A Company of Country Folk

Support The panel consists of three horizontally grained, butt-joined oak planks (approx. 14, 31.6 and 16.4 cm), approx. 0.8 cm thick. The left edge has been trimmed slightly. The reverse is bevelled on all sides and has regularly spaced saw marks and plane marks. Dendrochronology has shown that the youngest heartwood ring was formed in 1627. The panel could have been ready for use by 1638, but a date in or after 1644 is more likely.
Preparatory layers The double ground extends over the edges of the support at the top and bottom and on the right, but not over the left edge. The first layer consists solely of fine white pigments. The second, beige ground is composed of white pigment particles varying in size, and black and earth pigments.
Underdrawing No underdrawing could be detected with the naked eye or infrared photography.
Paint layers The paint extends over the top, bottom and right edges of the support, but not over the left edge. The translucent brown-grey first lay-in of the composition is visible where the paint layers were applied very thinly, for example in the hair of the man raising his glass, but especially in the shadows. Reserves were left for the architecture as well as the figures and animals in the foreground, which have bright rims where they were not entirely filled out. The blue jacket of the figure seen from behind is the best example of this phenomenon. The rooftop overgrowth, the birds and the beams jutting out of the building were painted over the sky. Distinct fine dots and white stripes were placed as highlights on several objects, for example the pot of embers. Infrared photography revealed that the arm of the man draped over the shoulder of the woman in the foreground was added at a later stage.
Anna Krekeler, 2023

Good. The grain of the wood shows through the paint layers.

…; ? sale, Amsterdam, 8 October 1700, no. 40 (‘Kaertspeelders, van Kornelis Zagtleven, 41-10’);¹¹G. Hoet, Catalogus of naamlyst van schilderyen, met derzelver pryzen zedert een langen reeks van jaaren zoo in Holland als op andere plaatzen in het openbaar verkogt: Benevens een verzameling van lysten van verscheyden nog in wezen zynde cabinetten, I, The Hague 1752, p. 61.…; sale, Hendrik Muilman (1743-1812, Amsterdam), Amsterdam (P. van der Schley et al.), 12 April 1813 sqq., no. 139, as D. Rijckaert (‘Hoog 25, breed 32 duimen [65 x 83.2 cm] Paneel. In een Boeren Landschap, ziet men aan eene Tafel, een Monnik Kaart spelende, nevens hem vrolijke, spelende en zingende Boeren, ter zijde een liefkosend paar, in het verschiet een weg en Dorpstoren, op den voorgrond eenige Beesten […] in den trant van Teniers geschilderd.’), bought in at fl. 245 (last bidder Willem Ferdinand Mogge Muilman);²²Copy RKD. probate inventory, his daughter, Maria Henrietta Schuijt-Muilman (1788-1813), Amsterdam, as Rijckaert (‘Een landschap met boeren door Rijckaard in vergulde lijst, driehonderd zeven en zestig francs vijftig centimes’), 26 April 1813;³³SA, NA 20080B, notary T.M. de Man, no. 413. her brother, Willem Ferdinand Mogge Muilman (1778-1849), Amsterdam; his wife, Magdalena Antonia Muilman (1788-1853), Amsterdam; her daughter, Anna Maria van de Poll-Mogge Muilman (1811-1878), Amsterdam; her stepson, Jacobus Salomon Hendrik van de Poll (1837-1880), Amsterdam; by whom bequeathed to the museum, as David Rijckaert, with 49 other paintings, 2 July 1880⁴⁴NHA, ARS, IS, inv. 162, no. 367 (21 June 1880); NHA, ARM, Kop., inv. 39, p. 288, nos. 36 (26 June 1880), 37 (29 June 1880); NHA, ARS, IS, inv. 162, no. 370 (30 June 1880); NHA, ARM, Kop., inv. 39, p. 289, nos. 39 (3 July 1880), 41 (9 July 1880); NHA, ARS, IS, inv. 162, no. 371 (15 July 1880); NHA, ARM, Kop., inv. 39, p. 291, no. 50 (10 August 1880). Provenance reconstructed by C. van der Bas, ‘Stage-verslag Rijksmuseum’, 2003 (unpub. typescript in Rijksmuseum archives).

ObjectNumber: SK-A-715

Credit line: Jonkheer J.S.H. van de Poll Bequest, Amsterdam

This painting of 1642 shows Cornelis Saftleven at his best.⁶⁶The dendrochronology suggests a slightly later date, but does not rule out 1642; see Technical notes. Seven men, among them a friar in his habit, are seated around a table out of doors. They are drinking, playing cards and singing to the strains of a violin. Behind them on the right a man is fondling a woman. The rather overgrown structure on the left looks like a dilapidated town gate or part of a church, although the barrel and overturned pitcher suggest that it is the entrance to a tavern. A picture by Saftleven of a company outside an inn that is very closely related in subject and composition is now in Stockholm.⁷⁷Nationalmuseum; illustrated in G. Cavalli-Björkman, C. Fryklund and K. Side´n, Dutch and Flemish Paintings, II: Dutch Paintings c. 1600-c. 1800, coll. cat. Stockholm (Nationalmuseum) 2005, p. 436. It is dated to around the same time as the Rijksmuseum painting by W. Schulz, Cornelis Saftleven, 1607-1681: Leben und Werke: Mit einem kritischen Katalog der Gemälde und Zeichnungen, Berlin 1978, p. 28. There, too, is a frater, but now playing a violin.⁸⁸A third, slightly earlier example of a group of smoking and card-playing peasants with a friar is in Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Gemäldegalerie; illustrated in W. Schulz, Cornelis Saftleven, 1607-1681: Leben und Werke: Mit einem kritischen Katalog der Gemälde und Zeichnungen, Berlin 1978, fig. 18.

