Travellers Disembarking at a Jetty on the Scheldt in Strong Winds

Bonaventura Peeters I (Antwerp 1614 - Hoboken 1652)

The land- and seascape artist, Bonaventura Peeters I, the younger brother of Gillis (see SK-A-834), was baptized on 23 July 1614 in the Antwerp Sint-Walburgiskerk, the son of Cornelis Peeters and Catherina van Eelen ‘en van beter famille’.¹¹François Mols’s transcript relayed by C. Kramm, De levens en werken der Hollandsche en Vlaamsche kunstschilders, beeldhouwers, graveurs en bouwmeesters van den vroegsten tot op onzen tijd, 6 vols., Amsterdam 1857-64, II, p. 1263. He became a master in the Antwerp guild of St Luke in 1634/35 (although he may have been active earlier)²²See below; a painting dated 1631 was with the Galerie Sanct Lucas in 1964/65 (photograph in Rubenianum); L. Slavícek, The National Gallery of Prague: Flemish Paintings of the 17th and 18th centuries: Illustrated Summary Catalogue, Prague 2000, nos. 237/38 is/are dated 1632. and subsequently shared a studio with this brother. He remained in Antwerp until circa 1650, when because of a falling out with the Jesuits he moved with his younger brother and sister to Hoboken.³³Mols’s transcript relayed by C. Kramm, De levens en werken der Hollandsche en Vlaamsche kunstschilders, beeldhouwers, graveurs en bouwmeesters van den vroegsten tot op onzen tijd, 6 vols., Amsterdam 1857-64, II, p. 1263. The rubric to Hollar’s print after Meyssens, see below, which was published in 1649, refers to the artist in the present tense as a native of Antwerp, so the move to Hoboken seems likely to have taken place later. There he died on 25 July 1652. His epitaph, erected by his younger brother, also a painter, described him as ‘een des wereldts wonderheide Zee-schilder en Poëet’.⁴⁴A photograph of the epitaph is in the files of the Rubenianum, a transcript was published by F.J. van den Branden, Geschiedenis der Antwerpsche schilderschool, 3 vols., Antwerp 1883, p. 1043 ff. Peeters never married, and the few records that refer to him usually describe him in the company of one or other of his siblings. Like his elder brother, he seems to have remained at a distance from the life of the guild.

As is the case of his elder brother, there is no record of Bonaventura’s apprenticeship. It seems likely that he was taught in the northern Netherlands, possibly by Jan Porcellis (c. 1584-1632), active there from 1622, but previously in Antwerp where his work was collected.⁵⁵No. 307 of the sale of Rubens’s collection after his death was ‘Vne mer, sur toile, de Perseles’; paintings by Porcellis are listed in other Antwerp estates from 1625-64, E. Duverger, Fontes historiae Artis Neerlandicae Bronnen voor de Kunstgeschiedenis van de Nederlanden: Koninklijke Academie voor Wetenschappen, Letteren en Schone Kunsten van België, Antwerpse kunstinventarissen uit de zeventiende eeuw, 13 vols., Brussels 1984-2004, II-VII, passim; in one list, of 1646, of works to be exchanged, paintings by Porcellis and Peeters were listed together, Ibid., V, p. 328. Two seascapes – known from a photograph and a reproduction, one signed ‘B.Petri’ and dated 1629⁶⁶Anonymous sale, London (Sotheby’s), 18 June 1977, no. 64 (photograph in the Witt Library). (thus exceptionally early if by our Bonaventura) and the other signed and also dated 1629⁷⁷Anonymous sale, Munich (Helbing), 15 June 1909, no. 97 (reproductions in Witt Library and Rubenianum). – seem northern Netherlandish in character, as does a landscape in the Brussels museum.⁸⁸H. Pauwels (ed.), Catalogue inventaire de la peinture ancienne, Brussels (Koninklijke Musea voor Schone Kunsten van België) 1984, p. 226, no. 6047.

