Bartholomeus van Bassen, Esaias van de Velde

A Company in an Interior

c. 1622 - c. 1624

Inscriptions

  • signature, lower right, on the door (V and B ligated):vBassen

Technical notes

The support is an oak panel consisting of three horizontally grained planks and is bevelled on all sides. Dendrochronology has shown that the youngest heartwood ring was formed in 1604. The panel could have been ready for use by 1615, but a date in or after 1621 is more likely. The ground layer is off-white. Some of the linear underdrawing for the architecture is visible, most notably in the marble tiled floor. The central vanishing point, marked by a tiny hole, is visible in the fireplace. The paint was applied opaquely, with impasto in the highlights, for instance along the outlines of the columns. No reserves were made for the figures. The images of the paintings hanging on the walls were filled in after their frames were completed.

Scientific examination and reports

  • dendrochronology: P. Klein, RMA, 22 september 2003
  • technical report: I. Verslype, RMA, 3 februari 2005

Condition

Fair. There are several damaged areas and cracks in the panel along the upper panel join. The paint is generally very stable, but that of the figures is cupped and has lifted from the background paint. There is a loss in the face of the figure seated on the far left in the background. The paint of the figures has become transparent.

Conservation

  • H.C. Coen, 1985: complete restoration

Provenance

...; ? collection Christiaan Kramm (1797-1875), Utrecht, 1857 (‘Ik bezit eene zeer groote schilderij van hem, en wel eene zijner rijkste compositiën, voorstellende eene zaal, welke men in het Engelsch een Hall zou noemen, waar de pracht van architectuur en meubelen van dien tijd tot de hoogste weelde is opgevoerd. Daar zijn aan eene tafel, bij de zijlichten, gezeten drie dames en twee heeren, een banket gebruikende, terwijl op den voorgrond twee dames en een heer uit muziek-boeken zingen, en door een op de cither spelenden heer worden geaccompagneerd [...]’);1Kramm I, 1857, p. 57. ? his (†) sale, at the premises (J.L. Beyers), 7 (15) December 1875 sqq., no. 1, as Bertholt van Bassen (‘In eene prachtige zaal (Hall) houdt een jeugdig gezelschap een luisterrijk feest. Op den voorgrond eene groep beelden, die voor de muziek en zang daar geplaatst zijn. [...] Op de deur regts, vóóraan, met zijnen naam beteekend. H. 0.69, br. 0.99. Paneel, in verg. lijst.’), fl. 300;2Copy RMA....; purchased by J.H. Balfoort for the Nederlandsch Museum voor Geschiedenis en Kunst, The Hague, 1876;3Note RMA. transferred to the museum, February 1885; on loan to the Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem, since 2004

ObjectNumber: SK-A-864

The artist

Biography

Bartholomeus van Bassen (? c. 1590 - The Hague 1652)

Bartholomeus van Bassen’s place and date of birth are unknown, but it is assumed that he was born around 1590. He was probably a grandson of Bartolt Ernst van Bassen from Arnhem, who was clerk of the Court of Holland in The Hague from 1557 to 1585. It was thought for a long time that Van Bassen came from Antwerp on account of the Flemish influences in his early work, and because the writer Horace Walpole called him ‘B. van Bassen of Antwerp’. This, combined with the fact that when he enrolled as a painter in the Delft guild on 21 October 1613 it was noted against his name that he came from outside the town, suggests that he trained in Antwerp. The name of Hendrik Aerts as his possible teacher has been put forward on several occasions.

In 1622 Van Bassen became a member of the Guild of St Luke in The Hague, the city where he lived for the rest of his life. On 29 January 1624 he married Aeltje Pieters van Gilst. He became dean of the guild three years later, and warden in 1636 and 1640-41. He had been in contact with the Utrecht painter Cornelis van Poelenburch, and in 1652 his son Aernoudt married one of Van Poelenburch’s daughters.

Van Bassen also worked as an architect, and projects on which he acted in that capacity or as supervisor of the works were the palace for Frederick V, Elector Palatine, in Rhenen (1629-31), the stadholder’s palaces of Honselaarsdijk and Huis ter Nieuburch for Frederik Hendrik (1630-33), and the hall of the St Sebastian civic guard in The Hague (1636-38). On 17 October 1638 he was appointed city architect, and in that role was responsible for adding a tower to the town hall (1647), and for building the Boterwaag weigh-house (1649-50) and 20 bridges. On 28 November 1652, more than six months after his wife’s death, he was buried in the Grote or St Jacobskerk in The Hague.

