Getting started with the collection:
Landscape with Two Children Playing with a Goat, a Lamb and a Sheep
Simon van der Does, 1682
- Artwork typedrawing
- Object numberRP-T-1905-145
- Dimensionsheight 172 mm x width 154 mm
- Physical characteristicsbrush and grey wash and grey ink, over traces of black chalk, with some light brown wash and opaque white; framing line in black ink
Discover more
Identification
Title(s)
Landscape with Two Children Playing with a Goat, a Lamb and a Sheep
Object type
Object number
RP-T-1905-145
Part of catalogue
Creation
Creation
draughtsman: Simon van der Does
Dating
1682
Search further with
Material and technique
Physical description
brush and grey wash and grey ink, over traces of black chalk, with some light brown wash and opaque white; framing line in black ink
Dimensions
height 172 mm x width 154 mm
Acquisition and rights
Credit line
Purchased with the support of the Vereniging Rembrandt
Acquisition
purchase 1904-01-19
Copyright
Provenance
…; sale, René Jacques della Faille de Waerloos (1830-1902, Antwerp) et al., Amsterdam (F. Muller), 19 January 1904, possibly in no. 447, 448, 452, 453, 454, 456 or 459, with 190 other drawings, fl. 1,000.00 for all, to the dealer J.H. Odink for the Vereniging Rembrandt;{Note RMA.} from whom, fl. 1,000.00 for all, to the museum (L. 2228), 1904
Persistent URL
To refer to this object, please use the following persistent URL:
Questions?
Do you spot a mistake? Or do you have information about the object? Let us know!
Simon van der Does
Landscape with Two Children Playing with a Goat, a Lamb and a Sheep
1682
Inscriptions
signed and dated: lower left, in grey ink (reinforced in brown ink), S [apparently changed into ‘J’ in brown ink] v Does / 1682
inscribed on verso, in pencil: lower left, possibly in an eighteenth-century hand (partly covered by hinge), […] vderDoes; lower right, possibly in a nineteenth-century hand, S. v.d.Does
stamped on verso: lower left, with the mark of the museum (L. 2228)
Technical notes
Watermark: Foolscap with seven points; close to Heawood, no. 2067 (Brussels: 1704)
Condition
Spots of abrasion along the borders and in upper left quarter; restored tears in lower left corner and, with minor losses, at upper right margin
Provenance
…; sale, René Jacques della Faille de Waerloos (1830-1902, Antwerp) et al., Amsterdam (F. Muller), 19 January 1904, possibly in no. 447, 448, 452, 453, 454, 456 or 459, with 190 other drawings, fl. 1,000.00 for all, to the dealer J.H. Odink for the Vereniging Rembrandt;1Note RMA. from whom, fl. 1,000.00 for all, to the museum (L. 2228), 1904
Object number: RP-T-1905-145
Credit line: Purchased with the support of the Vereniging Rembrandt
The artist
Biography
Simon van der Does (Amsterdam 1653 – Antwerp after 1718)
He was the son of the painter Jacob van der Does I (1623-1673) and Margaretha Dirksdr Boortens (1630-1661). Like his younger brother Jacob van der Does II (1654-1699), he was apprenticed to his father. After his father’s death, Simon worked in The Hague and Friesland. He spent a year in England, before returning to The Hague in 1681. Two years later he became member of the Confrerie Pictura, the city’s artists’ society.
On 2 March 1692 Van der Does married Clara Bellechière (c. 1624-1692) in the Grote Kerk in The Hague. His wife’s spendthrift lifestyle caused Simon serious financial difficulties, according to Houbraken, who also reported that Simon’s influential relative Jacob de Graeff (1642-1690), the husband of his cousin Maria van der Does (1649-1667), who had disapproved of Simon’s marriage to Clara, withdrew his support.2Although De Graeff’s marriage to Maria in 1666 was extremely short-lived, he remained close to the Van der Does family; cf. J. Bikker, ‘“Sir Joan Reynst, his Good Acquaintance, Neighbour and Landlord”: Truth and Fantasy in Houbraken’s Life of Karel du Jardin’, The Burlington Magazine 151 (2009), no. 1271, pp. 92-97 (esp. p. 96). Between 1687 and 1692, the couple had three daughters and a son. When his wife died, Simon’s financial circumstances deteriorated, and he was forced to live in The Hague’s poorhouse for two to three years. Thereafter, he moved to Brussels, but after only one year he settled in Antwerp, where, in his final years, he worked for art dealers, producing hack works (‘keelbeulen’).
