Jan Willemsz Lapp (The Hague (?) 1585/90 or 1605/10 - Amsterdam after 1663)

He is first mentioned in 1625, when he was listed as a member of the Guild of St Luke in The Hague. Based on this, Schatborn estimated that he was born between 1605 and 1610.¹¹P. Schatborn, with J. Verberne, Drawn to Warmth: 17th-century Dutch Artists in Italy, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 2001, p. 184. An earlier birthdate of circa 1585-1690 was suggested by Hoogewerff.²²This is recorded in a typescript note by Marijke de Kinkelder in the RKD; cf. https://rkd.nl/explore/artists/48102.

The circumstances of Lapp’s early training are unknown. A certain ‘Jan Lapp’ is documented in Rome between circa 1603 and circa 1605 among the circle of friends of the Dutch apothecary Hendrik de Raeff (1554-1639), known by the Latinized form of his name, Henricus Corvinus. If this were our artist, he must have belonged to the first generation of Italianate artists and been older than Cornelis van Poelenburch (1594/95-1667), Bartholomeus Breenbergh (1598-1657) and Herman van Swanevelt (c. 1603-1655). His draughtsmanship, however, suggests that he belonged to the second generation of Italianates, a conclusion reinforced by early nineteenth-century auction catalogues, in which he is described as a pupil of Jan Both (1615/22-1652).³³Sale, J.D. Bosch (?-1812 or before, Haarlem), Haarlem (W. Hendriks, A. van der Willigen), 1 June 1812, Album A, no. 16: ‘(…) door Jan Lap leerling van Jan Both.’.

Although a journey to Italy cannot be proven, it is strongly supported by Lapp’s subject-matter and by an Italian inscription ‘Gio lap’ on the back of a painting in the Mauritshuis, The Hague (inv. no. 273). Such a trip to the South must have taken place before 1644, the date from which works by him begin to feature in Amsterdam inventories. He had presumably settled in Amsterdam by then. In 1662, he is documented in Leiden, and the following year again in Amsterdam,⁴⁴Bredius notes at the RKD. the last known record of his activities.

The number of secure works by Lapp, most of which depict Italianate subjects, is small, implying that some paintings and drawings remain hidden in collections under wrong attributions. One such candidate could be a drawn View of an Italian Monastery , currently catalogued as by Willem Schellinks (1623/27-1678), in the Special Collections, Universiteit Leiden (inv. no. PK-T-AW-209). His only dated art work is a painting of a River Landscape (1636), whose present whereabouts are unknown.⁵⁵Sale, Munich (Helbing), 5 June 1924, no. 365. Other paintings include two further examples in the Mauritshuis (inv. nos. 84 and 274), and one in the Dulwich Picture Gallery, London (inv. no. DPG330).⁶⁶R. Beresford, Dulwich Picture Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, coll. cat. London 1998, p. 145. Among his signed drawings are examples in the British Museum, London (inv. no. Gg,2.308),⁷⁷P. Schatborn, with J. Verberne, Drawn to Warmth: 17th-century Dutch Artists in Italy, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 2001, p. 185 (fig. C). the Staatliche Graphische Sammlung, Munich (inv. nos. 1371, 1820, 1821, 11365, 11367),⁸⁸W. Wegner, Die niederländischen Handzeichnungen des 15.-18 Jahrhunderts, 2 vols., coll. cat. Munich (Staatliche Graphische Sammlung) 1973, nos. 685-89. and the Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum, Braunschweig (inv. no. Z 3309).

In the seventeenth century, drawings by Lapp were among the large collection of works on paper assembled by the marine painter Jan van de Capelle (1626-1679), whose 1680 inventory listed ‘Een dito [boek] daerin sijn 11 dito’s [tekeningen] van Jan Lap’ (‘One dito [portfolio] containing 11 ditto [drawings] by Jan Lapp’).⁹⁹A. Bredius, ‘De schilder Johannes van de Capelle’, Oud Holland 10 (1892), no. 1, p. 38. In 1736 six drawn views by the artist were offered at the sale of The Hague burgomaster Samuel van Huls (1655-1734).¹⁰¹⁰Sale, Samuel van Huls (1655-1734, The Hague), The Hague (J. Swart), 14 May 1736, no. 3317 (‘6 vûës par Jean Lap.’).

Annemarie Stefes, 2019

References
R. van Eijnden and A. van der Willigen, Geschiedenis der vaderlandsche schilderkunst, 4 vols., Haarlem 1816-40, I (1816), pp. 226-27; F.D.O. Obreen, Archief voor Nederlandsche kunstgeschiedenis, 7 vols., Rotterdam 1877-90, IV (1881-82), p. 8; A. Bredius, ‘De schilder Johannes van de Capelle’, Oud Holland 10 (1892), no. 1, p. 38; J.A.F. Orbaan, ‘Italië en de Nederlanden’, Oud Holland 23 (1905), no. 1, p. 146; A. von Wurzbach, Niederländisches Künstlerlexikon, 3 vols., Vienna/Leipzig 1906-11, II (1910), p. 14; A. Bredius (ed.), Künstler-Inventare: Urkunden zur Geschichte der holländischen Kunst des XVIten, XVIIten und XVIIIten Jahrhunderts, 8 vols., The Hague 1915-22, V (1918), p. 1546; U. Thieme and F. Becker, Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler: Von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, 37 vols., Leipzig 1907-50, XXII (1928), p. 377; G.J. Hoogewerff, De Bentvueghels, The Hague 1952, p. 31; E. Buijsen (ed.), Haagse schilders in de Gouden Eeuw. Het Hoogsteder Lexicon van alle schilders werkzaam in Den Haag, 1600-1700, Zwolle 1998, p. 323; P. Schatborn, with J. Verberne, Drawn to Warmth: 17th-century Dutch Artists in Italy, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 2001, pp. 184-86