Carved in relief from several pieces of deal and oak (the part of the cartouche with the portrait) and originally painted. A few leaves are made in lead.

There is some damage, particularly to the top sprig of leaves. The wood has been leached out to remove the paintwork.

Commissioned by Isaak Tirion (1705-1755), for the façade of his book shop at 10 Kalverstraat, Amsterdam, c. 1742; from his widow, with the shop, acquired by Gerrit de Groot (d. 1771), 1769; with the shop, to his son Jan de Groot, 1771; with the shop, acquired by Pieter den Hengst, 1790; with the shop, acquired by Johannes Müller (1786-1853), 1832/33; with the shop, to his son Christiaan Müller (1824-1883); removed from the façade and donated to the Koninklijk Oudheidkundig Genootschap, Amsterdam, by his brother-in-law Sybrand Jan Hingst (1834-1897), 1883;¹¹Amsterdam, Amsterdam Museum, inv. nos. BA 3753.1 and BA 3753.2, see M. Jonker et al., In beeld gebracht: Beeldhouwkunst uit de collectie van het Amsterdams Historisch Museum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1995, nos. 237 and 238. on loan to the museum, since 1885

Object number: BK-KOG-760

Credit line: On loan from the Koninklijk Oudheidkundig Genootschap

This richly decorated trefoil façade decoration with the portrait of the seventeenth-century writer and lawyer, Hugo de Groot (also known as Grotius) comes off the lower front of 10 Kalverstaat in Amsterdam. The building has a wealth of book-related history.²²See J.F. Heijbroek, ‘Bij de voorplaat: Het Bibliopolium aan de Kalverstraat’, De Boekenwereld 11 (1994-95), pp. 154-59 and P. Vlaardingerbroek, ‘Kalverstraat 10: Boeken, kunst en koffie’, Binnenstad, Uitgave van de Vereniging Vrienden van de Amsterdamse Binnenstad 48 (2014), pp. 68-69. From 1662 to 1883 it housed a succession of important publishing companies and bookstores, including those of Clement de Jonghe (1624-1677), Johan Hendrik Wetstein (1649-1726) and his sons, the Wetstein brothers, Isaak Tirion (1705-1755), Johannes Müller (1786-1853) and his son Christiaan Müller (1824-1883). After the latter’s death, the building was to serve a different purpose and lower part of the façade was supplanted by a neo-Renaissance store front. The façade decoration, together with a gable stone of the Wetstein brothers bearing the year 1728 taken from the rear façade (KOG-ALS-60), was rescued by Sybrand Jan Hingst, a brother-in-law of the last owner and presented to the Koninklijk Oudheidkundig Genootschap (KOG).³³Note RMA and J.F. Heijbroek, ‘Bij de voorplaat: Het Bibliopolium aan de Kalverstraat’, De Boekenwereld 11 (1994-95), pp. 154-59, esp. p. 158. Sybrand Jan Hingst was married to Christiaan Müller’s sister, Margaretha Catharina Müller.

A painting by Isaak Ouwater of 1779 (SK-A-4026) shows the relief still at its original location above the entrance of 10 Kalverstraat.⁴⁴In the Rijksprentenkabinet there are two watercolours after this work by Ouwater: inv. nos. RP-T-1921-462 and -463. At that time the building was owned by Jan de Groot, who used it as a bookstore-cum-lottery office. With the exception of the grey-blue background around the portrait, the wooden relief was painted cream, in the same colour as the stone of the façade. It is not known whether they were the original colours, at some stage the paintwork was completely removed.

The well-known publisher-bookseller Isaak Tirion moved into the building in the Kalverstraat in 1742. According to a misconception in the nineteenth-century historical, genealogical and literary research magazine De Navorscher he had taken the present relief from his former dwelling at Amsterdam’s Nieuwendijk, and placed it into the façade of his new shop in the Kalverstraat.⁵⁵V.H. and anonymous, ‘Een huis in de Kalverstraat te Amsterdam’, De Navorscher 11 (1861), p. 319. The author mistakenly referred to ‘a bust with the name Hugo Grotius above it, carved in stone’. The entire relief is carved from wood. We are also told that the Wetstein gable stone that adorned the façade until then was moved to the rear façade.⁶⁶A.M. Ledeboer, ‘Geschiedenis der Letterkunde’, De Navorscher 21 (1871), p. 244.

