Daniël Boone

Man Eating from an Earthenware Pot

c. 1660 - c. 1680

Inscriptions

  • signature, bottom centre:D BOONE

Scientific examination and reports

  • technical report: G. Tauber, RMA, 30 augustus 2006
  • dendrochronology: P. Klein, RMA, 3 april 2007

Provenance

…; donated by F. Heusy, Kampen, to the museum, 18931NHA, ARS, IS, inv. 173, no. 124 (22 August 1893); NHA, ARS, Kop, no. 290, p. 74, no. 1006 (24 August 1893); NHA, ARS, Kop, no. 290, pp. 91-92, no. 1155 (8 December 1893).

ObjectNumber: SK-A-1600

Credit line: Gift of F. Heusy, Kampen

The artist

Biography

Daniel Boone ((?) Borgerhout (?)1632 - London 1692)

According to Campo Weyerman, Daniel Boone (or Boon or Boontje), painter of low-life scenes, was born in Borgerhout, near Antwerp, in 1632, and was taught by Joos van Craesbeeck, active in Antwerp from 1633/34 until circa 1651 and thereafter, in Brussels. There is no record of his apprenticeship in the St Luke’s guild rosters of either city. Certainly Boone was in Amsterdam by 1654 and in contact then with Reynier Hals (1627-1672), who made a disposition for him and Pieter van Roestraeten (c. 1630-1700).2P. Biesboer et al., Painting in Haarlem 1500-1800: The Collection of the Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem 2006, p. 188. But there is no further reference to Boone in the extensive archival material relating to Hals, and the styles of the two artists as far as can be judged are not close.3P. Biesboer et al., Painting in Haarlem 1500-1800: The Collection of the Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem 2006, pp. 493-94, nos. 190-92, for his three known, signed paintings. In Amsterdam Boone may also have known Egbert van Heemskerk I (c. 1634-1704), who bore witness for Hals there in 1661, and was to remain on and off in Amsterdam for the rest of the decade before leaving for England in the 1670s.4P. Biesboer et al., Painting in Haarlem 1500-1800: The Collection of the Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem 2006, p. 196. Sometime during the reign of King Charles II (1660-85), Boone also moved to London;5S. Kollmann, Niederländische Künstler und Kunst im London des 17. Jahrhunderts, Hildersheim/Zürich/New York 2000, p. 159, gives the date as shortly after 1665; ninety-nine paintings by him were offered at London auctions between 1689 and 1692 as calculated by S. Karst, ‘Off to a New Cockaigne: Dutch Migrant Artists in London 1660-1715’, Simiolus 37 (2013-14), pp. 25-60, esp. p. 32. there Jan Griffier (1652 or 1656-1718), who was in London from 1666, is traditionally thought to have etched his portrait.6Two etched portraits of Boone by Griffier are recorded; one, in A. Griffiths, The Print in Stuart Britain 1603-1689, exh. cat. London (British Museum) 1998, no. 183, is incorrectly identified, as it is after Terbrugghen at second-hand, see L.J. Slatkes and W. Franits, The Paintings of Hendrick ter Brugghen (1588-1629): Catalogue Raisonné, Amsterdam/Philadelphia 2007, p. 202, replica 7. A second ‘playing on a violin, with asses braying owls screeching’ was described as ‘very rare’ in the Edward Martin (†) sale, London (Sotheby’s), 23 June 1854, no. 690. The posthumous sale of Boone’s collection was advertised in the London Gazette, 22 September 1692.

REFERENCES
J. Campo Weyerman, De levens-beschrijvingen der nederlandsche konst-schilders en konst-schilderessen, met een uytbreyding over de schilder-konst der ouden: Verrijkt met de konterfeytsels der voornamate konst-schilders en konst-schilderessen in koper gesneden door J. Houbraken, 4 vols., The Hague/Dordrecht 1729-69, IV, pp. 307-314; A. Griffiths, The Print in Stuart Britain 1603-1689, exh. cat. London (British Museum) 1998, under no. 183

