Simon van der Does

Shephers with their Flock under a Tree

1700

Inscriptions

  • signed and dated: centre left (on the urn’s pedestal), in grey ink, S.V.Does / MDCC

Technical notes

Watermark: None visible through lining

Condition

Cockled in lower centre; laid down

Provenance

…; donated by Jonkvrouwe Agnes Henriette Beels van Heemstede-van Loon (1829-1902), Amsterdam, with 273 other drawings, to the museum, 1898

ObjectNumber: RP-T-1898-A-3568

Credit line: Gift of A.H. Beels van Heemstede-van Loon

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.1Although 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 1993.2Sale, 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.3C. 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’.4J. 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

This drawing has long been paired with the museum’s Reclining Shepherdess with a Flock of Sheep and Goats (inv. no. RP-T-1898-A-3567), also signed and dated 1700, of roughly the same format and executed on vellum. The two drawings correspond in their stage-like compositions and pastoral subject-matter with ancient monuments. Both feature memento mori messages.

In the present work, the moralizing content is subtle, somewhat hidden on the left, where a sculpted relief on the stone pedestal of the urn depicts a drunken satyr assisted by two nymphs, alluding to the dangers of drunkenness. Here the message seems to be intended for the shepherd standing unsteadily to the right of the tree, with a bottle in his hand. A shepherdess approaching from the left – perhaps sneaking up on the couple – underscores the need for constraint and vigilance.

In the case of Reclining Shepherdess with a Flock of Sheep and Goats, the meaning is more explicit, owing to the Latin proverb chiselled into the fountain: ‘QUIDQUID A[GIS], PRUDENTER [AGIS], SED RESPICE FINEM’ (‘Whatever you do, do it wisely and consider the end’).

The same kind of subject-matter was treated by Simon’s father, Jacob van der Does I (1623-1673), for example in his drawing of Sheep Grazing among Classical Monuments, formerly in the collection of I.Q. van Regteren Altena.5Sale, I.Q. van Regteren Altena Collection, Part II: Dutch and Flemish Drawings from 1500-1900, Amsterdam (Christie’s), 10 December 2014, no. 262. That drawing is inscribed by the artist, ‘HIC. SITA EST AMYMONE MARCI [?] OPTIMA ET PVLCHERIMA LANIFICA. PIA. PVDICA. FRVGI. CASTA. DOMISEDA’ (‘Here lies Amymone, daughter of Marco, brilliant and beautiful, who worked wool, via (?), frugal, chaste, withdrawn at home.’) and ‘TVRCIVS APRONIANVS V[IR]. C.[LARISSIMUS]. PRAEF[ECTI] VRBI CVRAVIT’. (‘The illustruous man, Turcius Apronianus, prefect of the city, took care’).

Drawn on vellum, the present sheet and its presumed companion piece are typical products made for sale, appealing to the refined taste of contemporary connoisseurs.

Annemarie Stefes, 2018

Citation

A. Stefes, 2018, 'Simon van der Does, Shephers with their Flock under a Tree, 1700', in J. Turner (ed.), Dutch Drawings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200125783

(accessed 23 September 2025 07:34:47).

Footnotes

  • 1Although 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).
  • 2Sale, Sotheby’s (London), 8 December 1993, no. 234.
  • 3C. 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.
  • 4J. Immerzeel, De levens en werken der Hollandsche en Vlaamsche kunstschilders, 3 vols., Amsterdam 1842-43, II (1842), p. 187 (‘schier onnavolgbar schoon geschilderde schapen’).
  • 5Sale, I.Q. van Regteren Altena Collection, Part II: Dutch and Flemish Drawings from 1500-1900, Amsterdam (Christie’s), 10 December 2014, no. 262.