Opinion differs as to whether the artist later travelled outside the southern Netherlands.⁹⁹Stuckenbrock (in E. Mai and H. Vlieghe (eds.), Von Bruegel bis Rubens: Die goldene Jahrhundert der flämischen Malerei, Cologne (Wallraf-Richartz-Museum)/Antwerp (Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten)/Vienna (Kunsthistorisches Museum) 1992-93, p. 448) and Wieseman (in P. Sutton et al., The Age of Rubens, exh. cat. Boston (Museum of Fine Arts)/Toledo (Museum of Art) 1993-94, under no. 88) believe that he did not travel extensively; for the contrary view, see D.B. Brown, Ashmolean Museum Catalogue of the Collection of Drawings, IV: The Earlier British Drawings: British Artists and Foreigners Working in Britain before c. 1775, Oxford 1982, p. 109. His apparently weak constitution¹⁰¹⁰F.J. van den Branden, Geschiedenis der Antwerpsche schilderschool, 3 vols., Antwerp 1883, III, p. 67. notwithstanding, evidence provided by his oeuvre suggests that he did, even allowing for his South American subjects being inventions at second hand. Views of Copenhagen,¹¹¹¹Anonymous sale, London (Sotheby’s), 7 February 1979, no. 39; now City Museum, Copenhagen. Stockholm¹²¹²G. Seelig, Jan Brueghels Antwerpen: Die flämischen Gemälde in Schwerin, Schwerin (Staatliches Museum) 2003, no. 42 (dated 1636). and what is presumed to be Archangel,¹³¹³J. Gaschke (ed.), Turmoil and Tranquility: The Sea through the Eyes of Dutch and Flemish Masters 1550-1700, exh. cat. London (National Maritime Museum) 2008-09, no. 29 (dated 1644); drawings in the Print Rooms of the Boymans van Beuningen Museum, Rotterdam, and the Courtauld Institute Galleries (Witt Collection no. 2436r). point to a voyage to northern waters. Views of the northern Netherlands suggest he travelled there (irrespective of his schooling),¹⁴¹⁴A. Delen, Stedelijk Prentenkabinet: Catalogue des dessins anciens: écoles flamande et hollandaise, Cabinet des estampes de la ville d’Anvers, 2 vols., Brussels (Musée Plantin Moretus) 1938, I, no. 427 inscribed Reynburch (Rijnburg), between Leiden and Katwijk aan Zee; no. 426 has been identified as a view of the Maas at Dordrecht. as do views, inter alia, of Dover,¹⁵¹⁵D.B. Brown, Ashmolean Museum Catalogue of the Collection of Drawings, IV: The Earlier British Drawings: British Artists and Foreigners Working in Britain before c. 1775, Oxford 1982, nos. 198-99, pp. 109-10, where a view of the cloisters at Evesham Abbey (formerly Grahl collection, Dresden) is also accepted. the island of Oléron,¹⁶¹⁶A. Riether, Die sichtbare Welt: niederländische Bilder des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts: Sammlung Christoph Müller Tübingen, Ulm (Ulmer Museum) 1996, no. 76. Monte Felix¹⁷¹⁷A. Delen, Stedelijk Prentenkabinet: Catalogue des dessins anciens: écoles flamande et hollandaise, Cabinet des estampes de la ville d’Anvers, 2 vols., Brussels (Musée Plantin Moretus) 1938, I, no. 431. (Canary Isles) and San Sebastian¹⁸¹⁸L. Stainton and C. White, Drawing in England from Hilliard to Hogarth, exh. cat. London (British Museum) 1987, no. 81, with a later incorrect inscription that Peeters died at sea. suggest voyages south.

His only known commission was from Jacob Edelheer (1597-1657), the pensionary of the city of Antwerp, to execute scenes from the battle of Kallo (20 June 1638, not far distant from Antwerp) in 1638, followed by a larger picture of the battle, executed with this brother, for which they were paid in 1639. Peeters was quite prolific, and there are records of paintings dated in every year of his career.¹⁹¹⁹Photographs chiefly consulted in the Rubenianum. He also was a frequent contributor of figures to church interiors by Peeter Neeffs I (c. 1578-1656/61).²⁰²⁰F. Klauner and G. Heinz, Katalog der Gemäldegalerie, I: Italiener, Spanier, Franzosen, Engländer, II: Vlamen, Holländer, Deutsche, Franzosen, 2 vols., Vienna (Kunsthistorisches Museum) 1958-60, II, p. 90, no. 260.

Two of his poems are inscribed on the reverse of sea-storms which he had executed in gouache.²¹²¹A. Delen, Stedelijk Prentenkabinet: Catalogue des dessins anciens: écoles flamande et hollandaise, Cabinet des estampes de la ville d’Anvers, 2 vols., Brussels (Musée Plantin Moretus) 1938, I, no. 432; with the Galerie Sanct Lucas 1983/84, no. 9, ex-The Earl Spencer, Althorp (photograph in the Rubenianum).

His portrait by Johannes Meyssens (1612-1670) was engraved by Wenceslaus Hollar (1607-1677). It was first published in Image de divers hommes d’esprit sublime of 1649²²²²F. Klauner and G. Heinz, Katalog der Gemäldegalerie, I: Italiener, Spanier, Franzosen, Engländer, II: Vlamen, Holländer, Deutsche, Franzosen, 2 vols., Vienna (Kunsthistorisches Museum) 1958-60, II, p. 90, no. 260. and then in Cornelis de Bie’s Het gulden cabinet of 1662.²³²³C. de Bie, Het gulden cabinet van de edel vrij schilder const, inhoudende den lof vande vermartste schilders, architecte, beldtowers ende plaetsnijders van deze eeuwe, Antwerp s.a. (1662), p. 171.

REFERENCES
P. Rombouts and T. van Lerius, De Liggeren en andere historische archieven der Antwerpsche Sint Lucasgilde, ondere zinspreuk: ‘Wt Ionsten Versaemt’, 2 vols., Antwerp/The Hague 1864-76 (reprint Amsterdam 1961), II, pp. 59, 67, 133; F.J. van den Branden, Geschiedenis der Antwerpsche schilderschool, 3 vols., Antwerp 1883, p. 1046ff.