Like his father, Simon van der Does specialized in pastoral landscapes with herders, cattle and sheep. He also painted portraits in the style of Caspar Netscher (1635/36-1684). The earliest work attributed to him is a Portrait of an Unknown Woman, dated 1679, last seen on the London art market in 1993.3Sale, Sotheby’s (London), 8 December 1993, no. 234. His latest work (unidentified) was from 1718, according to the entry in Thieme and Becker.
In 1821, Christiaan Josi (1768-1828) praised his ability to recreate a Southern atmosphere without having had first-hand experience of Italy.4C. Josi, Collection d’imitations des dessins d’après les principaux Maîtres Hollandais et Flamands, commencée par C. Ploos van Amstel (…) precedés d’un discours sur l’état ancient et moderne des arts dans les Pays Bas, 2 vols., London 1821, p. 85. Immerzeel (1842) remaked on his ‘uniquely beautiful way of painting sheep’.5J. Immerzeel, De levens en werken der Hollandsche en Vlaamsche kunstschilders, 3 vols., Amsterdam 1842-43, II (1842), p. 187 (‘schier onnavolgbar schoon geschilderde schapen’).
Jan van Gool (1685-1763) was his pupil, as well as Antonie de Waard (1689-1751).
Annemarie Stefes, 2018
References
A. Houbraken, De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen, 3 vols., Amsterdam 1718-21, II (1719), p. 85; III (1721), pp. 326-28; J.C. Weyerman, De levens-beschryvingen der Nederlandsche konst-schilders en konst-schilderessen, 4 vols., The Hague/Dordrecht 1729-69, III (1729), pp. 166-168, IV (1769), pp. 54-55; P. Terwesten, Register off aanteekeninge zo van de Deekens, Hoofdluiden en Secretarissen der Kunst-Confrerie Kamer van Pictura, The Hague 1776 (unpublished manuscript, Archive of Confrerie Pictura, Haags Gemeentearchief), p. 6; J. Immerzeel, De levens en werken der Hollandsche en Vlaamsche kunstschilders, 3 vols., Amsterdam 1842-43, II (1842), p. 187; Bredius in F.D.O. Obreen, Archief voor Nederlandsche kunstgeschiedenis, 7 vols., Rotterdam 1877-90, V (1882-83), p. 136; U. Thieme and F. Becker, Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler: Von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, 37 vols., Leipzig 1907-50, IX (1913), pp. 375-76 (entry by H. Wichmann); A. Bredius (ed.), Künstler-Inventare: Urkunden zur Geschichte der holländischen Kunst des XVIten, XVIIten und XVIIIten Jahrhunderts, 8 vols., The Hague 1915-22, III (1917), p. 1023; P.C. Molhuysen et al. (eds.), Nieuw Nederlandsch biografisch woordenboek, 10 vols., Leiden 1911-37, VI (1924), p. 438; C. Boschma (ed.), Meesterlijk vee. Nederlandse veeschilders, 1600-1900, exh. cat. Dordrecht (Dordrechts Museum)/Leeuwarden (Fries Museum) 1988-89, p. 207; S. Kollmann, Niederländische Künstler und Kunst im London des 17. Jahrhunderts, Hildesheim and elsewhere 2000 (Studien zur Kunstgeschichte, vol. 135), p. 182; Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon: Die bildenden Künstler aller Zeiten und Völker, Munich 1992-, XXVIII (2001), pp. 261-62 (entry by C. Kemmer); 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. 269
Entry
With such passages as the broad brushstrokes marking the thatched roof and the chubby child figure type given in profile, this drawing fits well into the oeuvre of Simon van der Does. See, for instance, his drawing Shepherds near a Hut and an Antique Vase, dated 1706, in the Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels (inv. no. 4060/1051), or his Shepherdess with her Flock of 1681 in the British Museum in London (inv. no. 1895,0915.1144). Chubby children also appear in many of Simon’s paintings, for instance the Rijksmuseum’s Reading Shepherdess of 1706 (inv. no. SK-A-82).
