Adriaen van der Werff
(January 21, 1659 - November 12, 1722) |
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Portraits, Religious Subject matter, Genre subjects Art Work
| Name: |
Adriaen van der Werff |
| Gender: |
Male |
| Place of Birth: |
Krlalingen |
| Nationality: |
Dutch |
| Birth: |
January 21, 1659 |
| Death: |
November 12, 1722 |
| Website: |
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| Past Auctions: |
Click Here |
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Quick Facts
| Known For: |
Portraits, Religious Subject matter, Genre subjects |
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| Method: |
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| Style: |
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| Fine Art Profession(s): |
Painting
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Biography
| More celebrated and richer than any Dutch painter of his day, Adriaen van der Werff is now as obscure as he was once famous. In 1721, Arnold Houbraken* called him the greatest of all Dutch painters; today van der Werff remains a footnote in surveys of Dutch painting. Eagerly collected during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, van der Werff was valued for his small, delicate, and exquisitely finished pictures, which refined the already fine style of the Leiden school. Van der Werff was awarded a knighthood and earned a fabulous salary of 4000 guilders a year. By contrast, Frans Hals* was given only 150 guilders per annum at the end of his life. Born in Kralingen (outside Rotterdam, where he lived the rest of his life), van der Werff studied briefly (according to Houbraken) with Cornells Picolet and then from around 1671 to 1675 with Eglon van der Neer, earning his independence at age seventeen in 1676. Modern scholars have revised his student years to 1675 to 1679, although his earliest known dated picture, Boy with a Mousetrap (dated 1676, London, Richard Green Gallery), proves his precocity (despite its dependence on van der Neer). Dated pictures appear almost annually from 1678 until his death in 1722. Van der Werff married in 1687 and in 1691/2 was admitted to the painters' guild. His early career was spent painting small portraits and genre scenes for local patrons such as Nicolaes Flinck, the Six family, and the de Flines. One of his favorite subjects was elegantly dressed gentlemen playing chess; examples can be found in Braunschweig (Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum) and Schwerin (dated 1679, Staatliches Museum). To these years can be added his Self-Portrait in His Studio (St. Petersburg, Hermitage), which, with the other paintings of this period, shows his debt to the Leiden school. In 1696 he came to the attention of the Elector Palatine. Appointed court painter in 1697 on the condition that he spend half of each year working only for the elector, Adriaen was awarded a knighthood in 1703 (after which he signed himself "Chevalier"), and his obligation to the elector increased to nine months. His Self-Portrait with His Wife (dated 1699, Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum) amply demonstrates his precocious talents and openly celebrates his personal successes. Adriaen made regular visits to Dilsseldorf (1697, 1698, 1703, 1712), delivering pictures to the elector and painting portraits of the elector's family. A good number of his pictures were religious subjects evidently done to suit the pious tastes of Anna Louisa de* Medici, the elector's wife. For example, in 1698 he delivered his Ecce Homo (Munich, Alte Pinakothek) in which the refined, self-conscious gestures of the protagonists diminish the subject's narrative impact. By contrast, his Deposition of ca. 1703/10 (Scottsdale, AZ, Ruskin Collection), which adopts lighting and modeling traits of the mannerists, is far more powerful. In 1712 he was paid 6,000 ducats for a Diana and Callisto. After the elector's death in 1716 Adriaen found other noble patrons, including King August II of Poland, the duke of Braunschweig, and the French regent. His mature works involved primarily religious and mythological subjects painted in the prevailing elegant French manner. Smooth, polished, and decorative, they sometimes strike modern eyes as superficial or stilted, but they are nonetheless important to the development of later eighteenthcentury painting. Adriaen's pastoral subjects evoke a playful and sensuous mood; they are virtuoso displays of diverse lighting, textures, atmosphere, and colors. Powerfully illusionistic, they are highly artificial and anticipate the decorative tastes of the rococo. Adriaen's brother, Pieter, was his pupil and collaborator and often copied his work. Confusion between the two still remains regarding authorship of individual paintings. |
Samples of Work
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