Sculpted. The portrait stands on a turned, profiled, marble socle.

Good.

’s Rijks Verzameling van Kunstwerken van Moderne Meesters, Paviljoen Welgelegen, Haarlem, by 1844;¹¹Beschrijving der schilderijen op ’s Rijks Museum in het Paviljoen Welgelegen te Haarlem, coll. cat. Haarlem n.d. [1844], p. 23. transferred to the museum, 1885

Object number: BK-B-42

This portrait by Paulus Joseph (‘Paul’) Gabriël (1784-1833) of Johanna Wattier, in her day a celebrated actress, bears, even more than the herm bust of Cornelis Apostool (BK-B-12), evidence of the sculptor’s training period with Antonio Canova (1757-1823) in Rome. The form of the present bust, depicting the actress all’antica, is akin to Canova’s portraits of Laetitia Bonaparte and Pauline Borghese, Napoleon’s mother and sister, respectively.²²G. Pavanello, L’opera completa del Canova, Milan 1976, nos. 146 and 167. During his stay in Rome (1810-1813), Gabriël is bound to have seen these portraits, either as plaster models or as marble replicas. Moreover, Wattier’s haughty gaze, raised chin, the flatness of the eyeballs and bare neck are reminiscent of ancient Roman portrait busts. The coronet, which gives the subject an almost regal look, was her attribute in many classical roles, as depicted in various painted portraits (cf. SK-A-769, (SK-A-2201, SK-A-1113).³³P.J.J. van Thiel, C.J. de Bruyn Kops et al., All the Paintings of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam: A Completely Illustrated Catalogue, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1976, nos. A 769, A 2201 and A 1113.

‘Wattier-Ziesenis’, as she was succinctly known after her marriage to the Amsterdam city architect B.W.H. Ziesenis (1768-1820), enjoyed her greatest successes as a tragedienne on the boards of Amsterdam’s Stadsschouwburg (municipal theatre) between 1781 and 1815. In 1806 the Comédie Française in Paris invited her to play the part of Lady Macbeth; four years later she was awarded an annuity by emperor Napoleon. In 1815 Johanna Wattier bade farewell to the Amsterdam stage, with a pension of 2,000 guilders per annum. After that, she performed only sporadically, for instance in The Hague in 1818, at the request of King William I of the Netherlands. Following that performance, several painted portraits were made of the actress and that event might have led Gabriël to make the bust. After Wattier’s death, during a farewell eulogy held by her colleagues on 1 May 1827 in the Amsterdam municipal theatre, this bust, crowned with a laurel wreath, graced the stage on a catafalque.⁴⁴P.J. van Eldik Thieme, ‘Johanna Cornelia Wattier’, Eigen Haard 1891, no. 24, pp. 378-81, esp. p. 379. Later, variations on the portrait were placed, with fitting drapery, in various theatres.⁵⁵See, for example the plaster and marble versions in the Theatre Collection of the University of Amsterdam, inv. nos. X 44 and X 45.

In 1889 the renowned painter P.J.C. Constantin Gabriël, the sculptor Gabriël’s son, expressed surprise that of the two busts by his father in the Rijksmuseum (the portraits of Cornelis Apostool and of Johanna Wattier) mention was only made of the maker of the first portrait, and not of that of Wattier: ‘... but what does amaze me is that on the pedestal of Madame Wattier, note is made of the costly marble from which the pedestal was made, but not of the maker of this splendid work of art, since it is indeed splendid! France would be more proud to count such an artist as one of its own.’⁶⁶‘...maar wat mij wel verwonderd is dat er op de piedestal van Madme Wattier wel geschreven staat uit wat voor kostbaar marmer die piedestal gemaakt is, maar niet de maker van dat prachtige kunstwerk is, want prachtig is het! Frankrijk zou er trotscher op zyn zoo een kunstenaar onder de zyne te moge rekenen.’ Haarlem, Rijksarchief Noord-Holland, RMS, IS, inv. 169, no. 147 (16 November 1889), letter from P.J.C. Gabriël.

Frits Scholten, 2026

P.J. van Eldik Thieme, ‘Johanna Cornelia Wattier’, Eigen Haard, 1891, pp. 378-81, esp. p. 379; P.K. van Daalen, Nederlandse beeldhouwers in de negentiende eeuw, The Hague 1957, pp. 19, 94 (no. 24), fig. 9; J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 437; E. Bergvelt and R.W.H.P. Scheller, Reizen naar Rome: Italië als leerschool voor Nederlandse kunstenaars omstreeks 1800, exh. cat. Haarlem (Teylers Museum)/Rome (Istituto Olandese di Roma) 1984, no. 96; F. Scholten, Gebeeldhouwde portretten/Portrait Sculptures, coll. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 1995, no. 47; M. Boomkamp, ‘Paul Joseph Gabriël (1784-1833): Revitalizing Dutch Sculpture in the Early Nineteenth Century’, The Rijksmuseum Bulletin 58 (2010), pp. 328-65, esp. p. 343 and fig. 12

F. Scholten, 2026, 'Paulus Joseph Gabriël, Portrait Bust of Johanna Cornelia Ziesenis-Wattier (1762-1827), Amsterdam, c. 1820', in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200611395