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Sleeping Shepherd with Four Sheep
Simon van der Does, 1663 - 1718
- Artwork typedrawing
- Object numberRP-T-1954-85
- Dimensionsheight 144 mm x width 202 mm
- Physical characteristicspen and brown ink, with brown wash
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Identification
Title(s)
Sleeping Shepherd with Four Sheep
Object type
Object number
RP-T-1954-85
Part of catalogue
Creation
Creation
- draughtsman: Simon van der Does
- draughtsman: Jacob van der Does (I) [rejected attribution]
Dating
1663 - 1718
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Material and technique
Physical description
pen and brown ink, with brown wash
Dimensions
height 144 mm x width 202 mm
This work is about
Subject
Acquisition and rights
Acquisition
purchase 1954
Copyright
Provenance
…; sale, Lambert ten Kate (1674-1731, Amsterdam), Amsterdam (I. Tirion), 16 June 1732 sqq., Album P, no. 13 (‘Een Schaepherder slapende terwyl zyn Vee wat loof plukt: met de Pen en met roet gewasschen; door V.d.Does.’), fl. 3;{Cf. H. Miedema (ed.), _Kennerschap en de ideale schoonheid. Lambert ten Kate over de tekeningen in zijn verzameling_, Amsterdam 2012, p. 160, based on an annotated copy in the Fondation Custodia, Paris.} …; collection Van Puten (d. c. 1829), Paris (L. 2058);{Not in his sale, Paris (Duchesne/Bonnefons) 14 December 1829 sqq.; probably sold during his lifetime.} …; collection Jean-Baptiste-Florentin-Gabriel de Meyran, Marquis de Lagoy (1764-1829), Aix-en-Provence (L. 1710); ? his sale, Paris (A.-F. Pieri-Bénard), 17 April 1834 sqq., no. 205 (‘Plusiers dessins par Flinck, Koningh, Lerientals, Overbeck, Pinas, Pronk, Waterloo, etc., qui seront vendus en plusiers lots’), fl. 29.50;{Copy RKD.} ; ? anonymous sale, Brussels (Palais des Beaux-Arts), 23 May 1938 sqq., no. 239;{Copy RMA.}…; sale, Dr Henderik Catharinus Valkema Blouw (1883-1953, Bodegraven), Amsterdam (F. Muller), 2 March 1954 sqq., no. 120, fl. 160, to the museum (L. 2228)
Remarks
Please note that this provenance was formulated with a special focus on provenance research for the years 1933-45 and could therefore be incomplete. There may be more (mostly earlier) provenance information known in the museum. In case this item has an uncertain or incomplete provenance for the years 1933-45, the Rijksmuseum welcomes information and assistance in the investigation and clarification of the provenance of all works during that era.
Documentation
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Simon van der Does
Sleeping Shepherd with Four Sheep
1663 - 1718
Inscriptions
inscribed: lower left, in an eighteenth-century hand, in brown ink, Van der Does
stamped: lower right, with the mark of De Lagoy (L. 1710)
inscribed on verso: left (partially trimmed), in a seventeenth-century hand, with brown ink, […] stv 015; lower centre, by Van Puten, in pencil, P (L. 2058); lower right, possibly in a nineteenth-century hand, in pencil, 17
stamped on verso: left of centre, with the mark of the museum (L. 2228)
Technical notes
watermark: Arms of Amsterdam (fragment of lower part); similar to Heawood, no. 436 (Amsterdam: 1685)
Condition
Two large water stains in lower right quarter; restored losses in lower right and lower left corner; small tear at lower right margin
Provenance
…; sale, Lambert ten Kate (1674-1731, Amsterdam), Amsterdam (I. Tirion), 16 June 1732 sqq., Album P, no. 13 (‘Een Schaepherder slapende terwyl zyn Vee wat loof plukt: met de Pen en met roet gewasschen; door V.d.Does.’), fl. 3;1Cf. H. Miedema (ed.), Kennerschap en de ideale schoonheid. Lambert ten Kate over de tekeningen in zijn verzameling, Amsterdam 2012, p. 160, based on an annotated copy in the Fondation Custodia, Paris. …; collection Van Puten (d. c. 1829), Paris (L. 2058);2Not in his sale, Paris (Duchesne/Bonnefons) 14 December 1829 sqq.; probably sold during his lifetime. …; collection Jean-Baptiste-Florentin-Gabriel de Meyran, Marquis de Lagoy (1764-1829), Aix-en-Provence (L. 1710); ? his sale, Paris (A.-F. Pieri-Bénard), 17 April 1834 sqq., no. 205 (‘Plusiers dessins par Flinck, Koningh, Lerientals, Overbeck, Pinas, Pronk, Waterloo, etc., qui seront vendus en plusiers lots’), fl. 29.50;3Copy RKD. ; ? anonymous sale, Brussels (Palais des Beaux-Arts), 23 May 1938 sqq., no. 239;4Copy RMA.…; sale, Dr Henderik Catharinus Valkema Blouw (1883-1953, Bodegraven), Amsterdam (F. Muller), 2 March 1954 sqq., no. 120, fl. 160, to the museum (L. 2228)
Object number: RP-T-1954-85
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.5Although 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 1993.6Sale, 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.7C. 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’.8J. 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. 326-328; 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
