Cat Licking Wax from a Candleholder

Inscriptions

inscribed on verso: lower left, in pencil, 35001 (?), below this, in brown ink, no. 110 – 3
stamped on verso: lower left, with the mark of the museum (L. 2228)

Condition

Abraded

Provenance

…; ? sale, Isaac Walraven (1686-1765, Amsterdam), Amsterdam (H. de Winter), 14 October 1765 sqq., Album P, no. 913 (‘Een katje die het vet van de kandelaar likt, getekend als de voorgaande, op perkament’), fl. 8:10:-, to Johan van der Marck Ægzn (1707-72), Leiden;¹Copy RKD. ? his sale, Amsterdam (H. de Winter and J. IJver), 29 November 1773 sqq., Album G, no. 537 (‘Een katje, staande tegens een stoel, lekkende het vet van een kandelaar; fraay met zwart krijt getekend, hoog 7½ b. 5½ duim [191 x 127 mm]’), fl. 41, to ‘Sonne’;²Copy RMA. …; ? sale, Daniël de Jongh (1721-96, Rotterdam), Rotterdam (Gebr. Ryp), 28 March 1810, Album I, no. 39 (‘Eene kat, zittende bij eene stoel, het smeer van een kandelaar lekkende. Met zwart krijt op pergament. Uitvoerig en konstig geteekend. Door C. Visscher.’), fl. 12, to Christian Josi (1768-1828), Amsterdam;³Copy RKD. …; ? anonymous sale, Amsterdam (P. van der Schley et al.), 29 April 1817 sqq., Album I, no. 23 (‘Eene kat het smeer eener kandelaar likkende. Uitvoerig en fraai met z. k. door C. Visscher’), fl. 3, to the dealer J. de Vries, Amsterdam;⁴Copy RKD. …; sale, Isaac Danckerts (1790/91-1848, Amsterdam) et al., Amsterdam (J. de Vries et al.), 3 December 1849 sqq., Album D, no. 113 (‘Eene kat likkende aan eene kandelaar, met de bekende spreuk, om der minne van het smeer enz.; delicaat en fraai van teekening, met zw. krijt, door C. Visscher’), fl. 25, to the dealer C.F. Roos for Gerard Leembruggen (1801-65), Amsterdam and Hillegom;⁵Copy RKD. his sale, Amsterdam (C.F. Roos et al.), 5 March 1866 sqq., no. 734, fl. 9:5:-, to the dealer C.F. Roos for Daniel Franken Dzn (1838-98), Amsterdam and Le Vésinet;⁶Copy RKD. by whom bequeathed to the museum (L. 2228), as anonymous, 1898

ObjectNumber: RP-T-1898-A-4029

Credit line: D. Franken Bequest, Le Vésinet

The artist

Biography

Cornelis Visscher (Haarlem 1628/29 - 1658 Amsterdam)

Little is known about his early life. Information regarding his birth is based on two surviving self-portraits, one from 1649 in the British Museum, London (inv. no. 1895,0915.1343), and the other, dated 10 April 1653, in the Rijksmuseum (inv. no. RP-T-1902-A-4624). He was presumably born in Haarlem, where he became a member of the Guild of St Luke in 1653. His father – who cannot be identified – must have been an artist as well, because in the admission book of the guild Visscher is described as ‘plaetsnijder en Meester outste zoon’ (‘engraver and the master’s oldest son’). Two younger brothers, Jan Visscher (1633/34-1712) and Lambert Visscher (1630/32-after 1690), also pursued artistic careers. The relationship between Cornelis and the relatively unknown painter Cornelis de Visscher (c. 1530-c. 1586) of Gouda is unclear. According to Van Mander, the latter was a skilled portraitist, but had some mental issues and died in a shipwreck on the North Sea.⁷K. van Mander, Het schilder-boeck waer in voor eerst de leerlustighe iueght den grondt der edel vry schilderconst in verscheyden deelen wort voorghedraghen, Haarlem 1604, p. 228. Perhaps the same person can be identified with Cornelis de Visscher, whose money was managed (presumably on behalf of his under-age children) by the orphans’ board of Gouda because he was considered mentally ill; in 1622, the widow of Cornelis’ brother, the painter Gerrit Gerritsz. de Visscher II (c. 1559-before 1622), collected the money from the orphans’ board on behalf of Cornelis’ two nephews, her sons Gerrit de Visscher III (?-?), a goldsmith living in Gouda, and Barent de Visscher (?-?).⁸Gouda, Streekarchief Midden-Holland, inv. no. OA196.

Cornelis Visscher probably received his first artistic training from his father. Later he must have been apprenticed to the Haarlem painter, engraver and draughtsman Pieter Soutman (1593/1601-1657), with whom he collaborated on several print series in 1649/50. Shortly after his admission in the Guild of St Luke in Haarlem, he moved to Amsterdam. In the 1650s, he received numerous commissions for portrait drawings and engravings of Haarlem and Amsterdam scholars, clergymen and writers, including Joost van den Vondel (1587-1679) (e.g. inv. no. RP-P-H-P-41). One of his last commissions was an engraved portrait of Constantijn Huygens I (1596-1687) after a lost drawing by the sitter’s son Christiaan Huygens (1629-95), which was included as the frontispiece to Huygens’ poem book Koren-bloemen (1658) (e.g. inv. no. RP-P-OB-27.428). It was finished in the last months of 1657, when the artist was presumably suffering from ‘de steen’ (kidney stones). Visscher died the following year and was buried on 16 January in the Nieuwe Kerk, Amsterdam. Despite his short life – he was only twenty-eight years old when he died – Visscher left an extensive oeuvre, consisting of more than 100 drawings and some 185 prints.

