The Hunter

Support The support consists of four pieces of similar plain-weave canvas with a prominent vertical seam at approx. 109 cm from the left edge and a less visible horizontal one at approx. 94 cm from the top, and has been wax-resin lined. All tacking edges have been preserved. Cusping is visible on all sides.
Preparatory layers The single, rather thick, beige-grey ground extends up to the tacking edges. It consists of white and black pigment particles of various sizes, and some ochre-coloured pigment particles.
Underdrawing No underdrawing could be detected with the naked eye or infrared photography.
Paint layers The paint extends up to the tacking edges. An initial lay-in was made of the landscape in brown and of the sky in light blue, without leaving reserves for the hunter and the dogs. Both of these were executed next. A reserve was left in the hunter’s coat for the heads of two of the hounds, all of which were painted from dark to light over a warm greyish underlayer, beginning with those in the foreground. The hare was added in a later stage over the barrel of the musket, the sky and the hunter’s back. The head of the dog on the far right as well as the plants in the foreground were also later additions. The hunting-horn appears to have been an afterthought, as it was painted on top of the landscape and the hunter’s coat and on either side of the dog leash dangling from his arm. The paint surface is fairly smooth, with the exception of the impasted highlights.
Anna Krekeler, 2022

Fair. There is a strong craquelure throughout with locally raised but stable paint along the cracks. The landscape and sky are particularly abraded. Discoloured retouching is visible in the sky. The varnish has yellowed. It has an uneven gloss and saturates moderately.

…; ? anonymous sale, Amsterdam (P. van der Schley et al.), 21 August 1799 sqq., no. 176 (‘Een jager levensgroote, houdende een Snaphaan op schouder waar aan een doode Haas hangt: hij is verzelt van verscheide Jagthonden, in een Landschap […] op Doek, […] hoog 72, breed 86 duim [185 x 221 cm]’), fl. 159, to Van Iperen;¹¹Copy RKD.…; ? sale, Barend Kooy (1750-1819, Amsterdam), Amsterdam, 88 Herengracht, sold on the premises (P. Postumus et al.), 20 April 1820, no. 8, as ‘Ab. Beeldemaker’ (‘Hoog 72, breed 84, duim. [185 x 215.9 cm] Een kapitaal bergachtig landschap. Op de voorgrond ziet men een Jager die van de jagt komt, met eenige Honden […]’), fl. 159, to De Boer;²²Copy RKD.…; collection Willem Gruyter Jr (1817-1880), Amsterdam, by 1867;³³Tentoonstelling van zeldzame en belangrijke schilderijen van oude meesters, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Arti et Amicitiae) 1867, p. 2, no. 11. his sale, Amsterdam (C.F. Roos et al.) 24 October 1882 sqq., no. 8, fl. 1,035, to the museum⁴⁴NHA, ARS, IS, inv. 163, nos. 171 (24 November 1882), 172 (25 November 188, no. 3095).

ObjectNumber: SK-A-750

This monumental painting with an almost life-sized hunter accompanied by a pack of hounds was made in 1653, in a period when Adriaen Beeldemaker’s whereabouts are unknown. He had probably gained experience with the genre in his native Rotterdam, which flourished there thanks to the work of artists like Ludolf de Jongh and Abraham Hondius.⁸⁸F. Scholten, ‘Ludolf de Jongh en de aristocratisering van het genre’, in N.I. Schadee (ed.), Rotterdamse meesters uit de Gouden Eeuw, exh. cat. Rotterdam (Historisch Museum) 1994, pp. 143-52, esp. pp. 144-46.

This landscape includes no fewer than eight hounds, two of which are depicted with only their heads: the one of a spaniel type on the far right and another to the right of the fawn-coloured animal on the left. They are all hunting dogs, and there are at least two breeds. The greyhounds, with long legs and pointed snouts, were used for coursing, because their keen eyesight and speed made them ideal for tracking and overtaking game. The second main variety was generally the beagle, a running dog with hanging ears that followed the scent of the prey with its nose to the ground, barking as it went. However, the two smaller ones in the middle appear to be Brittany spaniels, ‘pointers’ which work closely with the hunter. They point at the game by standing motionless in front of it.⁹⁹J. Zijlmans, Hond & baas: Een geschiedenis van haat en liefde, The Hague 2002, p. 93.

The dead hare dangling from the barrel of the gun shows that the man is returning from the hunt. He is about to descend a hillock, with his companions going on ahead on horseback and in carriages. The artist picked a low vantage point that focuses attention on the action in the front, with great depth in the valley being suggested by the tiny size of the rest of the party. The chosen viewpoint also accentuates the menacing clouds above the landscape, reinforcing the drama of the scene. On only one other occasion did Beeldemaker place the dogs in the foreground of a composition with a figure also heading home. There, too, he devoted considerable attention to the sky,¹⁰¹⁰Anonymous sale, Frankfurt (Bangel), 12 October 1912, no. 7 (ill.). but that picture cannot rival the one in the Rijksmuseum, partly because of its much smaller size. A history piece of Diana hunting that measures 200 x 242 cm is the only work in Beeldemaker’s oeuvre that is larger.¹¹¹¹With the dealer G. de Salvatore, Dijon, in 1962; photo RKD. He did not often paint on this scale, which is why the Rijksmuseum canvas is rightly regarded as his finest achievement.¹²¹²B. Haak, Hollandse schilders in de Gouden Eeuw, Amsterdam 1984, p. 438; F. Scholten, ‘Ludolf de Jongh en de aristocratisering van het genre’, in N.I. Schadee (ed.), Rotterdamse meesters uit de Gouden Eeuw, exh. cat. Rotterdam (Historisch Museum) 1994, pp. 143-52, esp. p. 144. It is a masterpiece from quite early in his career, and one that he was never again able to match.

Richard Harmanni, 2022

See Key to abbreviations, Rijksmuseum painting catalogues and Acknowledgements

L.J. Bol, Holländische Maler des 17. Jahrhunderts nahe den grossen Meistern: Landschaften und Stilleben, Braunschweig 1969, p. 254; K.J. Müllenmeister, Meer und Land im Licht des 17. Jahrhunderts, II: Tierdarstellungen in Werken niederländischer Künstler: A-M, Bremen 1978, p. 21, no. 9; B. Haak, Hollandse schilders in de Gouden Eeuw, Amsterdam 1984, p. 438; F. Scholten, ‘Ludolf de Jongh en de aristocratisering van het genre’, in N.I. Schadee (ed.), Rotterdamse meesters uit de Gouden Eeuw, exh. cat. Rotterdam (Historisch Museum) 1994, pp. 143-52, esp. pp. 144-46

1886, p. 5, no. 16a; 1887, p. 10, no. 70; 1903, p. 42, no. 446; 1934, p. 42, no. 446; 1960, p. 33, no. 446; 1976, p. 105, no. A 750

Richard Harmanni, 2022, 'Adriaen Cornelisz Beeldemaker, The Hunter, 1653', in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.5953