The lid of the harpsichord, which is probably made of wood from a conifer, is in two parts. The largest consists of three horizontally grained planks, the smallest of a single plank with a strip on either side with a grain at right angles to that of the plank. The small panel is attached to the left of the large one with hinges underneath. There is local cradling on the reverse. Dendrochronological analysis did not produce a possible date of execution. The white ground layer is visible at areas of paint loss. Underdrawn contour lines in a wet medium are visible here and there, for example near the head of the standing figure in the foreground of the large panel. His head was moved slightly to the left relative to the underdrawing. The paint was applied fairly thinly and transparently, with broad brushstrokes. Both the landscape and the figures are remarkably coarse. The red in the figures of the man and the horse in the foreground and the green of the trees in the right background are the only touches of bright colour in these otherwise fairly monochrome landscapes.

Poor. The paint layer is severely abraded and there are many losses and retouchings. The edges are overpainted. There are several cracks and scratches in the panel, especially in the lower right corner. The varnish has discoloured.

…; purchased in Wijk bij Duurstede by the Nederlandsch Museum voor Geschiedenis en Kunst, The Hague (inv. no. 8638);¹¹Note RMA. transferred to the museum, date unknown

Object number: SK-A-4288

Like several other harpsichord lids in the Rijksmuseum’s collection, this one dates from the first half of the 17th century.³³For other specimens see SK-A-4947 (Pieter Isaacsz), SK-A-4263 (Manner of Joos de Momper) and SK-A-4279 (Philip Schey). The subject of a dismounted horseman urinating in a landscape with a dilapidated tower is not the most obvious one for decorating a musical instrument. Landscapes were quite often painted on harpsichords, but usually they contain allusions to music, even if only in the form of a huntsman with a horn.⁴⁴On this see Germann 2002, pp. 33-34.

The lid is listed as a work from the circle of Jan van de Velde II in the museum’s 1976 catalogue.⁵⁵Coll. cat. 1976, p. 559. The coarse execution has little to do with Van de Velde, but the composition does turn out to be derived from an example from his workshop. The large landscape was taken integrally from a print in a five-part suite that Van de Velde made after designs by Gerard van der Horst.⁶⁶Hollstein XXXIII, 1989, p. 103, no. 331; illustrated in Hollstein XXXIV, 1989, p. 174; with thanks to Marijke de Kinkelder (RKD) for her suggestions. On Van der Horst as a draughtsman see Welcker 1953; Vignau-Wilberg 1990; Schapelhouman in coll. cat. Amsterdam 1998, I, pp. 100-02.

The composition is reversed relative to the print, and since there are no known copies of the entire scene,⁷⁷There are, however, partial copies of a few figures that were published by Claes Jansz Visscher; see Hollstein XXXVIII, 1991, p. 185, no. 55; illustrated in Hollstein XXXIX, 1991, p. 188. the anonymous painter either used Van der Horst’s original drawings or, and this is more likely, reversed the scene to make it fit the shape of the lid of the harpsichord. There is no connection between the landscape on the small panel and the print series after Van der Horst, but it too is probably based on a print.

The suite after designs by Van der Horst was published in a second state by Claes Jansz Visscher in 1628. The lid of the harpsichord would have been painted in the second quarter of the 17th century. It is not clear whether that was done in the southern Netherlands, where there was a flourishing tradition of harpsichord building, or in the northern Netherlands.⁸⁸For the production of harpsichords and clavichords in the northern Netherlands see Gierveld 1981, and on the decoration in general Germann 2002. With thanks to Bonny van Sighem.

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. 151.

1976, p. 559, no. A 4288 (as circle of Jan van de Velde); 2007, no. 151

G. Wuestman, 2007, 'copy after Gerard van der Horst, Hilly Landscape with Travellers, c. 1625 - c. 1650', in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200108353