Pieter Jacobsz Codde
(1599 - 1678) |
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Interior Scenes painting, Historical narratives, literary narratives, Genre narratives Art Work
| Name: |
Pieter Jacobsz Codde |
| Gender: |
Male |
| Place of Birth: |
Amsterdam |
| Nationality: |
Dutch |
| Birth: |
1599 |
| Death: |
1678 |
| Website: |
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| Past Auctions: |
Click Here |
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Quick Facts
| Known For: |
Interior Scenes painting, Historical narratives, literary narratives, Genre narratives |
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| Fine Art Profession(s): |
Painter
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Biography
| Pieter Codde was Known for his skill at rendering interior subjects such as soldiers in guardrooms, merry companies, tavern scenes, and other subjects, Codde was a leading practitioner of such scenes in Amsterdam. He was also a fine portrait painter, but his genre subjects have brought him his greater fame. A lifelong resident of Amsterdam, Codde was chiefly influenced by Frans Hals, who was active in nearby Haarlem. Though Codde's manner was more precise and detailed than that of Hals Codde tended to work in a more miniature style, it was to Codde that officials turned when they needed someone to complete Hals's group portrait of The Company of Captain Reynier Reael dated 1637, Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, also known as The Meager Company. Codde seems to have applied paint to much of the canvas, though most of his efforts were concentrated on the right half of the picture. We know little about Codde's early training and career. We do know that when he married in Amsterdam in 1623, he was a practicing painter. By 1630 Codde was able to afford his own house largely due to inherited wealth, and he must have been active not only in painterly circles but also in literary ones. A play by Elias Herckmans was dedicated to Codde in 1627, and in 1633 the painter published a poem of his own on pastoral love. In 1635 Codde lost his only child and the following year separated from his wife an inventory of Codde's belongings still survives from 1636. In 1637 he completed the Hals painting and continued to be active in the 1640s, 1650s, and 1660s, though fewer dated works appear after 1645. His will is dated 1669 and he died in 1678, whereupon he was buried next to his sister in the Oude Kerk of Amsterdam. Codde is valued for the humor and insight he brought to his imagery. His subjects, such as The Smoker signed and dated mid-1630s, Lille, Muste des Beaux-Arts, have been variously interpreted, but interest is sustained by the sheer quality of personality and emotion conveyed in miniature in this sparkling, deceptively simple painting. Some critics regard Codde's style of the 1630s as his finest, and certainly the dated works from this decade such as Festivity with Masked Dancers dated 1636, The Hague, Mauritshuis, or The Assembly dated 1632, Art Institute of Chicago, show superb mastery in composing numbers of figures into meaningful arrangements. The emphasis in Codde's work tended to be on the figures and not on the settings, which he kept to a minimum. |
Samples of Work
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