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Shrove Tuesday
Cornelis Saftleven, 1617 - 1681
- Artwork typedrawing
- Object numberRP-T-1936-3
- Dimensionsheight 100 mm x width 138 mm
- Physical characteristicsblack chalk, with pen and black ink, with grey-brown wash and opaque white watercolour; framing line in black chalk (largely cut off)
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Identification
Title(s)
Shrove Tuesday
Object type
Object number
RP-T-1936-3
Part of catalogue
Creation
Creation
draftsman (artist): Cornelis Saftleven
Dating
1617 - 1681
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Material and technique
Physical description
black chalk, with pen and black ink, with grey-brown wash and opaque white watercolour; framing line in black chalk (largely cut off)
Dimensions
height 100 mm x width 138 mm
This work is about
Subject
Acquisition and rights
Acquisition
purchase 1936
Copyright
Provenance
...; from the dealer Paul Brandt (Amsterdam), with inv. nos. RP-T-1936-2 and RP-T-1936-4, fl. 145 for all, to the museum (L. 2228), 1936
Remarks
Please note that this provenance was formulated with a special focus on provenance research for the years 1933-45 and could therefore be incomplete. There may be more (mostly earlier) provenance information known in the museum. In case this item has an uncertain or incomplete provenance for the years 1933-45, the Rijksmuseum welcomes information and assistance in the investigation and clarification of the provenance of all works during that era.
Documentation
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Cornelis Saftleven
Shrove Tuesday
1617 - 1681
Inscriptions
inscribed on verso: in pencil, lower left corner, […] 11 / a
stamped on verso: centre, with the mark of the museum (L. 2228)
Technical notes
watermark: ? coat of arms
Provenance
...; from the dealer Paul Brandt (Amsterdam), with inv. nos. RP-T-1936-2 and RP-T-1936-4, fl. 145 for all, to the museum (L. 2228), 1936
Object number: RP-T-1936-3
The artist
Biography
Cornelis Saftleven (Gorinchem, 1606 – Rotterdam, 1681)
The son of the Rotterdam artist Herman Saftleven I (c. 1580-1627) and Lijntge Cornelisdr Moelants (d. 1625), he was trained by his father together with two of his brothers, Herman Saftleven (1609-1685) and Abraham Safleven (b. 1613). He likely stayed in Antwerp between 1632 and 1634, where Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) painted figures in some of his paintings.1RKD Artists, https://rkd.nl/explore/artists/69245; accessed 20 August 2020. For a short period of time in the 1630s, he stayed with his brother Herman in Utrecht.2A. van der Willigen and F.G. Meijer, A Dictionary of Dutch and Flemish Still-Life Painters Working in Oils, 1525-1725, Leiden 2003, p. 175.
Except for these few trips, Cornelis Saftleven stayed in Rotterdam. In 1640, he lived in the Lombardstraat and from 1648-1681 on the Franse Water.3N. Schadee, Rotterdamse meesters uit de gouden eeuw, exh. cat. Rotterdam (Historisch Museum) 1994-95, p. 295. On 18 November 1648, he married Catharina Dircx van der Heyden (d. 1654). After she passed away, on 29 September 1655, he married Elisabeth Melchiors van Avont (1619-1695). It appears he remained childless. In 1667, he became the dean of the Guild of St Luke in Rotterdam.4RKD Artists, https://rkd.nl/explore/artists/69245; accessed 20 August 2020.
Cornelis Saftleven was a versatile artist who produced paintings and drawings on a large variety of topics: peasant scenes, rural interiors, landscapes, cattle scenes, biblical and mythological themes, images of hell, allegories, satires and illustrations of proverbs. About 200 paintings and 500 drawings (probably a fraction of his output) have been documented.5W. Schulz, “Saftleven family,” (2003), Grove Art Online, https://www.oxfordartonline.com/groveart/view/10.1093/gao/9781884446054.001.0001/oao-9781884446054-e-7000074951; accessed 20 Aug. 2020. In his drawings, he worked mainly in black chalk and sometimes finished his sheets with grey wash. Occasionally, he drew on toned papers. His characteristic monogram – combining the letters ‘C, S and L’ – and a date can be found on his several of his drawings. Perhaps he made these for the market. Stylistically, he was influenced by the landscape drawings of Roelant Rogman (1627-1692), the animal drawings of Roelant Savery (1576-1639), Frans Snijders (1579-1657) and Aelbert Cuyp (1620-1691), and the figure studies of Gabriel Metsu (1629-1667).6Ibid.
