, in an early nineteenth-century hand, in graphite (partially trimmed), […] 9 N 5.; lower centre, in a nineteenth-century hand, in pencil, 31

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

Technical notes

watermark: none

Provenance

…; ? collection Hillebrant Bentes I (1591-1652), Amsterdam;1Van der Wyck/Niemeijer 1989, pp. 6-7. by descent to Hillebrant Bentes II (1677-1708), Amsterdam; his sale, Amsterdam, 16 October 1708;2According to an advertisement in the ‘Amsterdamse Courant’, 6 October 1708; Dudok van Heel 1975, p. 170, no. 122. …; collection Christiaan van Hoek (1643-1715), Amsterdam and ‘Ouderhoek’, near Loenen aan de Vecht, by 1711;3According to Smids 1711, p. 5. his son, Anthony van Hoek (1674-1719), Amsterdam and ‘Ouderhoek’, near Loenen aan de Vecht;4According to Bruijn 1719, p. 24. his cousin, Jan de Wolff (1680-1735), Amsterdam and ‘Ouderhoek’, near Loenen aan de Vecht;5According to a no longer extant list by Louis-Philippe Serrurier, circa 1730, mentioned by Muller 1878, p. XVII; and Muller 1907, pp. VI and VII. …; sale, Cornelis Ploos van Amstel (1726-98, Amsterdam), Amsterdam (P. van der Schley et al.), 3 March 1800 sqq., Album KK, nos. 1-6 (‘Inhoudende Teekeningen, alle gezigten van Huizen en kasteelen in de Sticht te Utrecht, meesterlijk naar het leven geteekend door Roeland Rogman, met zwart Kryt en O.I. Inkt’), with 240 other drawings, fl. 2,000.00 for all, to the dealer C.S. Roos, Amsterdam;6Copy RKD. sale, Jacob Cats (1741-99, Amsterdam) et al. [section ‘Letter P’, i.e. C.S. Roos], Amsterdam (P. van der Schley et al.), 16 April 1800 sqq., Album A, no. 21 (‘’t Slot te Abkoude’), fl. 6:10:, to ‘Helmond’;7Copy RKD; possibly Jacob Helmolt (1747-1808), Haarlem, but not in his sale, Amsterdam (P. van der Schley et al.), 11 April 1810 sqq. …; ? sale, Frederik Carel Theodoor, Baron van Isendoorn à Blois, Heer van Feluy and De Cannenburgh (1784-1865, Kasteel De Cannenburgh, Vaassen), Amsterdam (C.F. Roos and C.F. Roos, Jr), 19 August 1879, no. 137, fl. 30, to the dealer V. van Gogh, Amsterdam;8Copy RKD. …; sale, Jan Hendrik Cremer (1813-85, Brussels) et al., Amsterdam (F. Muller), 15 June 1886 sqq., no. 265; …; acquired by the museum (L. 2228), 18889For security reasons, the drawing was transferred from the Ministerie van Binnenlandse Zaken to the museum in 1888.

ObjectNumber: RP-T-1888-A-1769

The artist

Biography

Roelant Roghman (Amsterdam 1627 - Amsterdam 1692)

He was the son of Hendrick Lambertsz Roghman (1602-1647/57) and Maria Saverij and was baptized on 25 March 1627 in Amsterdam’s Nieuwe Kerk. His father worked as an engraver,10F.W.H. Hollstein et al., Dutch and Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts, c. 1450-1700, 72 vols, Amsterdam and elsewhere 1947-2010, XX (1978), pp. 61-64, nos. 1-3. as did two of his five siblings: his sisters Geertruyt (1625-c. 1651/57) and Magdalena (163211Amsterdam, Stadsarchief, DTB 41, p. 174 (13 January 1632); erroneously given as 13 January 1637 in W. Kloek and J.W. Niemeijer, De kasteeltekeningen van Roelant Roghman II, Alphen aan den Rijn 1990, p. 9 and subsequent literature.-after 1669).12F.W.H. Hollstein et al., Dutch and Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts, c. 1450-1700, 72 vols, Amsterdam and elsewhere 1947-2010, XX (1978), pp. 53-60, nos. 1-23; pp. 65-66, nos. 1-2; E. Kloek et al. (eds.), Vrouwen en kunst in de Republiek. Een overzicht, Hilversum 1998 (Utrechtse historische cahiers, vol. 19), pp. 160-61. Through his mother, Roelant was a grandson of Jacob Savery I (1566-1603) and a great-nephew of Roelant Savery (1576-1639), after whom he was named. It is not known under whom he trained, but it is likely that he was influenced by the example of his grandfather and great-uncle. Although sometimes grouped with the pupils of Rembrandt (1606-1669), Roghman never actually studied with him. They were friends, however, and according to Houbraken, Rembrandt refused to accept Jan Griffier (1645/52-1718) as an apprentice because he was already studying with his friend Roghman.

