Adriaen van Utrecht
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Adriaen van Utrecht (
Antwerp, 12 January 1599 – 1652) was a Flemish painter known mainly for his sumptuous banquet
still lifes,
game and fruit still lifes, fruit garlands, market and kitchen scenes
and depictions of live poultry in farmyards. His paintings, especially
the hunting and game pieces, show the influence of
Frans Snyders. The two artists are considered the main inventors of the genre of the
pronkstillevens,
i.e. still lifes that emphasized abundance by depicting a diversity of
objects, fruits, flowers and dead game, often together with living
people and animals.
[1]
Van Utrecht also painted a number of flower still lifes. He was a
regular collaborator with leading Antwerp painters who had been pupils
or assistants of
Peter Paul Rubens, such as
Jacob Jordaens,
David Teniers the Younger,
Erasmus Quellinus II,
Gerard Seghers,
Theodoor Rombouts,
Abraham van Diepenbeeck and
Thomas Willeboirts Bosschaert.
Life
Still life with bouquet and skull
Adriaen van Utrecht was born in Antwerp as the son of Abel van Utrecht en Anne Huybrecht. In 1614 he became a pupil of
Herman de Neyt,
a painter and art dealer who owned an extensive art collection. After
completing his apprenticeship with de Neyt, he travelled in
France,
Germany and
Italy,
where he worked for the local courts. He returned to Antwerp in 1625
following his father’s death in the preceding year and he became a free
master of the local
Guild of Saint Luke.
[2][3]
At the wedding of his sister Catharina and the painter
Simon de Vos in 1628, he met Constancia van Nieulandt (or 'van Nieuwlandt'), the 17-year-old daughter of the painter and poet
Willem van Nieulandt II.
[4]
The following year van Utrecht married Constancia. The couple had 13
children. Constantia became a painter and poet in her own right. She is
believed to have shared the work in her husband’s studio and may have
painted partial or entire copies and variations of her husband’s work.
[2][3][5] A still life with fruit fully signed by Constancia van Utrecht and dated 1647 is entirely in the manner of her husband.
[6]
Van Utrecht became a successful artist who received international commissions from the Emperor of Germany, king
Philip IV of Spain
and the Prince of Orange. He could afford to live in spacious dwellings
on the Meir in Antwerp, the most prestigious location in the city. His
fortune seems to have declined in the late 1640s, possibly due to ill
health and by the time he died in Antwerp in 1652 he had lost most of
his wealth.
[2]
Between 1626 and 1646 he trained at least seven known pupils, including
Philip Gyselaer (1634/35), and Cornelis van Engelen.
[3]
Work
General
Van Utrecht was mainly a still life painter. The range of still life
subjects that he tackled was wide and included scenes of fish, meat and
vegetable stalls, kitchen scenes often including figures or living
animals adding a narrative element, displays of game in larders or as
hunting trophies, still lifes of fish, fruit and vegetables. More
recently, on the basis of a signed and dated
Vase of Flowers of 1642, a few still life paintings with bouquets of flowers have been attributed to van Utrecht.
Van Utrecht also painted barnyard scenes with living animals,
typically including poultry such as chickens, turkeys, ducks and
peacocks.
[6]
His early work was influenced by
Frans Snyders.
Van Utrecht did not favor bright colours the way Snyders did but rather
preferred warm earthen tones, especially grey-green, and strong
chiaroscuro effects.
[7] The latter was likely derived from his knowledge of Italian painting and in particular the works of followers of
Caravaggio.
[8]
Market and kitchen scenes
Adriaen
van Utrecht created market and kitchen scenes which incorporated large
still lifes of game, fish, vegetables and fruit. He thus stood in the
tradition of this genre as pioneered in the 16th century by artists in
Antwerp such as
Pieter Aertsen and
Joachim Beuckelaer and as it had been further developed by Frans Snyders in the early 17th century.