The prominence given to the friar with the playing cards, who is clearly enjoying the worldly entertainment, is a sign that this is a satirical scene.⁹⁹C. Brown, ‘...Niet ledighs of ydels...’: Nederlandse genreschilders uit de 17e eeuw, Amsterdam 1984, p. 185, interprets the presence of the ‘portly friar’ as a ‘gibe at the corruptibility of the Catholic clergy’. See ibid., p. 282, where is noted that priests were forbidden to visit taverns, play cards or dice, and smoke. Saftleven may have added the figure walking towards his peasant cart on the right, with a church tower in background, as a contrast to this dissolute gathering. It has been noted that the man in the white shirt bears a striking similarity to portraits and self-portraits of the artist.¹⁰¹⁰R. Priem, Dutch Masters from the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, exh. cat. Melbourne (National Gallery of Victoria) 2005, p. 212. See, for example, the portrait of Cornelis and Herman Saftleven in Vienna, Akademie der bildenden Künste; illustrated in J. Kiers et al., The Glory of the Golden Age: Dutch Art of the 17th Century: Painting, Sculpture and Decorative Art, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 2000, p. 62. Also Anthony van Dyck’s portrait drawing of Cornelis Saftleven in the Amsterdam Museum; illustrated in M. Schapelhouman, Oude tekeningen in het bezit van de Gemeentemusea van Amsterdam waaronder de collectie Fodor, II: Tekeningen van Noord- en Zuidnederlandse kunstenaars geboren voor 1600, coll. cat. Amsterdam (Amsterdams Historisch Museum) 1979, p. 36. It is very possible that he did indeed include himself here, and it cannot be ruled out that there are more likenesses in this cheerful company.¹¹¹¹For artists’ portraits in tavern scenes, see K. de Clippel, ‘Adriaen Brouwer, Portrait Painter: New Identifications and an Iconographic Novelty’, Simiolus 30 (2003), pp. 196-216. Given Saftleven’s ties to Antwerp artists, Adriaen Brouwer’s painting in The Metropolitan Museum in New York, in which he portrayed himself and four colleagues smoking and drinking, as well as other examples cited by De Clippel, could be an important pointer to the interpretation of the Rijksmuseum scene. As is so often the case with depictions of merrymaking in inns, there are logical associations with the five senses. Here the drinker on the left could symbolize taste, the man holding the pipe smell, with the fiddler, the friar and the couple behind him standing for hearing, sight and touch respectively.

Saftleven was an excellent figure painter, as well as a gifted artist in the rendering of animals. Here, the ones in the foreground, particularly the recumbent dog with her pups, are executed with a great feeling for detail. The contrast between the carefully elaborated and colourful men around the table and the monochrome landscape reinforces the sense of depth. Details that are typical of Saftleven are the abundant secondary subjects spread on the ground and motifs like the dovecote, the cart, and the many nails sticking out all over the walls and fencing.¹²¹²For that latter detail see also SK-A-1588. There is a preliminary drawing for the cart in Rotterdam, believed to be an autograph sketch.¹³¹³Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, inv. no. 11, as Dutch School, 17th century. The Rijksmuseum has a sketchbook of a later date (1666), with the same cart drawn on fol. 3r, see RP-T-1990-158-3; that version appears to be the final, finished one.

Saftleven may have got the idea of setting the scene out of doors from models produced in Flanders, whereas his contemporaries usually placed such companies in taverns.¹⁴¹⁴See, for example, Pieter Brueghel’s Peasants Fighting over a Game of Cards, known from Lucas Vorsterman’s print; illustrated in F.W.H. Hollstein et al., Dutch and Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts ca. 1450-1700, XLIII, Roosendaal 1993, p. 123, no. 126. Saftleven may have spent some time in Antwerp around 1632-34; see Biography. The Flemish nature of this painting also explains why it was thought to be by David Rijckaert II in the nineteenth century and was compared to work by David Teniers II.¹⁵¹⁵See Provenance. In 1813 the picture was in the same collection as a kermis scene by Teniers, the composition of which has many similarities to Saftleven’s work; illustrated in C. van der Bas, ‘The Muilman Collection: The Progressive Taste of an Eighteenth-Century Banking Family’, Simiolus 32 (2006), pp. 156-81, esp. p. 176. Schulz observed that Cornelis Saftleven owed a debt to his brother Herman for the rendering of the architecture and the background landscape.¹⁶¹⁶W. Schulz, Cornelis Saftleven, 1607-1681: Leben und Werke: Mit einem kritischen Katalog der Gemälde und Zeichnungen, Berlin 1978, p. 28.

Gerdien Wuestman, 2023

See Key to abbreviations, Rijksmuseum painting catalogues and Acknowledgements

W. Schulz, Cornelis Saftleven, 1607-1681: Leben und Werke: Mit einem kritischen Katalog der Gemälde und Zeichnungen, Berlin 1978, pp. 28, 228-29, no. 648

1880, pp. 494-95, no. 316a; 1887, p. 150, no. 1262; 1903, p. 235, no. 2101; 1934, p. 254, no. 2101; 1976, p. 492, no. A 715

Gerdien Wuestman, 2023, 'Cornelis Saftleven, A Company of Country Folk, 1642', in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.5355