Roghman was a prolific draughtsman, whose earliest dated works are two drawn views of tollhouses on the River IJ, both dated 1645, in the Van Eeghen collection, Stadsarchief, Amsterdam (inv. nos. 10055/28) and 10055/29).13B. Bakker (ed.), De verzameling Van Eeghen: Amsterdamse tekeningen, 1600-1950, Zwolle 1988 (Publikaties van het Gemeentearchief Amsterdam uitgegeven door de Stichting H.J. Duyvisfonds, vol. 16), 1988, nos. 28-29. Among the works possibly made even earlier is a pen-and-wash drawing in the Kupferstich-Kabinett, Dresden (inv. nos. C 1798), clearly influenced by Roelant Savery.14W. Kloek and J.W. Niemeijer, De kasteeltekeningen van Roelant Roghman II, Alphen aan den Rijn 1990, figs. 15-16.

In 1646/47, Roghman embarked on his most ambitious project, the series of some 250 castle drawings, of which the Rijksmuseum owns 49 individual sheets. Besides travelling through the Dutch provinces to make castle drawings and topographical views, he also visited Brussels and the region around Cleves.15Cf. drawings such as The Pond at Boschvoorde near Brussels, Brussels, in the Musées Royaux de Belgique (inv. no. 4060/3065; S. Hautekeete, Tekeningen van Rembrandt en zijn leerlingen in de verzameling van Jean de Grez, exh. cat. Brussels (Koninklijke Musea voor Schone Kunsten van België) 2005, no. 32.); and a View of Cleves, which appeared in the Valkema Blouw sale, Amsterdam (F. Muller), 2 March 1954, no. 389. A number of alpine landscapes – including one in Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam (inv. no. MB 221), dated 165416W. Kloek and J.W. Niemeijer, De kasteeltekeningen van Roelant Roghman II, Alphen aan den Rijn 1990, p. 29 (fig. 41). For more drawings with identifiable locations in the Swiss Alps, cf. W. Sumowski, Drawings of the Rembrandt School, 10 vols., New York 1979-92, X (1992), p. 5066. – suggest that he must have travelled to the Alps that year,17Cf. different views of the natural passageway in the Pierre Pertuis near Tavannes in the Jura Mountains (e.g. Dresden, Kupferstich-Kabinett, inv. no. C 1770; Ibid., no. 2243, with further examples). presumably passing through France. A trip further south may be documented by a View of San Giacomo a Rialto in the Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin (KdZ 2617), traditionally attributed to the artist,18W. Kloek and J.W. Niemeijer, De kasteeltekeningen van Roelant Roghman II, Alphen aan den Rijn 1990, fig. 7. That drawing has alternatively associated with Willem Schellinks (1623-1678; by Frits Lugt, cf. W. Schulz, Die holländische Landschaftszeichnung, 1600-1740: Hauptwerke aus dem Berliner Kupferstichkabinett, exh. cat. Berlin (Kupferstichkabinett) 1974, p. 72) and Jan Baptist Weenix (1621-1659; by Stijn Alsteens, cf. note on that drawing’s mount). Stylistically, however, its broad style relates with drawings by Roghman of circa 1650, for instance, inv. no. RP-T-1887-A-1385, whereas Weenix and Schellinks both worked with more delicate lines. and a signed drawing in the Klassik Stiftung Weimar, Sailing Boat at a Moorage (inv. no. KK 5329), could have well been made in Venice.19B. van den Boogert, Goethe & Rembrandt: Tekeningen uit Weimar uit de grafische bestanden van de Kunstsammlungen zu Weimar, aangevuld met werken uit het Goethe-Nationalmuseum, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Museum Het Rembrandthuis) 1999, pp. 94-95. In 1657, Roghman stayed in Augsburg, where he had a set of six etched alpine landscapes published by Melchior Küsel (1626-1684)20F.W.H. Hollstein et al., Dutch and Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts, c. 1450-1700, 72 vols, Amsterdam and elsewhere 1947-2010, XX (1978), pp. 78-81, nos. 25-32; cf. W. Kloek and J.W. Niemeijer, De kasteeltekeningen van Roelant Roghman II, Alphen aan den Rijn 1990, p. 4, n. 18. and contributed a drawing to an album amicorum (inv. no. RP-T-1898-A-3991). No later than 1658, he was back in Amsterdam, where he is documented during the 1660s. In 1672, his opinion was sought on the authenticity of a group of Italian paintings in a legal dispute between Gerrit Uylenburgh (c. 1625-1679) and Friedrich Wilhelm, Elector of Brandenburg (1620-1688).