Saftleven was buried on 5 June 1681 in the French Protestant Church in Rotterdam.7RKD Artists, https://rkd.nl/explore/artists/69245; accessed 20 August 2020.
Carolyn Mensing, 2020
References
A. Houbraken, De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen, 3 vols., Amsterdam 1718-21, I (1718), pp. 342-43 (as: Kornelis Zachtleven); C. Hofstede de Groot, ‘Een spotteekening van Cornelis Saftleven op de Dordtsche Synode’, Oud-Holland 15 (1897), pp. 121-23; A. von Wurzbach, Niederländisches Künstlerlexikon, 3 vols., Vienna/Leipzig 1906-11, II (1910), p. 548; N. Alting Mees, ‘Aanteekeningen over oud-Rotterdamsche kunstenaars III’, Oud-Holland 31 (1913), pp. 241-68, 255-59; U. Thieme and F. Becker, Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler: Von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, 37 vols., Leipzig 1907-50, XXIX (1935), p. 309; B.J.A. Renckens, ‘Enkele notities bij vroege werken van Cornelis Saftleven’, Bulletin Museum Boymans-van Beuningen 13 (1962), pp. 59-74; A. Zwollo, ‘Een “Cornelis Saftleven” per brief’, Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek 38 (1987), pp. 402-06; W. Schulz, Cornelis Saftleven (1607-1685): Leben und Werke, mit einem kritischen Katalog der Gemälde und Zeichnungen, Berlin 1978; N. Schadee, Rotterdamse meesters uit de gouden eeuw, exh. cat. Rotterdam (Historisch Museum) 1994-95, pp. 295-96; RKD artists https://rkd.nl/artists/69245
Entry
In this nocturnal scene, Saftleven depicted the ritual burning of the Holy Week palms on Shrove Tuesday, the annual event that marks the start of Lent. The ashes were used on Ash Wednesday to paint a cross on the foreheads of worshippers. With brown washes and opaque white watercolour, Saftleven was able convincingly to depict the flickering of the fire on the silhouettes of the crowd dancing around it. According to Schulz, Saftleven drew this scene later in his career, probably somewhere between the 1660s and ’70s.8W. Schulz, Cornelis Saftleven (1607-1685): Leben und Werke, mit einem kritischen Katalog der Gemälde und Zeichnungen, Berlin 1978, pp. 48, 54.
Carolyn Mensing, 2020
Literature
W. Schulz, Cornelis Saftleven (1607-1685): Leben und Werke, mit einem kritischen Katalog der Gemälde und Zeichnungen, Berlin 1978, pp. 48, 54 and 117 (no. 215, fig. 90)
Citation
C. Mensing, 2020, 'Cornelis Saftleven, _, 1617 - 1681', in J. Turner (ed.), _Dutch Drawings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200143927
(accessed 3 augustus 2026 08:59:59 UTC+0).Footnotes
- 1RKD Artists, https://rkd.nl/explore/artists/69245; accessed 20 August 2020.
- 2A. van der Willigen and F.G. Meijer, A Dictionary of Dutch and Flemish Still-Life Painters Working in Oils, 1525-1725, Leiden 2003, p. 175.
- 3N. Schadee, Rotterdamse meesters uit de gouden eeuw, exh. cat. Rotterdam (Historisch Museum) 1994-95, p. 295.
- 4RKD Artists, https://rkd.nl/explore/artists/69245; accessed 20 August 2020.
- 5W. Schulz, “Saftleven family,” (2003), Grove Art Online, https://www.oxfordartonline.com/groveart/view/10.1093/gao/9781884446054.001.0001/oao-9781884446054-e-7000074951; accessed 20 Aug. 2020.
- 6Ibid.
- 7RKD Artists, https://rkd.nl/explore/artists/69245; accessed 20 August 2020.
- 8W. Schulz, Cornelis Saftleven (1607-1685): Leben und Werke, mit einem kritischen Katalog der Gemälde und Zeichnungen, Berlin 1978, pp. 48, 54.