Hilly landscape

Pieter Stalpaert, 1635

Heuvelachtig landschap met velden en akkers, rechts enkele huizen, op de voorgrond een ruiter.

  • Artwork typepainting
  • Object numberSK-A-1581
  • Dimensionssupport: height 66.5 cm x width 114.8 cm, depth 6 cm
  • Physical characteristicsoil on panel

Pieter Stalpaert

Hilly Landscape

1635

Inscriptions

  • signature and date, bottom left (P, S, T and A ligated):1635 PSTA Stalpart

Technical notes

The oak support consists of three horizontally grained planks and is bevelled on all sides. Scanning with infrared reflectography revealed an underdrawing in a dry medium, probably black chalk, fragments of which are also visible to the naked eye. The underdrawing of the landscape shows typical cloudshaped lines for the bushes, while the contours of the foliage are somewhat bigger than on the painted surface. The figures and sky were not prepared in the underdrawing. The paint was relatively thinly applied with visible brushstrokes throughout.

Scientific examination and reports

  • technical report: W. de Ridder, RMA, 15 mei 2002

Condition

Fair. There are several discoloured areas of retouching, and the varnish has yellowed.

Conservation

  • conservator unknown, 1948: cleaned

Provenance

…; sale, A. Philips-Neven (Maastricht), 24 March 1892, no. 112, as T. Stalpert;…; donated to the museum by Dr Abraham Bredius (1855-1946), The Hague, 18921RANH, ARS, IS, inv. 172, no. 57 (3 May 1892).

Object number: SK-A-1581

Credit line: Gift of A. Bredius, The Hague

The artist

Biography

Pieter Stalpaert (Brussels c. 1572 - Amsterdam in or before 1639)

Pieter Stalpaert was very probably born in Brussels around 1572 as the son of the tapestry worker Jeremyas Stalpaert, who later moved to Delft. The name of his teacher is not known. In 1597-98 he was working in Dordrecht, and from 1598 he is documented in Amsterdam. The following year he married Beyken de Hertoge of Antwerp. He became an Amsterdam citizen in 1609, and in 1611, as a widower he married Maeyken de Walperghe, also of Antwerp. Their son Daniel, who was born in 1615, went on to become a painter and later an architect. Pieter must have died in or before 1639, because he was not present at Daniel’s betrothal that year.

Stalpaert’s work is rare, and the only paintings from his hand are a few landscapes,2See Briels 1997, p. 222, fig. 342, p. 227, fig. 354, p. 227, fig. 379. half a dozen marines,3See Briels 1987, pp. 416-21, figs. 550-56. and possibly one architecture piece.4Sale, London (Sotheby’s), 28 March 1979, no. 226.

Yvette Bruijnen, 2007

References
Bol 1973, pp. 39-40; Briels 1987, pp. 415-17; De Maere/Wabbes 1994, I, p. 375, no. 1113; Briels 1997, p. 387

Entry

This is one of only three known landscapes by Pieter Stalpaert. The others are the signed Wooded Landscape with a Falconer,5Private collection; illustrated in Briels 1997, p. 222, fig. 342. and the attributed Mountain Landscape with Travellers and Herdsmen.6Formerly Würzburg, Gallery Heide Hübner; illustrated in Briels 1997, p. 227, fig. 354. The sober palette of green and brown tints, and the diagonal lines of the composition, with a dark ridge in the foreground, are related to the landscapes of Pieter de Molijn and Pieter van Santvoort. Bernt has remarked that more landscapes by Stalpaert may have survived but are going under the names of other artists.7Bernt III, 1970, no. 1106. The distinctive underdrawing might be a good point of departure for attributions to this littleknown master.

Yvette Bruijnen, 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. 274.

Literature

Bernt III, 1970, no. 1106; Briels 1997, pp. 237-38, 387

Collection catalogues

1903, p. 250, no. 2228; 1934, p. 267, no. 2228; 1960, pp. 288-89, no. 2228; 1976, p. 520, no. A 1581; 2007, no. 274

Citation

Y. Bruijnen, 2007, 'Pieter Stalpaert, Hilly Landscape, 1635', in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/20026346

(accessed 10 December 2025 19:58:41).

Footnotes

  • 1RANH, ARS, IS, inv. 172, no. 57 (3 May 1892).
  • 2See Briels 1997, p. 222, fig. 342, p. 227, fig. 354, p. 227, fig. 379.
  • 3See Briels 1987, pp. 416-21, figs. 550-56.
  • 4Sale, London (Sotheby’s), 28 March 1979, no. 226.
  • 5Private collection; illustrated in Briels 1997, p. 222, fig. 342.
  • 6Formerly Würzburg, Gallery Heide Hübner; illustrated in Briels 1997, p. 227, fig. 354.
  • 7Bernt III, 1970, no. 1106.