Roghman’s rare paintings feature mostly mountain scenes and were probably done after his trip to the Alps. Of his circa fifty etchings, mostly landscapes, one depicts the Breach of the St Anthony’s Dike,21F.W.H. Hollstein et al., Dutch and Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts, c. 1450-1700, 72 vols, Amsterdam and elsewhere 1947-2010, XX (1978), p. 90, no. 39. a famous incident in 1651 that was also recorded by Jan Asselijn (c. 1610-1652), for example in his painting in the Rijksmuseum (inv. no. SK-A-5030), Willem Schellinks (1627-1678) and Jacob Esselens (1626-1687).

Roghman apparently never married and from 1686 lived in Amsterdam’s Oudemannenhuis (Old Men’s Home). His last dated drawing is from 1657, but according to Houbraken, he continued to produce art well into his old age. He died on 3 January 1692 and was buried in the St Anthonis Kerkhof, Amsterdam.

Annemarie Stefes, 2018

References
A. Houbraken, De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen, 3 vols., Amsterdam 1718-21, I (1718), pp. 173-74; III (1721), p. 358; A. von Wurzbach, Niederländisches Künstlerlexikon, 3 vols., Vienna/Leipzig 1906-11, II (1910), p. 464; R. Juynboll, ‘Roelant Roghman’, in U. Thieme and F. Becker, Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler: Von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, 37 vols., Leipzig 1907-50, XXVIII (1934), p. 518, with earlier literature; W.T. Kloek, ‘Een berglandschap door Roelant Roghman’, Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 23 (1975), no. 2, pp. 100-01; F.W.H. Hollstein et al., Dutch and Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts, c. 1450-1700, 72 vols, Amsterdam and elsewhere 1947-2010, XX (1978), pp. 67-93; H. Gerson and B.W. Meijer (eds.), Ausbreitung und Nachwirkung der Holländischen Malerei des 17. Jahrhunderts, Amsterdam 1983 (rev. edn.; orig. edn. 1942), pp. 27, 49, 130, 186, 293, 307, 356, 403; W. Kloek and J.W. Niemeijer, De kasteeltekeningen van Roelant Roghman II, Alphen aan den Rijn 1990, pp. 1-14; W. Sumowski, Drawings of the Rembrandt School, 10 vols., New York 1979-92, X (1992), pp. 4989-5174; P. Groenendijk, Beknopt biografisch lexicon van Zuid- en Noord-Nederlandse schilders, graveurs, glasschilders, tapijtwevers et cetera van ca. 1350 tot ca. 1720, Utrecht 2008, p. 642

Entry

Abcoude was located at the bank the Angstel, south of the village of the same name in the province of Utrecht. The property was probably originally built in the thirteenth century by Zweder van Zuylen (c. 1240-c. 1287),22Information on the castle’s history is taken from B. Olde Meierink, Kastelen en ridderhofsteden in Utrecht, Utrecht 1995, pp. 96-101; cf. also P. Schatborn, Rembrandt and his Circle: Drawings in the Frits Lugt Collection, coll. cat. Paris 2010, vol. 1, p. 352. who used its name for the first time in 1268 and who is also reported as the first owner of Duurstede (inv. no. RP-T-1891-A-2466). In the fourteenth century, the family was known under the name Van Abcoude, and in the fifteenth century, they adopted the name Van Gaesbeeck. In 1490, the castle was given to David of Burgundy (c. 1427-1496), Bishop of Utrecht. In 1529, it passed to the States of Utrecht. It escaped demolition by French troops in 1672, having been fortified in the interim. However, it fell into disrepair in the following decades and was in ruins by 1704. It was finally demolished only around 1860. Today, its remains are still visible at the Koppeldijk in the Slotpolder.