Van Bassen was an architectural painter, mostly of the interiors of churches and quasi-Renaissance palaces, some of them imaginary. His earliest dated painting, a church interior of 1614, is related to the work of Hendrick van Steenwijck and Pieter Neefs I.4Present whereabouts unknown; sale, London (Christie’s), 19 July 1950, no. 6. The palace interiors that he painted in the 1620s betray the influence of Hans and Paul Vredeman de Vries. Artists like Esaias van de Velde, Frans Francken II and Anthonie Palamedesz supplied the staffage in his paintings. The figures in his last dated work, of 1652, were painted by Cornelis van Poelenburch.5Present whereabouts unknown; sale, London (Sotheby’s), 12 December 1984, no. 52 (ill.). It is believed that the architectural painter Gerard Houckgeest (c. 1600-61) was one of Van Bassen’s pupils. His most important followers included Dirck van Delen (1605-71).

Gerdien Wuestman, 2007

References
Walpole 1862, I, p. 341; Bredius 1894c; Moes in Thieme/Becker III, 1909, pp. 10-11; Dumas in coll. cat. The Hague 1991b, p. 93; Van Suchtelen in Saur VII, 1993, pp. 395-96; Vermet in Turner 1996, III, pp. 252-53; Briels 1997, p. 298; Vermeeren in The Hague 1998, pp. 86-89; Rüger in New York-London 2001, p. 222

Esaias van de Velde (Amsterdam 1587 - The Hague 1630)

Esaias van de Velde was born in Amsterdam in 1587 as the son of the painter and art dealer Hans van de Velde, who hailed from Antwerp. His teacher was probably Gillis van Coninxloo, although the name of David Vinckboons is also mentioned in the literature, both of whom, like the Van de Veldes emigrated from the southern Netherlands to Amsterdam. In 1609, he, his mother and sister went to live in Haarlem with his brother-in-law, the painter Jacob Martens. Cathelijn Martens, the woman Van de Velde married two years later, was Martens’s sister. In 1612, he, Hercules Segers and Willem Pietersz Buytewech joined the Guild of St Luke in Haarlem. He was also a member of the Wijngaardranken chamber of rhetoric in 1617-18. On 22 April 1618 he moved to The Hague and joined the painters’ guild there the same year. In 1620 he gained citizenship of The Hague. According to Houbraken, Van de Velde’s paintings were expensive and popular, which is confirmed by contemporary mentions of prices. One of his patrons was the stadholder, Prince Maurits. Several documents of January 1626 reveal that there was a problem relating to the payment of 200 guilders for a painting commissioned by the Stadholder’s Court. Van de Velde was buried in the Sint-Jacobuskerk in The Hague on 18 November 1630.

Esaias van de Velde was a painter of landscapes, battle scenes and merry companies in the open air, as well as being a draughtsman and an etcher. His earliest dated paintings are winter landscapes and companies out of doors from 1614. His early landscapes have a colourful palette, but the later ones are more naturalistic. He must have been in great demand as a specialist in staffage. He painted the figures in works by Bartholomeus van Bassen, Pieter de Molijn, François van Knibbergen and other artists. Jan van Goyen (1596-1656) and Pieter de Neyn (1597-1639) were taught by him in his Haarlem studio. Other pupils or followers included Jan Asselijn (after 1610-1652), Pieter van Laer (1599-in or after 1642) and Palamedes Palamedesz (1607-38).

Gerdien Wuestman, 2007

References
Buchelius 1583-1639 (1928), pp. 50, 67; Orlers 1641, pp. 373, 374; Van Bleyswijck 1667, II, p. 847; Von Sandrart 1675 (1925), p. 182; Houbraken I, 1718, pp. 171, 173, 275, 303; Miedema 1980, II, p. 1036; Briels 1984, pp. 20-26; Briels 1997, p. 392; Buijsen in The Hague 1998, pp. 250-54; Van Thiel-Stroman 2006, pp. 314-15

Entry

The Hague artists Bartholomeus van Bassen and Esaias van de Velde collaborated on dozens of paintings in the 1620s in which each specialist could give free rein to his talents.6Keyes 1984, pp. 169-79, pls. 349-74. For the high prices paid for these works see the inventory of 1626 published in Bredius I, 1915, p. 321, an English translation of which will be found in Keyes 1984, p. 87. The Rijksmuseum’s interior with figures eating, drinking and playing music is one of the largest and most important works born of this collaboration. The ornate hall in a Renaissance style was painted by the architectural specialist Van Bassen, while the figures can be attributed to Van de Velde on stylistic grounds.7The authors of the collection catalogues of 1934 and 1960 had some doubt about this attribution of the staffage, while in that of 1976 Van de Velde’s name was omitted altogether. According to Keyes, the paintings on the walls are also probably the latter’s work, as they are in other interiors by Van Bassen.8Keyes 1984, p. 88. The fact that parts of the landscapes overlap the frames here and there shows that in any event they were added last, and given Van de Velde’s specialization it is likely they were indeed painted by him.