In 1728, the year recorded on the Wetstein gable stone (KOG-ALS-60), the premises had undergone a thorough restoration, which entailed adapting the entire façade in the Kalverstraat and adding the present gable top with busts of Minerva and Mercury. The Wetstein façade decoration was indeed moved to the back of the building at Jonge Roelensteeg.⁷⁷J.F. Heijbroek, ‘Bij de voorplaat: Het Bibliopolium aan de Kalverstraat’, De Boekenwereld 11 (1994-95), pp. 154-59, esp. p. 155. That decoration was taken down in 1883, together with the one featured here, and handed over to the KOG.⁸⁸Amsterdam, Koninklijk Oudheidkundig Genootschap, inv. no. KOG-ALS-60, see J.F. Heijbroek, ‘Bij de voorplaat: Het Bibliopolium aan de Kalverstraat’, De Boekenwereld 11 (1994-95), pp. 154-59, esp. p. 155.

Although hanging signs, gable stones or other façade decorations quite often moved with their owners to new premises (they were very useful means of identification, since prior to 1796 house numbers were not used in the Netherlands), it is more than likely that in this case Tirion had a completely new sign made for his shop in the Kalverstraat. In fact the measurements of the present façade decoration are a perfect match to fit in the space between the two corbels of the existing lower front. Stylistically too, it is far more plausible that the carving was done around 1742. In 1730, when Tirion moved into his old premises at Nieuwendijk, the highly naturalistic form of the grasses and bulrushes in the background was not yet fashionable in Amsterdam.⁹⁹With thanks to Reinier Baarsen for this observation.

Isaak Tirion was the publisher of Jan Wagenaar’s Tegenwoordige Staat der Vereenigde Nederlanden, amongst other things. Clearly he was fond of his façade decoration, because he used a print after the relief for the title page of the volume on the province of Holland he published in 1744.¹⁰¹⁰E.A. van Beresteyn, Iconographie van Hugo Grotius, The Hague 1929, p. 115, no. 131; for Jacob Wetstein’s and Hermanus de Witt’s publisher emblems which are inspired by Tirion’s relief, see J.F. Heijbroek, ‘Bij de voorplaat: Het Bibliopolium aan de Kalverstraat’, De Boekenwereld 11 (1994-95), pp. 154-59, esp. pp. 155, 158 (ill.). His association with the political martyr, Hugo de Groot, probably stemmed from the republican sympathies that he, as the publisher of Jan Wagenaar, is almost bound to have had.¹¹¹¹P. Hoftijzer, ‘‘In de Wereld vol Druckx’: Drukkers en boekverkopers en hun uithangtekens’, De Boekenwereld 4 (1987-88), pp. 42-53, p. 48.

Grotius’ likeness derives from the portrait that Michiel Jansz van Mierevelt (1566-1641) painted of him in 1631 (SK-A-581) and a year later was made into a print (RP-P-OB-50.076) by Willem Jacbsz van Delff (1580-1638). On the façade decoration, the cartouche with the portrait is flanked by two female sphinxes and two hovering putti holding attributes that refer to the business that was established in the building: an open book and two tampon pads for inking the type.

Fischer convincingly associated the decoration with Frans Blancard (1704-1744) on stylistic grounds.¹²¹²J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, p. 289. This Bremen-born designer and sculptor of architectural ornaments settled in Amsterdam around 1726 where he worked in Dutch regency style.¹³¹³For Blancard, see P.J.E. Luykx, ‘Frans Blancard, een beeldhouwer te Amsterdam ten tijde van Marot’, in Miscellanea I.Q. van Regteren Altena, Amsterdam 1969, pp. 178-82. A preliminary study, signed by him and dated 1736, of an unrealized end piece for the façade of 387 Herengracht (fig. a) contains a number of close parallels with Tirion’s decoration. For instance, it has very similar volutes decorated with acanthus leaf, and is also flanked by sphinxes.¹⁴¹⁴R. Meischke et al., Huizen in Nederland: Amsterdam, Zwolle/Amsterdam 1995, fig. 192.

Bieke van der Mark, 2025

A.M. Ledeboer, ‘Geschiedenis der Letterkunde’, De Navorscher 21 (1871), pp. 239-45, esp. p. 244; J.J.M. Timmers, ‘Achtenveertig eeuwen beeldhouwkunst in hout’, in W. Boerhave Beekman et al., Hout in alle tijden, II: Bossen, bomen en toegepast hout in het verleden, Deventer 1949, pp. 597-772, esp. p. 745; J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 401, with earlier literature; P. Hoftijzer, ‘‘In de Wereld vol Druckx’: Drukkers en boekverkopers en hun uithangtekens’, De Boekenwereld 4 (1987-88), pp. 42-53, p. 48; J.F. Heijbroek, ‘Bij de voorplaat: Het Bibliopolium aan de Kalverstraat’, De Boekenwereld 11 (1994-95), pp. 154-59, esp. pp. 154-55, 158

B. van der Mark, 2025, 'Frans Blanchard, Façade Decoration with a Bust of Hugo de Groot (1583-1645), Northern Netherlands, c. 1742', in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/20058137