There are four known views of Abcoude by Roghman. In the present drawing, the artist gave a distant view with the castle partially hidden by trees. The other three are closer views: one from the east (inv. no. RP-T-1911-69), one from the west, in the Frits Lugt Collection, Fondation Custodia, Paris (inv. no. 5108),23H.W.M. van der Wyck and J.W. Niemeijer, De kasteeltekeningen van Roelant Roghman I, Alphen aan den Rijn 1989, no. 4; P. Schatborn, Rembrandt and his Circle: Drawings in the Frits Lugt Collection, coll. cat. Paris 2010, no. 148. and one from the north-east, in the John and Marine van Vlissingen Art Foundation.24Formerly Koninklijk Huisarchief, inv. no. AT 26; H.W.M. van der Wyck and J.W. Niemeijer, De kasteeltekeningen van Roelant Roghman I, Alphen aan den Rijn 1989, no. 5.

The present drawing’s inscription is of a later date than those on the other versions. For that reason, it may be supposed that it is not no. 19 (‘[huys] Abkoude’), 208 or 209 (Abcoude 2) in the Bentes List, but rather one of the unidentified sites referred to under no. 247 (‘nog elff zonder Naam’).25Also suggested by P. Schatborn, Rembrandt and his Circle: Drawings in the Frits Lugt Collection, coll. cat. Paris 2010, I, p. 352, n. 9. Copies after the present sheet are in the Rijksprentenkabinet (inv. no. RP-T-1905-91); the Teylers Museum, Haarlem (inv. no. O++ 038));26M.C. Plomp, The Dutch Drawings in the Teyler Museum, II: Artists Born Between 1575 and 1630, coll. cat. Haarlem 1997, no. 403. and the Utrechts Archief, inscribed, Afbeeldinge van het Oude Slot Abcoude in het verschiet / van R:Rochman. A° 1646 (inv. no. 107272).

Annemarie Stefes, 2018

Literature

List Bentes, probably under no. 247 (‘nog elff zonder Naam’); L. Smids, Schatkamer der Nederlandsse Oudheden, Amsterdam 1711, p. 5; List De Haen (‘Abkoude. 3 in Amstelland’); H.W.M. van der Wyck and J.W. Niemeijer, De kasteeltekeningen van Roelant Roghman I, Alphen aan den Rijn 1989, no. 6; B. Olde Meierink, Kastelen en ridderhofsteden in Utrecht, Utrecht 1995, pp. 97, 99, 100; M.C. Plomp, The Dutch Drawings in the Teyler Museum, II: Artists Born Between 1575 and 1630, coll. cat. Haarlem 1997, p. 351, under no. 403; P. Schatborn, Rembrandt and his Circle: Drawings in the Frits Lugt Collection, coll. cat. Paris 2010, I, p. 352, n. 9

Citation

A. Stefes, 2018, 'Roelant Roghman, View of Abcoude, Seen from the North, Abcoude, c. 1646 - c. 1647', in J. Turner (ed.), Dutch Drawings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.59874

(accessed 25 April 2025 09:03:15).