At the same time, if compared with drawings by his father and teacher Jacob van der Does I (1623-1673), such as Shepherd Driving his Flock in the Hessisches Landesmuseum, Darmstadt (inv. no. 1054), it clearly shows his stylistic sources.6Gernsheim photo, no. 24160. Such affinity probably tempted some later owner to change the signature’s ‘S’ into a ‘J’, thus attributing the drawing to the better-known Jacob, an increase in value being its welcome (or intended) consequence.7As the art dealer and connoisseur Christiaan Josi (1768-1828) observed in 1821, drawings by both Van der Does were undervalued at the market, with Jacob’s drawings still getting better prices than those by his son; cf. C. Josi, Collection d’imitations des dessins d’après les principaux Maîtres Hollandais et Flamands, commencée par C. Ploos van Amstel (…) precedés d’un discours sur l’état ancient et moderne des arts dans les Pays Bas, London 1821, p. 85 (‘Ceux de Jacob sont bien mieux payés, mais pas assez en proportion de pareils dessins d’A. van de Velde et de Berchem’). However, Jacob’s death in 1673, nine years before the present drawing’s date, excludes his authorship. Given this ignorance of biographical facts, we can assume that this reassignment took place before Houbraken’s account on Jacob’s life was published in 1753.8A. Houbraken, De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen, 3 vols., Amsterdam 1718-21, II (1719), pp. 105-108. The option that the changed initial might also refer to Jacob II (1654-99), Simon’s younger brother, is not likely, as Jacob II, by whom no work is known, probably worked in the style of his former teachers, Caspar Netscher (1635/36-1684) and Gerard de Lairesse (1641-1711); cf. A. Beyer et al. (eds.), Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon: Die bildenden Künstler aller Zeiten und Völker, Munich 1992-, XXVIII (2001), p. 261.
Annemarie Stefes, 2018
Citation
A. Stefes, 2018, 'Simon van der Does, Landscape with Two Children Playing with a Goat, a Lamb and a Sheep, 1682', in J. Turner (ed.), Dutch Drawings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200122908
(accessed 6 December 2025 08:05:36).Footnotes
- 1Note RMA.
- 2Although De Graeff’s marriage to Maria in 1666 was extremely short-lived, he remained close to the Van der Does family; cf. J. Bikker, ‘“Sir Joan Reynst, his Good Acquaintance, Neighbour and Landlord”: Truth and Fantasy in Houbraken’s Life of Karel du Jardin’, The Burlington Magazine 151 (2009), no. 1271, pp. 92-97 (esp. p. 96).
- 3Sale, Sotheby’s (London), 8 December 1993, no. 234.
- 4C. Josi, Collection d’imitations des dessins d’après les principaux Maîtres Hollandais et Flamands, commencée par C. Ploos van Amstel (…) precedés d’un discours sur l’état ancient et moderne des arts dans les Pays Bas, 2 vols., London 1821, p. 85.
- 5J. Immerzeel, De levens en werken der Hollandsche en Vlaamsche kunstschilders, 3 vols., Amsterdam 1842-43, II (1842), p. 187 (‘schier onnavolgbar schoon geschilderde schapen’).
- 6Gernsheim photo, no. 24160.
- 7As the art dealer and connoisseur Christiaan Josi (1768-1828) observed in 1821, drawings by both Van der Does were undervalued at the market, with Jacob’s drawings still getting better prices than those by his son; cf. C. Josi, Collection d’imitations des dessins d’après les principaux Maîtres Hollandais et Flamands, commencée par C. Ploos van Amstel (…) precedés d’un discours sur l’état ancient et moderne des arts dans les Pays Bas, London 1821, p. 85 (‘Ceux de Jacob sont bien mieux payés, mais pas assez en proportion de pareils dessins d’A. van de Velde et de Berchem’).
- 8A. Houbraken, De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen, 3 vols., Amsterdam 1718-21, II (1719), pp. 105-108. The option that the changed initial might also refer to Jacob II (1654-99), Simon’s younger brother, is not likely, as Jacob II, by whom no work is known, probably worked in the style of his former teachers, Caspar Netscher (1635/36-1684) and Gerard de Lairesse (1641-1711); cf. A. Beyer et al. (eds.), Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon: Die bildenden Künstler aller Zeiten und Völker, Munich 1992-, XXVIII (2001), p. 261.