Marleen Ram, 2019

References
R. van Eijnden and A. van der Willigen, Geschiedenis der vaderlandsche schilderkunst, 4 vols., Haarlem 1816-40, I (1816), pp. 71-77, IV (1840), pp. 96-97; P. Schatborn, Dutch Figure Drawings from the Seventeenth Century, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksprentenkabinet)/Washington (DC) (National Gallery of Art) 1981-82, pp. 100-01; R.E.O. Ekkart, ‘Visscher, Cornelis (de)’, in J. Turner (ed.), The Dictionary of Art, 34 vols., London/New York 1996, XXXII, pp. 622-23; J. Hawley, ‘An Introduction to the Life and Drawings of Jan de Vissccher’, Master Drawings 52 (2014), no. 1, pp. 59-94; J. Hawley, ‘Cornelis Visscher and Constantijn Huygens’s Koren-bloemen’, Print Quarterly 32 (2015), no. 1, pp. 51-53

Entry

This drawing depicts the Dutch proverb ‘Om der wille van de smeer likt de kat de kandeleer’ (‘Because of the fat, the cat licks the candleholder’). It is used in a context when people do something against their will in order to gain (monetary) benefit. Originally, the expression refers to a cat licking a candleholder, not because it wants to, but because it is interested in the candle wax, which– in earlier days – was made from animal-based tallow. The earliest known mention of the proverb is in Proverbia communia, a collection of over 800 proverbs published circa 1480 in the Netherlands.⁹Proverbia communia, no. 560 (‘Om die minne vanden smeere, leckt die catte den candeleere’); W.H.D. Suringar, Over de Proverbia communia, ook, Proverbia seriosa geheeten, de oudste verzameling van Nederlandsche spreekwoorden, Leiden 1864, p. 34. In 1632, Jacob Cats (1577-1660) included the proverb in his Spiegel van den ouden en nieuwen tyt, with an illustration by Adriaan van de Venne (c. 1589-1662).¹⁰J. Cats, Spiegel van de ouden ende nieuwen tijdt, The Hague 1632, p. 98, no. 32.

Besides portraits, Visscher occasionally made drawings and prints after his own invention starring animals. Like the present sheet, some of these works are on expensive vellum and must have been made exclusively for the art market. Even after his death, collectors continued to appreciate Visscher’s prints and drawings with animals as much as his portraits. In fact, one of the most expensive prints by Visscher was ‘het kleine Katje op het Servet’ (‘the small cat on the napkin’) (e.g. inv. no. RP-P-OB-62.093),¹¹Hollstein, XL (1992), no. 43. which fetched 200 guilders at the 1811 sale of Diederik III, Baron van Leyden, Heer van Vlaardingen (1744-1810).¹²Sale, Amsterdam (P. van der Schley et al.), 13 May 1811 sqq., Album 27, no. 17, fl. 200, to Charles Howard Hodges (1764-1837), Amsterdam; R. van Eijnden and A. van der Willigen, Geschiedenis der vaderlandsche schilderkunst, 4 vols., Haarlem 1816-40, I (1816), p. 76.

Although the sheet is severely abraded, was trimmed to an octagonal format and has suffered discolouration from exposure to light, it is not clear why there is hardly any shading behind the two lightly drawn chair stretchers at lower right. Visscher is known to have made autograph replicas; perhaps he started this version and did not finish it.

Bonny van Sighem, 2000/Marleen Ram, 2019

Citation

B. van Sighem, 2000/M. Ram, 2019, 'attributed to Cornelis (II) Visscher, Cat Licking Wax from a Candleholder, c. 1650 - c. 1654', in J. Turner (ed.), Dutch Drawings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.63633

(accessed 20 July 2025 00:16:41).

Footnotes

¹Copy RKD.
²Copy RMA.
³Copy RKD.
⁴Copy RKD.
⁵Copy RKD.
⁶Copy RKD.
⁷K. van Mander, Het schilder-boeck waer in voor eerst de leerlustighe iueght den grondt der edel vry schilderconst in verscheyden deelen wort voorghedraghen, Haarlem 1604, p. 228.
⁸Gouda, Streekarchief Midden-Holland, inv. no. OA196.
⁹Proverbia communia, no. 560 (‘Om die minne vanden smeere, leckt die catte den candeleere’); W.H.D. Suringar, Over de Proverbia communia, ook, Proverbia seriosa geheeten, de oudste verzameling van Nederlandsche spreekwoorden, Leiden 1864, p. 34.
¹⁰J. Cats, Spiegel van de ouden ende nieuwen tijdt, The Hague 1632, p. 98, no. 32.
¹¹Hollstein, XL (1992), no. 43.
¹²Sale, Amsterdam (P. van der Schley et al.), 13 May 1811 sqq., Album 27, no. 17, fl. 200, to Charles Howard Hodges (1764-1837), Amsterdam; R. van Eijnden and A. van der Willigen, Geschiedenis der vaderlandsche schilderkunst, 4 vols., Haarlem 1816-40, I (1816), p. 76.