This type of scene is not the invention of Van Bassen and Van de Velde. It had previously been painted by the architectural painter Paulus Vredeman de Vries in collaboration with David Vinckboons.9See, for example, their painting of c. 1610, private collection; Van Suchtelen in Amsterdam 1993, p. 242 (ill.), p. 614, no. 285. Van Bassen would have made use of the architecture books by Paulus’s father, Hans Vredeman de Vries.10General studies on the influence of Vredeman de Vries on Van Bassen and other artists are Schneede 1965 and Schneede 1967. Not only did he use the linear perspective described by Vredeman de Vries in his Perspective of 1604.11When the painting was restored in 1985 a small hole was found in the fireplace at the point where the perspective lines meet. This must have been left by a small nail to which a length of string was attached. Marked vanishing points are also found in other paintings by Van Bassen; see Jansen in Rotterdam 1991, p. 87; Giltaij in Rotterdam 1991, p. 90. For Van Bassen’s technique see also Rüger 2004. In addition, the furnishings and furniture of this rather box-like room are reminiscent of examples in Vredeman de Vries’s sample books.12On which see Kolfin in Haarlem-Hamburg 2003, p. 68, note 5.

There are two variants of this composition, one of which is in Darmstadt.13Hessisches Landesmuseum; illustrated in Keyes 1984, pl. 352. The furnishings and the pattern in the tiled marble floor differ from those in the Amsterdam work. The room is populated with the same figures and animals, although some of them have been turned or moved elsewhere. As Schneede and Keyes have pointed out, the staffage in a third painting showing roughly the same interior was probably painted by someone other than Esaias van de Velde.14Sale, Brussels, 8 May 1929, no. 22 (ill.); Schneede 1965, unpag. part, note 131 (figures by S. Vrancx), and Keyes 1984, p. 169.

Like the other two versions, the work in the Rijksmuseum is undated. The dating of Van Bassen’s paintings with figures by Van de Velde range from 1620 to 1628. The present one is dated c. 1620 by Liedtke,15Liedtke 1988, p. 144. and c. 1622 by Kolfin.16Kolfin in Haarlem-Hamburg 2003, p. 68. The likeliest date is 1622-24, since the composition corresponds most closely to several works dated 1622 or 1624.17See Keyes 1984, pp. 172-74, nos. IX (dated 1622), XI (dated 1624) and XII (dated 1624), pls. 351, 359, 357.

Details like the chained monkey in the left foreground and the open door on the right raise the question of whether the painting should be interpreted as containing a moral message. Keyes argues that it can be seen as a critical comment on people who surrender themselves to sensual pleasures. The large history painting with The Sacrifice of Isaac on the right-hand wall would then serve as a contrast to the worldly pleasures of the figures in the room.18Keyes 1984, pp. 88-92, esp. pp. 88-89. Schneede (1965, pp. 253-60, esp. 257) has argued that the five senses are depicted by the musicians (Hearing), the monkey (Taste), the cat (Sight), the dog (Smell) and the parrot (Touch). That this richly furnished interior with its elegantly clad merrymakers could lead viewers to reflect on the perils of excess is certainly conceivable. It is interesting, in this respect, that Van Bassen added a tramp in the open door in several scenes like this one, turning them into depictions of the parable of Dives and Lazarus.19One such being the work dated 1624 in Hannover, Niedersächsisches Landesmuseum; illustrated in Braunschweig 1978, p. 40. However, whether such costly, carefully wrought paintings intended for the elite actually were regarded as explicit warnings against immoderate behavior is very much the question.20On this point see, among others, Franits 2004, pp. 86-87, Rüger in New York-London 2001, p. 226, and Rüger in coll. cat. Detroit 2004, pp. 20-21.

The painting in the Rijksmuseum is almost certainly the one that was in Christiaan Kramm’s collection in the mid-19th century and was described in such detail by him in his reference book on Dutch and Flemish painting.21See Provenance. The fact that he speaks of three women and two men in the background instead of the other way round must simply have been a slip of the pen. It may also be identical with the work of approximately the same dimensions that was auctioned in Amsterdam in 1797.22Sale Amsterdam (P. van der Schley et al.), 21 June 1797 sqq., no. 15: Bassen (B. van) (‘In een pragtige aloude Kamer ziet men eenige Dames en Heeren in Spaansche Kleeding, zommige van deselve zitten aan een Tafel met spyzen (...), hoog 28 breed 40 duim (72 x 102.8 cm). Panneel’ (In a splendid old chamber one sees some ladies and gentlemen in Spanish attire, some of whom are seated at a table with food (...), 28 inches high, 40 inches wide. Panel)), fl. 27.10, to Reijers (copy RKD).