Entry

This undistinguished work is typical of the little that is known of Boone’s oeuvre; the handling is more suggestive of Egbert van Heemskerk I (c. 1634-1704) than any other known Flemish painter of the time. Van Heemskerk was active from the early 1660s in Amsterdam and thereabouts and in London from the early 1670s,7P. Biesboer et al., Painting in Haarlem 1500-1800: The Collection of the Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem 2006, p. 196. and his Old Man Smoking in the Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem, which has been dated to the 1680s, is comparable to the present work.8P. Biesboer et al., Painting in Haarlem 1500-1800: The Collection of the Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem 2006, p. 497, no. 202. A common source of influence may have been the work of Adriaen van Ostade (1610-1685), who was active in Haarlem; noteworthy, for instance, is a Peasant Holding a Jug and a Pipe by him in the National Gallery of circa 1650-55.9N. MacLaren, National Gallery Catalogues: The Dutch School 1600-1900, revised and expanded by C. Brown, 2 vols., London 1991, p. 301, no. 2543. There is also a connection in the treatment of low-life scenes with works by David Teniers II (1610-1690) from the 1660s.10Cf. Two Boors, Musée du Louvre, Paris, illustrated in M. Klinge and D. Lüdke (eds.), David Teniers der Jüngere 1610-1690: Alltag und Vergnügen in Flandern, exh. cat. Karlsruhe (Staatlichen Kunsthalle Karlsruhe) 2005-06, under no. 51, and the Boor Resting in a Landscape, see idem, no. 96.

There are no extant dated works by Boone and few by Van Heemskerk, so proposing a date of execution for the Rijksmuseum Man Eating is difficult. The handling is similar to that in Men Playing Cards in a Tavern (SK-A-987). Both may be works of the 1660s or later.

Gregory Martin, 2022

Collection catalogues

1903, p. 56, no. 561; 1976, p. 128, no. A 1600

Citation

G. Martin, 2022, 'Daniël Boone, Man Eating from an Earthenware Pot, c. 1660 - c. 1680', in Flemish Paintings in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.6125

(accessed 26 April 2025 19:27:26).

Footnotes

  • 1NHA, ARS, IS, inv. 173, no. 124 (22 August 1893); NHA, ARS, Kop, no. 290, p. 74, no. 1006 (24 August 1893); NHA, ARS, Kop, no. 290, pp. 91-92, no. 1155 (8 December 1893).
  • 2P. Biesboer et al., Painting in Haarlem 1500-1800: The Collection of the Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem 2006, p. 188.
  • 3P. Biesboer et al., Painting in Haarlem 1500-1800: The Collection of the Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem 2006, pp. 493-94, nos. 190-92, for his three known, signed paintings.
  • 4P. Biesboer et al., Painting in Haarlem 1500-1800: The Collection of the Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem 2006, p. 196.
  • 5S. Kollmann, Niederländische Künstler und Kunst im London des 17. Jahrhunderts, Hildersheim/Zürich/New York 2000, p. 159, gives the date as shortly after 1665; ninety-nine paintings by him were offered at London auctions between 1689 and 1692 as calculated by S. Karst, ‘Off to a New Cockaigne: Dutch Migrant Artists in London 1660-1715’, Simiolus 37 (2013-14), pp. 25-60, esp. p. 32.
  • 6Two etched portraits of Boone by Griffier are recorded; one, in A. Griffiths, The Print in Stuart Britain 1603-1689, exh. cat. London (British Museum) 1998, no. 183, is incorrectly identified, as it is after Terbrugghen at second-hand, see L.J. Slatkes and W. Franits, The Paintings of Hendrick ter Brugghen (1588-1629): Catalogue Raisonné, Amsterdam/Philadelphia 2007, p. 202, replica 7. A second ‘playing on a violin, with asses braying owls screeching’ was described as ‘very rare’ in the Edward Martin (†) sale, London (Sotheby’s), 23 June 1854, no. 690.
  • 7P. Biesboer et al., Painting in Haarlem 1500-1800: The Collection of the Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem 2006, p. 196.
  • 8P. Biesboer et al., Painting in Haarlem 1500-1800: The Collection of the Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem 2006, p. 497, no. 202.
  • 9N. MacLaren, National Gallery Catalogues: The Dutch School 1600-1900, revised and expanded by C. Brown, 2 vols., London 1991, p. 301, no. 2543.
  • 10Cf. Two Boors, Musée du Louvre, Paris, illustrated in M. Klinge and D. Lüdke (eds.), David Teniers der Jüngere 1610-1690: Alltag und Vergnügen in Flandern, exh. cat. Karlsruhe (Staatlichen Kunsthalle Karlsruhe) 2005-06, under no. 51, and the Boor Resting in a Landscape, see idem, no. 96.