RKD STUDIES

Dutch portraiture is equally abundant and all its styles are well represented in the Polish museums. Worth mentioning are: stately Portrait of Johann Maurits, Count of Nassau-Siegen by Pieter Nason and an unconventional Portrait of a Man by the same artist, rendered behind a window, against the background of Jan van Goyen’s landscape, both in Warsaw [1-2]; an exquisite full-figure Portrait of Prince Janusz Radziwiłl by David Bailly in the National Museum in Wrocław [3],¹ a refined Portrait of a Youth by Jan Lievens, in the Wawel Castle in Kraków [4], based on Raphael’s famous work, a war loss from the Czartoryski collection; a patrician Portrait of Johanna de Geer-Trip with Her Daughter Caecilia by Ferdinand Bol in Warsaw [5], and a charming Little Boy in Polish Costume by Caspar Netscher in the Princes Czartoryski Museum in Kraków [6]; two compositions by Abraham van den Tempel: a charming portrait historié showing a Young Girl as Diana in the Wilanów collection and a Group Portrait in the Landscape in the Museum of the Toruń University [7-8], Bartholomeus van der Helst’s magnificent self-assured Self-Portrait [9]; and a Group Portrait in the Apothecary’s Shop ‘In de Spiegel’ at the Delft Wijnhaven by Cornelis de Man in the National Museum in Warsaw[10]; a small full-figure Portrait of a Young Man with Greenery in the Background by Dirck van Santvoort in Łódź [11];² a Portrait of a Boy from 1654 now attributed to Pieter van Noort, and Jan Verkolje’s very attractive Portrait of a Youth with a Viola da Gamba , both in Kraków, Wawel [12-13].³ Nicolaes Maes’ paintings are numerous in Polish collections, but of special interest is his signed and dated 1664 Portrait of the Sykes Family from Vestella in the Porczyński Foundation [14].⁴

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Ferdinand Bol
Portrait of Johanna de Geer-Trip (1627-1691) with her daughter Caecilia, dated 1661
Warsaw, Muzeum Narodowe w Warszawie, inv./cat.nr. M. Ob. 556

The ‘lower’ categories of paintings – landscape, genre scenes and still life – are also plentiful in Polish collections. This kind of art dominated the cabinets of Dutch paintings that were fashionable in aristocratic residences from the 17th century onwards. The main tendencies in 17th century landscape painting are quite well represented. There are realistic, tonal works by Salomon van Ruysdael, Jan van Goyen, Pieter de Molijn and many others in Poznań⁵ and an early Landscape with Hunters by Cornelis Vroom in Kraków [15];⁶ some Baroque and fantastic landscapes by Jacob van Ruisdael and Allaert van Everdingen, and Italianate works by Bartholomeus Breenbergh [16] and Daniel Vertangen [17], are to be seen in Warsaw and Poznań.

There are a couple of seascapes in Warsaw, for example by Lieve Verschuier [18] and Ludolf Bakhuizen [19].

Church and palace interiors are represented by signed works of Dirck van Delen in Poznań [20], Daniel de Blieck in the Czartoryski collection in Kraków, in the Museum of Art at Łódź and in the National Museum in Warsaw [21]. The unquestionable masterpiece of this genre is Pieter Saenredam’s Interior of the St. Bavo’s Church in Haarlem (1635)⁷ in Warsaw [22], a compact, seemingly symmetrical composition exhibiting a very refined viewing point and a subtle interplay of perspective lines.

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Lieve Verschuier
A Dutch man-of-war and small vessels in a breeze
Warsaw, Muzeum Narodowe w Warszawie, inv./cat.nr. M.Ob.2174 MNW

The broad thematic and stylistic spectrum of genre paintings comprises peasant scenes, elegant interiors, military scenes and allegorical compositions, such as those by Adriaen van de Venne in Warsaw and in the Wawel Castle [23-24].

An uncommon example of allegorical painting by Nicolaes Berchem, Virtue Conquers Violence from 1670 in the latter museum should be mentioned here as a rarity [25].⁸ In this place, a spectacular case of a war loss and recovery is worth recalling: the only painting by Adriaen Brouwer in Polish collections was restored to the National Museum in Warsaw in 2002 thanks to the generosity of Johnny van Haeften [26].⁹

The best examples of other petits-maîtres in Poland are: Travellers in a Grotto by Philips Wouwerman [27], the Choice between Youth and Wealth by Jan Steen [28] and the Officer Writing a Letter by Gerard ter Borch [29], all from Stanislaus Augustus’ collection, now in the National Museum in Warsaw,¹⁰ and another Wouwerman in the Warsaw Castle, originally in the same collection; a Karel Dujardin in Wrocław [30], and a signed and dated 1669 Lady and Her Maid by Michiel van Musscher in the Wawel Castle [31].¹¹

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Nicolaes Berchem
Virtue conquering Violence: apotheosis of the Treaty of Munster (?), dated 1670
Kraków, Zamek Królewski na Wawelu, inv./cat.nr. 1192

Dutch still-life paintings, also quite numerous in Polish collections, range from an early, additive tabletop now atrributed to David Rijckaert II in Wrocław [32], a monochromatic Dessert by Willem Claesz. Heda [33] and a refined Still life with Utensils by Pieter Potter in Warsaw [34], through a flower piece by Abraham Mignon [35], pronk still lifes by Nicolaes van Gelder in Warsaw [36]¹² and Simon Luttichuys in Poznań [37], to Vanitas compositions such as Gerrit van Vucht’s work in Poznań [38] and a Still Life with a Skull in Gdańsk, by Luttichuys [39]. Warsaw’s Royal Castle possesses an interesting trompe l’oeil by Cornelis Gijsbrechts [40].¹³

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Pieter Potter
Barn interior with utensils, dated 1631
Warsaw, Muzeum Narodowe w Warszawie, inv./cat.nr. M.Ob.450 MNW