Statue and plinth sculpted from single block of stone. The reverse is partly flat.

There is damage to two toes of the right foot.

…; ? collection Aaltje Fregeres (1810-1900), Het Broekerhuis, Broek in Waterland; ? acquired with her entire collection by the N.V. tentoonstellingsmaatschappij Museum Het Broekerhuis, Amsterdam, 1880;¹¹Cf. J.W.E.[nschedé], ‘Langs den Weg’, Amstelodamum 10 (1923), p. 68. ? transferred to the Museum Het Broekerhuis, 1881;²²Cf. L.C. Schade van Westrum, ‘Broeker huis’, Ons Amsterdam 25 (1973), pp. 137-38. sold with Museum Het Broekerhuis to Sophia Adriana Lopez Suasso-de Bruijn (1816-1890), 1887;³³Note RMA. by whom donated to the museum, 1888

Object number: BK-NM-8672

Credit line: Gift of A.S. Lopez Suasso-de Bruijn, Amsterdam

From the seventeenth century, formal gardens and country estates were often adorned with statuary, the iconography of which refers to the unfolding and rhythm of nature, such as the four seasons, the five elements or the four times of the day. Alongside anonymous female characters, there were often gods from classical mythology that symbolized certain natural phenomena. In this (incomplete?) ensemble of three female figures, Spring (shown here) is represented as the goddess Flora, identifiable from the many flowers she carries. The damaged second statue is probably Summer (BK-NM-8673) which is often personified by Ceres. If that is the case here, the attribute missing from her broken left arm would have been a wheatsheaf. Autumn (BK-NM-8674) is not depicted as a goddess, but a bacchante, who held aloft a bunch of grapes in her right hand (which has broken off) – grapes being a fruit that is harvested in that season.

Fischer finds it highly doubtful that a fourth figure originally existed.⁴⁴P.M. Fischer, Ignatius en Jan van Logteren: Beeldhouwers en stuckunstenaars in het Amsterdam van de 18e eeuw, Alphen aan de Rijn 2005, p. 291. In the eighteenth century the seasons were at times portrayed with three allegorical figures (cf. BK-1967-19). He concludes that from the start the winter season had been left out, based on the fact that here Autumn is portrayed as a women and not, as was more usual, by Bacchus. Fischer was of the opinion that there was no female personification of that season and if a male figure portraying Winter (Saturn or Vulcan) had been added it would have unbalanced the ensemble, which otherwise consisted of female figures. Evidently Fischer was not aware that Winter (like Autumn) can also be represented by an allegorical female figure or a bacchante with a winter attribute, i.e. generally a brazier over which she warms her hands (cf. BK-14559-L; SK-A-4878). Although the pieces correspond so well as regards iconography and style that it had not struck previous authors, this group would in fact seem to be more of an ‘ad hoc’ ensemble. Specifically, the Spring statue is ten centimetres taller than her companions, has a different base and is somewhat more richly detailed.

The statues can be identified on stylistic grounds as early works of Ignatius van Logteren (1685-1732). The poses, facial types, treatment of the limbs, the folds of the garments and the form of the attributes (particularly of Spring) closely resemble those of a group of six (originally eight) figures by this Amsterdam sculptor made in 1712-13 after a design by Daniel Marot for country house Boom en Bosch in Breukelen.⁵⁵The statues are now in Arnhem, see P.M. Fischer, Ignatius en Jan van Logteren: Beeldhouwers en stuckunstenaars in het Amsterdam van de 18e eeuw, Alphen aan de Rijn 2005, pp. 110-23 and figs. 103, 104, 106, 107, 109 and 110. They too have the calm, almost serene presence that typified Van Logteren’s early work and would later make way for a more baroque emotion.⁶⁶P.M. Fischer, Ignatius en Jan van Logteren: Beeldhouwers en stuckunstenaars in het Amsterdam van de 18e eeuw, Alphen aan de Rijn 2005, p. 172. The lack of a signature might also confirm that they were created earlier in the sculptor’s life. The first fully signed work actually originates from 1714 (the fountain group at Frankendael House).⁷⁷P.M. Fischer, Ignatius en Jan van Logteren: Beeldhouwers en stuckunstenaars in het Amsterdam van de 18e eeuw, Alphen aan de Rijn 2005, p. 123. Originally Fischer dated the works around 1725-32, see J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, p. 272, but later he also considered it possible that it had been made earlier, see P.M. Fischer, Ignatius en Jan van Logteren: Beeldhouwers en stuckunstenaars in het Amsterdam van de 18e eeuw, Alphen aan de Rijn 2005, p. 291.

The actual provenance of the three sculptures is not known. They may have come from the ‘Waterlandse oudheden’ collection of Aaltje Fregeres (1810-1900) which was on permanent display at her home Het Broekerhuis at Broek in Waterland just north of Amsterdam. In November 1880 Museum Het Broekerhuis (still to be built at the time) acquired her entire collection, adding a few works from elsewhere to enhance it.⁸⁸See, for example, M. Jonker et al., In beeld gebracht: Beeldhouwkunst uit de collectie van het Amsterdams Historisch Museum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1995, nos. 535 and 566. The museum was built in Amsterdam in 1881, opposite the entrance of Vondel Park at Amstelveenseweg.⁹⁹For this house, see L.C. Schade van Westrum, ‘Broeker huis’, Ons Amsterdam 25 (1973), pp. 137-40. The garden and maze of this privately exploited establishment were laid out in that year after a design by the well-known garden designer Leonard Springer (1855-1940). A photo of the garden from around 1885 shows that Summer stood in front of the maze.¹⁰¹⁰P.M. Fischer, Ignatius en Jan van Logteren: Beeldhouwers en stuckunstenaars in het Amsterdam van de 18e eeuw, Alphen aan de Rijn 2005, p. 316, note 344. L.C. Schade van Westrum, ‘Broeker huis’, Ons Amsterdam 25 (1973), pp. 137-40, esp. p. 138 (ill.). The other two statues also belonged to the museum collection.¹¹¹¹Note RMA. In 1887 Museum Het Broekerhuis was closed on account of insufficient interest. The building and contents were purchased by the Amsterdam collector Sophia Adriana de Bruijn (1816-1890), the dowager of the nobleman August Pieter Lopez Suasso (1804-1877). The following year she donated the three garden sculptures to the Rijksmuseum. She bequeathed the rest of her substantial collection to the city of Amsterdam. It was to form the basis of the Stedelijk Museum, which opened in 1895.¹²¹²For this collection, see H. Wandel, Verzamelwoede of verzamelbeleid? De geschiedenis van en de waardering voor de verzameling van het echtpaar Lopez Suasso, Amsterdam 1996.

Bieke van der Mark, 2025

J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 368; Wandel 1996, p. 49; P.M. Fischer, Ignatius en Jan van Logteren: Beeldhouwers en stuckunstenaars in het Amsterdam van de 18e eeuw, Alphen aan de Rijn 2005, pp. 290-91

B. van der Mark, 2025, 'attributed to Ignatius van Logteren, Spring, Amsterdam, c. 1712 - c. 1713', in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200116059