Gerdien Wuestman, 2007

See Bibliography and Rijksmuseum painting catalogues
See Key to abbreviations and Acknowledgements

This entry was published in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, I: Artists Born between 1570 and 1600, coll. cat. Amsterdam 2007, no. 19.

Literature

Michel 1888, p. 186; Jantzen 1910, pp. 61, 158, no. 50; Schneede 1965, pp. 184, 257; Jantzen 1979, pp. 61, 218, no. 50; Keyes 1984, pp. 39, 87-89, 169, no. 1; Kolfin in Haarlem-Hamburg 2003, pp. 68-69

Collection catalogues

1886, p. 5, no. 15c; 1887, p. 9, no. 59; 1903, p. 41, no. 435; 1934, p. 40, no. 435 (figures probably by Esaias van de Velde); 1960, p. 32, no. 435 (figures probably by Esaias van de Velde); 1976, p. 102, no. A 864 (as Bartholomeus van Bassen); 1992, p. 41, no. A 864; 2007, no. 19

Citation

G. Wuestman, 2007, 'Bartholomeus van Bassen and Esaias van de Velde, A Company in an Interior, c. 1622 - c. 1624', in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.5926

(accessed 5 May 2025 19:24:05).

Footnotes

  • 1Kramm I, 1857, p. 57.
  • 2Copy RMA.
  • 3Note RMA.
  • 4Present whereabouts unknown; sale, London (Christie’s), 19 July 1950, no. 6.
  • 5Present whereabouts unknown; sale, London (Sotheby’s), 12 December 1984, no. 52 (ill.).
  • 6Keyes 1984, pp. 169-79, pls. 349-74. For the high prices paid for these works see the inventory of 1626 published in Bredius I, 1915, p. 321, an English translation of which will be found in Keyes 1984, p. 87.
  • 7The authors of the collection catalogues of 1934 and 1960 had some doubt about this attribution of the staffage, while in that of 1976 Van de Velde’s name was omitted altogether.
  • 8Keyes 1984, p. 88.
  • 9See, for example, their painting of c. 1610, private collection; Van Suchtelen in Amsterdam 1993, p. 242 (ill.), p. 614, no. 285.
  • 10General studies on the influence of Vredeman de Vries on Van Bassen and other artists are Schneede 1965 and Schneede 1967.
  • 11When the painting was restored in 1985 a small hole was found in the fireplace at the point where the perspective lines meet. This must have been left by a small nail to which a length of string was attached. Marked vanishing points are also found in other paintings by Van Bassen; see Jansen in Rotterdam 1991, p. 87; Giltaij in Rotterdam 1991, p. 90. For Van Bassen’s technique see also Rüger 2004.
  • 12On which see Kolfin in Haarlem-Hamburg 2003, p. 68, note 5.
  • 13Hessisches Landesmuseum; illustrated in Keyes 1984, pl. 352.
  • 14Sale, Brussels, 8 May 1929, no. 22 (ill.); Schneede 1965, unpag. part, note 131 (figures by S. Vrancx), and Keyes 1984, p. 169.
  • 15Liedtke 1988, p. 144.
  • 16Kolfin in Haarlem-Hamburg 2003, p. 68.
  • 17See Keyes 1984, pp. 172-74, nos. IX (dated 1622), XI (dated 1624) and XII (dated 1624), pls. 351, 359, 357.
  • 18Keyes 1984, pp. 88-92, esp. pp. 88-89. Schneede (1965, pp. 253-60, esp. 257) has argued that the five senses are depicted by the musicians (Hearing), the monkey (Taste), the cat (Sight), the dog (Smell) and the parrot (Touch).
  • 19One such being the work dated 1624 in Hannover, Niedersächsisches Landesmuseum; illustrated in Braunschweig 1978, p. 40.
  • 20On this point see, among others, Franits 2004, pp. 86-87, Rüger in New York-London 2001, p. 226, and Rüger in coll. cat. Detroit 2004, pp. 20-21.
  • 21See Provenance. The fact that he speaks of three women and two men in the background instead of the other way round must simply have been a slip of the pen.
  • 22Sale Amsterdam (P. van der Schley et al.), 21 June 1797 sqq., no. 15: Bassen (B. van) (‘In een pragtige aloude Kamer ziet men eenige Dames en Heeren in Spaansche Kleeding, zommige van deselve zitten aan een Tafel met spyzen (...), hoog 28 breed 40 duim (72 x 102.8 cm). Panneel’ (In a splendid old chamber one sees some ladies and gentlemen in Spanish attire, some of whom are seated at a table with food (...), 28 inches high, 40 inches wide. Panel)), fl. 27.10, to Reijers (copy RKD).