Sketchy and spirited, without an initial draft in chalk or graphite, this drawing was acquired as a work by Simon's father, Jacob van der Does I (1623-1673). There are indeed common traits in signed drawings by that artist: for the pen work, in Italian Farm with Tower of 1646 and Five Sheep of circa 1650, both in the Hamburger Kunsthalle (inv. nos. 21842 and 21840),9A. Stefes, Niederländische Zeichnungen, 1450-1800 (Die Sammlungen der Hamburger Kunsthalle, Kupferstichkabinett, vol. 2), 3 vols., coll. cat. Hamburg 2011, nos. 248-49. and for the foliage marked by broad brushstrokes in drawings such as the Teylers Museum’s Shepherd and his Flock near a Classical Building (inv. no. Q+ 003, 1664).10M.C. Plomp, The Dutch Drawings in the Teyler Museum, II: Artists Born between 1575 and 1630, coll. cat. Haarlem 1997, no. 109. For the pen work, see also Resting Sheep under a Tree, dated 1669, C.G. Boerner, Thirty Drawings, Düsseldorf 1989 (Neue Lagerliste, vol. 91), part 2, no. 18. At the same time, the drawing shows characteristics of the hand of Jacob’s son Simon van der Does. This comes especially clear if compared with Cows on a Pasture, a drawing in the same technique and similar dimensions, signed ‘S V. Does’, in the Berlin Kupferstichkabinett (inv. no. KdZ 2595),11E. Bock and J. Rosenberg, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin: Die niederländischen Meister: Beschreibendes Verzeichnis sämtlicher Zeichnungen, 2 vols., coll. cat. Berlin 1930, I, p. 118, photo RKD; the drawing’s date only partially legible, ‘XVI (…) XXXII’ as noted by Holm Bevers, e-mail 7 October 2016. With the drawn oeuvre of both father and son still waiting to be studied, distinguishing their hands remains an open issue. Already in 1821, Christiaan Josi (1768-1828) observed ‘that it is often rather difficult, especially in their drawings, to decide to whom of them they belong, so similar are their styles’.12C. 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 (‘…qu’il est souvent assez difficile, surtout dans leurs dessins, à decider à qui des deux ils appartiennent, tant leurs manières sont semblables’). This, apparently, is also reflected in the inscription on the present sheet, which is old but not autograph;13Compared with authentic signatures by both artists, the letters ‘D’ and ‘e’ are written differently. leaving out the initial, the inscription’s writer apparently himself was unsure as to which family member he should give the drawing.
Though larger and less detailed in execution, inv. no. RP-T-1954-84, equally from the Valkema Blouw collection and now tentatively associated with Simon van der Does, is stylistically related, with the rendering of the animals’ eyes with dark blots of ink similar to that in the present drawing.
Annemarie Stefes, 2018
Citation
A. Stefes, 2018, 'Simon van der Does, Sleeping Shepherd with Four Sheep, 1663 - 1718', in J. Turner (ed.), Dutch Drawings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200122907
(accessed 6 December 2025 14:09:57).Footnotes
- 1Cf. H. Miedema (ed.), Kennerschap en de ideale schoonheid. Lambert ten Kate over de tekeningen in zijn verzameling, Amsterdam 2012, p. 160, based on an annotated copy in the Fondation Custodia, Paris.
- 2Not in his sale, Paris (Duchesne/Bonnefons) 14 December 1829 sqq.; probably sold during his lifetime.
- 3Copy RKD.
- 4Copy RMA.
- 5Although 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).
- 6Sale, Sotheby’s (London), 8 December 1993, no. 234.
- 7C. 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.
- 8J. Immerzeel, De levens en werken der Hollandsche en Vlaamsche kunstschilders, 3 vols., Amsterdam 1842-43, II (1842), p. 187 (‘schier onnavolgbar schoon geschilderde schapen’).
- 9A. Stefes, Niederländische Zeichnungen, 1450-1800 (Die Sammlungen der Hamburger Kunsthalle, Kupferstichkabinett, vol. 2), 3 vols., coll. cat. Hamburg 2011, nos. 248-49.
- 10M.C. Plomp, The Dutch Drawings in the Teyler Museum, II: Artists Born between 1575 and 1630, coll. cat. Haarlem 1997, no. 109. For the pen work, see also Resting Sheep under a Tree, dated 1669, C.G. Boerner, Thirty Drawings, Düsseldorf 1989 (Neue Lagerliste, vol. 91), part 2, no. 18.
- 11E. Bock and J. Rosenberg, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin: Die niederländischen Meister: Beschreibendes Verzeichnis sämtlicher Zeichnungen, 2 vols., coll. cat. Berlin 1930, I, p. 118, photo RKD; the drawing’s date only partially legible, ‘XVI (…) XXXII’ as noted by Holm Bevers, e-mail 7 October 2016.
- 12C. 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 (‘…qu’il est souvent assez difficile, surtout dans leurs dessins, à decider à qui des deux ils appartiennent, tant leurs manières sont semblables’).
- 13Compared with authentic signatures by both artists, the letters ‘D’ and ‘e’ are written differently.