Footnotes

  • 1Van der Wyck/Niemeijer 1989, pp. 6-7.
  • 2According to an advertisement in the ‘Amsterdamse Courant’, 6 October 1708; Dudok van Heel 1975, p. 170, no. 122.
  • 3According to Smids 1711, p. 5.
  • 4According to Bruijn 1719, p. 24.
  • 5According to a no longer extant list by Louis-Philippe Serrurier, circa 1730, mentioned by Muller 1878, p. XVII; and Muller 1907, pp. VI and VII.
  • 6Copy RKD.
  • 7Copy RKD; possibly Jacob Helmolt (1747-1808), Haarlem, but not in his sale, Amsterdam (P. van der Schley et al.), 11 April 1810 sqq.
  • 8Copy RKD.
  • 9For security reasons, the drawing was transferred from the Ministerie van Binnenlandse Zaken to the museum in 1888.
  • 10F.W.H. Hollstein et al., Dutch and Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts, c. 1450-1700, 72 vols, Amsterdam and elsewhere 1947-2010, XX (1978), pp. 61-64, nos. 1-3.
  • 11Amsterdam, Stadsarchief, DTB 41, p. 174 (13 January 1632); erroneously given as 13 January 1637 in W. Kloek and J.W. Niemeijer, De kasteeltekeningen van Roelant Roghman II, Alphen aan den Rijn 1990, p. 9 and subsequent literature.
  • 12F.W.H. Hollstein et al., Dutch and Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts, c. 1450-1700, 72 vols, Amsterdam and elsewhere 1947-2010, XX (1978), pp. 53-60, nos. 1-23; pp. 65-66, nos. 1-2; E. Kloek et al. (eds.), Vrouwen en kunst in de Republiek. Een overzicht, Hilversum 1998 (Utrechtse historische cahiers, vol. 19), pp. 160-61.
  • 13B. Bakker (ed.), De verzameling Van Eeghen: Amsterdamse tekeningen, 1600-1950, Zwolle 1988 (Publikaties van het Gemeentearchief Amsterdam uitgegeven door de Stichting H.J. Duyvisfonds, vol. 16), 1988, nos. 28-29.
  • 14W. Kloek and J.W. Niemeijer, De kasteeltekeningen van Roelant Roghman II, Alphen aan den Rijn 1990, figs. 15-16.
  • 15Cf. drawings such as The Pond at Boschvoorde near Brussels, Brussels, in the Musées Royaux de Belgique (inv. no. 4060/3065; S. Hautekeete, Tekeningen van Rembrandt en zijn leerlingen in de verzameling van Jean de Grez, exh. cat. Brussels (Koninklijke Musea voor Schone Kunsten van België) 2005, no. 32.); and a View of Cleves, which appeared in the Valkema Blouw sale, Amsterdam (F. Muller), 2 March 1954, no. 389.
  • 16W. Kloek and J.W. Niemeijer, De kasteeltekeningen van Roelant Roghman II, Alphen aan den Rijn 1990, p. 29 (fig. 41). For more drawings with identifiable locations in the Swiss Alps, cf. W. Sumowski, Drawings of the Rembrandt School, 10 vols., New York 1979-92, X (1992), p. 5066.
  • 17Cf. different views of the natural passageway in the Pierre Pertuis near Tavannes in the Jura Mountains (e.g. Dresden, Kupferstich-Kabinett, inv. no. C 1770; Ibid., no. 2243, with further examples).
  • 18W. Kloek and J.W. Niemeijer, De kasteeltekeningen van Roelant Roghman II, Alphen aan den Rijn 1990, fig. 7. That drawing has alternatively associated with Willem Schellinks (1623-1678; by Frits Lugt, cf. W. Schulz, Die holländische Landschaftszeichnung, 1600-1740: Hauptwerke aus dem Berliner Kupferstichkabinett, exh. cat. Berlin (Kupferstichkabinett) 1974, p. 72) and Jan Baptist Weenix (1621-1659; by Stijn Alsteens, cf. note on that drawing’s mount). Stylistically, however, its broad style relates with drawings by Roghman of circa 1650, for instance, inv. no. RP-T-1887-A-1385, whereas Weenix and Schellinks both worked with more delicate lines.
  • 19B. van den Boogert, Goethe & Rembrandt: Tekeningen uit Weimar uit de grafische bestanden van de Kunstsammlungen zu Weimar, aangevuld met werken uit het Goethe-Nationalmuseum, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Museum Het Rembrandthuis) 1999, pp. 94-95.
  • 20F.W.H. Hollstein et al., Dutch and Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts, c. 1450-1700, 72 vols, Amsterdam and elsewhere 1947-2010, XX (1978), pp. 78-81, nos. 25-32; cf. W. Kloek and J.W. Niemeijer, De kasteeltekeningen van Roelant Roghman II, Alphen aan den Rijn 1990, p. 4, n. 18.
  • 21F.W.H. Hollstein et al., Dutch and Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts, c. 1450-1700, 72 vols, Amsterdam and elsewhere 1947-2010, XX (1978), p. 90, no. 39.
  • 22Information on the castle’s history is taken from B. Olde Meierink, Kastelen en ridderhofsteden in Utrecht, Utrecht 1995, pp. 96-101; cf. also P. Schatborn, Rembrandt and his Circle: Drawings in the Frits Lugt Collection, coll. cat. Paris 2010, vol. 1, p. 352.
  • 23H.W.M. van der Wyck and J.W. Niemeijer, De kasteeltekeningen van Roelant Roghman I, Alphen aan den Rijn 1989, no. 4; P. Schatborn, Rembrandt and his Circle: Drawings in the Frits Lugt Collection, coll. cat. Paris 2010, no. 148.
  • 24Formerly Koninklijk Huisarchief, inv. no. AT 26; H.W.M. van der Wyck and J.W. Niemeijer, De kasteeltekeningen van Roelant Roghman I, Alphen aan den Rijn 1989, no. 5.
  • 25Also suggested by P. Schatborn, Rembrandt and his Circle: Drawings in the Frits Lugt Collection, coll. cat. Paris 2010, I, p. 352, n. 9.
  • 26M.C. Plomp, The Dutch Drawings in the Teyler Museum, II: Artists Born Between 1575 and 1630, coll. cat. Haarlem 1997, no. 403.