Arent Arentsz

Fisherman on the Bank of the Amstel near the Pauwentuin, Amsterdam

c. 1625 - c. 1630

Inscriptions

  • signature, in ligated monogram, at bottom right on the chest:AA

Technical notes

The support is a single horizontally grained oak panel bevelled on all sides. The construction and size of the panel are similar to those of SK-A-1447/no. 4 and SK-A-1448/no. 5. The ground is an off-white colour. The paint layers were built up from the back to the front, the foreground figures being reserved in the background. At the left on the horizon there is a pentimento in the form of a square tower where there was originally a windmill.

Scientific examination and reports

  • technical report: I. Verslype, RMA, 10 december 2004

Condition

Fair. The background is abraded. Parts of the sky are obscured by discoloured areas of retouching and overpaint. The varnish is discoloured,.

Conservation

  • conservator unknown, 1913: treatment unknown

Provenance

...; from G. Cohen, London, fl. 242, to the museum, July 1912; on loan to the Amsterdams Historisch Museum since 1975

ObjectNumber: SK-A-2625

The artist

Biography

Arent Arentsz (Amsterdam 1585/86 - Amsterdam 1631)

Arent Arentsz, known as Cabel, was born in 1585/86 as the third son of the sailmaker Arent Jansz and Giert Joosten, who lived in a house called ‘De Cabel’ (or ‘Kabel’) in Zeedijk in Amsterdam. On 19 May 1619, at the age of 33, he married Josijntje (or Joosje) Jans in Sloten. The marriage remained childless. On 4 May 1622 he bought a plot of land on Prinsengracht in Amsterdam, facing the Noordermarkt, where he built a house which he called ‘De vergulde Cabel’ (‘The gilt cable’). He was buried in the Oude Kerk in Amsterdam on 18 August 1631.

Nothing is known about his artistic training or stylistic development. Most of his paintings bear his monogram AA, but not one of them is dated.1Moes (in Thieme/Becker V, 1911, p. 325) mentions one dated painting from 1629, formerly in the Wachtmeister collection, Wanäs, Sweden, but that work has not been traced. He specialized in landscape paintings, mostly in an oblong format, with prominent figures of peasants, fishermen and hunters in the foreground, and a river scene, polder or winter landscape in the distance. In his winter landscapes Arentsz’s work is dependent on that of Hendrick Avercamp, with the figures and sometimes the composition being based on Avercamp’s paintings or drawings, or both.2For example, his paintings in Toronto, Karlsruhe and Manchester, and in Amsterdam The IJ in Winter with Amsterdam on the Horizon in the Amsterdams Historisch Museum; illustrated in The Hague 2001, no. 1.

Jan Piet Filedt Kok, 2007

References
De Roever 1889, pp. 29-30; Moes in Thieme/Becker V, 1911, p. 325; Poensgen 1923; Van Eeghen 1967; Van Suchtelen in Saur V, 1992, p. 28

Entry

The distinctive group of two fishermen hauling in a net in the foreground of this painting is repeated in another work by Arentsz in which the figures and landscape are different.3With the dealer C. Benedict, Paris, 1946, panel, 36 x 60 cm; photo RKD. It also features in mirror image in Arentsz’s Summer in Rotterdam.4Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, panel, 32.5 x 62 cm; illustrated in coll. cat. Rotterdam 2000, p. 9. Another version of the Boijmans painting was with the dealer Koetser in London in 1946, panel, 46 x 76 cm; while yet another one, also with a river landscape in the background, was formerly in the Mallmann collection, Blaschkow (Slovakia), panel, 30.5 x 44 cm; photos RKD. Hendrick Avercamp also depicted fishermen hauling in a net in a similar way.5Welcker 1979, p. 208, no. S 27.1.

In the middleground is the river Amstel with the Pauwentuin farmstead on the right, which became a popular inn in 1642, after the present painting was executed. In the centre is the Bergenvaarderskamer, the guildhall of skippers and merchants engaged in trade with Bergen in Norway. The houses and the stone bridge between the two main buildings are also rendered faithfully.6For the location see Hoogendoorn 1946 (with a reproduction of an engraving by A. Rademaker published in Hollands Arcadia in 1730); Van Eeghen 1967; Van Eeghen 1968; Meischke 1978. There is a closer and more detailed view of Pauwentuin House in another painting by Arentsz,7Bloemendaal, Heerkens Thyssen collection, panel, 42.5 x 79.5 cm; see Hoogendoorn 1946; Van Eeghen 1968 (ill.). and one from another angle in the background of the artist’s Winter Scene near Amsterdam in Toronto.8Art Gallery of Ontario; illustrated in coll. cat. Samuel 1992, p. 14, in which the same fishermen are this time hauling their net out of a hole in the ice.

Jan Piet Filedt Kok, 2007

See Bibliography and Rijksmuseum painting catalogues
See Key to abbreviations and Acknowledgements

This entry was published in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, I: Artists Born between 1570 and 1600, coll. cat. Amsterdam 2007, no. 6.

Literature

Poensgen 1923, p. 122; Hoogendoorn 1946; Van Eeghen 1967; Van Eeghen 1968; coll. cat. Amsterdam 1975/79, pp. 13-14, no. 12

Collection catalogues

1914, p. 513, no. 375a; 1934, p. 31, no. 375a; 1960, p. 22, no. 375 A1; 1976, p. 87, no. A 2625; 2007, no. 6

Citation

J.P. Filedt Kok, 2007, 'Arent Arentsz., Fisherman on the Bank of the Amstel near the Pauwentuin, Amsterdam, c. 1625 - c. 1630', in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.5809

(accessed 2 May 2025 18:50:24).

Footnotes

  • 1Moes (in Thieme/Becker V, 1911, p. 325) mentions one dated painting from 1629, formerly in the Wachtmeister collection, Wanäs, Sweden, but that work has not been traced.
  • 2For example, his paintings in Toronto, Karlsruhe and Manchester, and in Amsterdam The IJ in Winter with Amsterdam on the Horizon in the Amsterdams Historisch Museum; illustrated in The Hague 2001, no. 1.
  • 3With the dealer C. Benedict, Paris, 1946, panel, 36 x 60 cm; photo RKD.
  • 4Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, panel, 32.5 x 62 cm; illustrated in coll. cat. Rotterdam 2000, p. 9. Another version of the Boijmans painting was with the dealer Koetser in London in 1946, panel, 46 x 76 cm; while yet another one, also with a river landscape in the background, was formerly in the Mallmann collection, Blaschkow (Slovakia), panel, 30.5 x 44 cm; photos RKD.
  • 5Welcker 1979, p. 208, no. S 27.1.
  • 6For the location see Hoogendoorn 1946 (with a reproduction of an engraving by A. Rademaker published in Hollands Arcadia in 1730); Van Eeghen 1967; Van Eeghen 1968; Meischke 1978.
  • 7Bloemendaal, Heerkens Thyssen collection, panel, 42.5 x 79.5 cm; see Hoogendoorn 1946; Van Eeghen 1968 (ill.).
  • 8Art Gallery of Ontario; illustrated in coll. cat. Samuel 1992, p. 14, in which the same fishermen are this time hauling their net out of a hole in the ice.