Karel Dujardin (Amsterdam 1626 – 1678 Venice)

He was baptized in Amsterdam’s Lutheran Church on 27 September 1626. His father, Charles de Jardin or Gardyn (c. 1599-before 1650), worked as fat renderer. His mother, Catalijn Borchout (1588-before 1650), was originally from Antwerp. Karel grew up in a house at the Ossemarkt on the Kalverstraat. There is no documentary evidence to confirm any of the names proposed in the literature as his possible teacher – Nicolaes Berchem (1621-1683; according to Houbraken), Pieter van Laer (1599-1642; according to Brochhagen) and Paulus Potter (1625-1654, according to Smith). The only serious candidate could be his second cousin, the portrait painter Pieter Nason (1612-1689).

In 1648-49 Dujardin was apparently in Lyon, where, according to Houbraken, he met his wife, the widow Suzanne van Royen [Susanna van Roy] (1606-1678), manager of an inn that catered to travelling artists. Houbraken further stated that their wedding took place in Lyon, but in fact they married in Paris on 24 December 1649.⁵⁵D. Mandrella, ‘Karel du Jardin à Paris’, in E. Buijsen et al. (eds.), Face Book: Studies on Dutch and Flemish Portraiture of the 16th-18th Centuries: Liber Amicorum Presented to Rudolf E.O. Ekkart on the Occasion of his 65th Birthday, Leiden 2012, p. 287 (n. 7). On 29 August 1650, Dujardin signed a deed in Amsterdam, describing himself as a merchant on his way to Paris.⁶⁶J.M. Kilian, The Paintings of Karel Du Jardin (1626-1678): Catalogue raisonné, Amsterdam 2005, p. 7. He was back in Amsterdam by February 1651, and on 15 September 1652 he and his wife drew up their wills. This might have been prompted by the illness from which Karel was evidently then suffering,⁷⁷Dujardin was indeed bedridden at that time; ibid., p. 8. or it could also have reflected his intention to travel to Italy.⁸⁸An earlier trip in the mid-1640s (see E. Brochhagen, Karel Dujardin: Ein Beitrag zum Italianismus in Holland im 17. Jahrhundert, Cologne 1958 (PhD diss., Universität zu Köln), pp. 2-3, 19) is highly unlikely, for, as J.M. Kilian, The Paintings of Karel Du Jardin (1626-1678): Catalogue raisonné, Amsterdam 2005, p. 75 pointed out, the family’s financial shortage would hardly have allowed such a trip. A View of the Piazza S. Maria Maggiore, Rome, signed and dated 1653, in the Frits Lugt Collection, Fondation Custodia, Paris (inv. no. 2778), might have resulted from such a trip, even if short, as was recently suggested.⁹⁹P. Schatborn, with J. Verberne, Drawn to Warmth: 17th-century Dutch Artists in Italy, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 2001, Amsterdam 2001, pp. 154-55, fig. B; this suggestion was supported by D. Mandrella, ‘Karel du Jardin à Paris’, in E. Buijsen et al. (eds.), Face Book: Studies on Dutch and Flemish Portraiture of the 16th-18th Centuries: Liber Amicorum Presented to Rudolf E.O. Ekkart on the Occasion of his 65th Birthday, Leiden 2012, p. 290.

In November 1655, Karel was again recorded in Amsterdam. The following year, he moved to The Hague, where he was a founder-member of the artists’ confraternity Confrerie Pictura. After a two-and-a-half-year stay, Dujardin was back Amsterdam by May 1659. There, he became a successful painter, not only producing landscapes and cattle pieces, as in his earlier years, but also portraits and history scenes. Among his clients were merchants, regents and naval heroes. Dujardin was among the artists celebrated by Cornelis de Bie (Gulden Cabinet, 1661), and his painting of The Calvary (1662), now in the Musée du Louvre, Paris (inv. no. 1393),¹⁰¹⁰J.M. Kilian, The Paintings of Karel Du Jardin (1626-1678): Catalogue raisonné, Amsterdam 2005, no. 77. was praised in a poem by Jan Vos (c. 1610-1667). In 1672, he was among the artists consulted as an expert witness on Italian art in the famous ‘Uylenburgh controversy’ concerning the authenticity and worth of paintings in the collection of his patron, Joan Reynst (1636-1695). Dujardin’s financial success is revealed by the fact that in 1670 he purchased two pieces of property on the Kerkstraat.¹¹¹¹F.D.O. Obreen, Archief voor Nederlandsche kunstgeschiedenis, 7 vols., Rotterdam 1877-90, V (1882-1883), p. 15. In 1673, he and his wife are recorded as living on the Nieuwe Keizersgracht, a newly erected neighbourhood.

Together with Joan’s younger brothers Gerard Reynst (?-?) and Abraham van Reynst (?-?), Dujardin travelled to Italy 1675-78, his only securely documented trip to the south. The group left the Netherlands by ship from Texel Island,¹²¹²J. Bikker, ‘Sir Joan Reynst, his good acquaintance, neighbour, and landlord’: Truth and Fantasy in Houbraken’s Life of Karel du Jardin’, Burlington Magazine 151 (2009), no. 1271, pp. 90-97. stopping en route in Dunkirk (17 August); Dover and Portsmouth, England (27 August); Lisbon (23 September); Tangiers and Algiers (14 October), whence Reynst returned to the Netherlands. Dujardin continued on to Rome, where he worked from 1675 to 1678. He died during a trip to Venice, probably from food poisoning, and was buried there on 9 October 1678. Only a few days later, his wife died in Amsterdam.

Karel Dujardin left more than 150 paintings. His drawn oeuvre is considerably smaller, with circa 35 fully accepted drawings and 20 attributed works.¹³¹³M. Gruijs, De tekeningen van Karel Dujardin (1626-1678), Utrecht 2003 (M.A. thesis, Universiteit Utrecht), p. 19. He had only two documented pupils, Martinus Laeckman (active 1658) in The Hague in 1658 and Erick van der Weerelt or Wilke (1648-1711), an orphan, in Amsterdam in 1668.

Annemarie Stefes, 2017

References
C. de Bie, Het gulden cabinet vande edele vry schilder-const, Antwerp 1661; A. Houbraken, De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen, 3 vols., Amsterdam 1718-218-21, III (1721), pp. 56-61; E. Brochhagen, Karel Dujardin: Ein Beitrag zum Italianismus in Holland im 17. Jahrhundert, Cologne 1958 (PhD diss., Universität zu Köln); P. Schatborn, with J. Verberne, Drawn to Warmth: 17th-century Dutch Artists in Italy, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 2001, pp. 154-60; M. Gruijs, De tekeningen van Karel Dujardin (1626-1678), Utrecht 2003 (M.A. thesis, Universiteit Utrecht), pp. 3-9; Kilian 2005, pp. 3-16; D. Mandrella, ‘Karel du Jardin à Paris’, in E. Buijsen et al. (eds.), Face Book: Studies on Dutch and Flemish Portraiture of the 16th-18th Centuries: Liber Amicorum Presented to Rudolf E.O. Ekkart on the Occasion of his 65th Birthday, Leiden 2012, pp. 285-92; RKD artists https://rkd.nl/artists/24701