For some of his market and kitchen scenes Adriaen van Utrecht took
direct inspiration from compositions by Snyders such as in the
Fishmonger's Stall (
Museum of Fine Arts, Ghent) in which he relied on motifs and compositional elements present in Snyders'
Fish market (
Kunsthistorisches Museum). As in Snyders' composition, van Utrecht's
Fishmonger Stall
relies on the human figures and hanging fish to create the vertical
component in contrast to the horizontal element of the table. The
diagonals are created through the disposition of the fish but van
Utrecht is less interested in dynamic movement than Snyders and
therefore his diagonal lines are more muted. The figures in van
Utrecht's composition were painted by another painter, possibly
Gerard Seghers.
Whereas the market scenes represented in the 16th century a reflection
of a social reality of increased wealth and material abundance, van
Utrecht’s market scenes are more concerned with the aesthetic effect of
the work. Nevertheless, his
Fishmonger’s Stall seems to convey a
moralistic tale. The garish attire of the woman in the picture seems to
imply she was likely a prostitute. The hanging fish and the forms of
some fish hint at an erotic undertone. While the woman is negotiating
with the fishmonger she is the victim of a robbery by a young boy who is
cutting her purse while staring directly out of the picture towards the
viewer.
[9]
Van Utrecht's kitchen scenes often include a male and female figure
typically engaged in some intimate exchange. The paintings with their
abundance of produce seem to allude to the excesses of gluttony and lust
connected with the senses of taste and touch. An example is the
Still Life with Lovers dated 1631 (
Bowes Museum)
in which a woman shirks away from a young man who is trying to place
his hand on her bosom. The pair are standing before a table which is
covered with an abundance of baskets of fruit, asparagus, artichokes,
cabbages, leeks and poultry. On the left side of the painting a monkey
is seen pointing towards the pair from a window. Monkeys were typically
symbols of unrestrained lust and the monkey's presence emphasizes the
moral message of this kitchen scene. The choice of vegetables and birds
reinforces this interpretation.
[10]
Pronkstillevens
The elaborate still lifes produced by Frans Snyders and Adriaen van
Utrecht in the 1640s accentuated overwhelming abundance by depicting a
diversity of objects, fruits, flowers, and dead game, often in
combination with human and animal figures.
[1]
Adriaen van Utrecht let the objects spill over from the table on which
they were displayed to the floor below such as in the composition
A Pantry (
Prado Museum,
1650). He also relied on Baroque devices, such as a sweeping curtain
and background window view, to add movement and depth. These sumptuous
still lifes initiated the genre of the pronkstillevens, which was also
taken up by painters from the Northern Netherlands.
[1] A typical example of a pronkstilleven by van Utrecht is the
Banquet still life (
Rijksmuseum,
1644). In this picture the notion of abundance is emphasized through
the depiction of exclusive and expensive imported fruits, an exotic
South-American parrot and other items of luxury such as musical
instruments and expensive table ware.
[11] Given its low vantage point, the large painting (height 185 cm; width 242.5 cm) was likely intended as a chimneypiece.
[12]
In the
Still life with parrot (also known as the
Allegory of fire), dated 1636 (
Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium),
van Utrecht shows an elaborate display of all the foreign and local
luxury items, including Chinese porcelain and a parrot, that were
available in the Antwerp market. This offers him the opportunity to
display his virtuoso skills at rendering all kinds of materials and
textures and the reflection of light on various surfaces. In the
background there is scene of a man working at a stove stirring a
cauldron and moving the bellows. It is clear that van Utrecht intended
the composition to be a eulogy of the creative force of fire, which was
involved in the production of many of the items depicted in the still
life.
[13]
Flower pieces
It
was not known that van Utrecht painted flower bouquets until the
discovery of a piece depicting a vase of flowers which was signed by van
Utrecht and dated 1642. Based on this work, several other flower
paintings have been attributed to van Utrecht. His flower paintings
clearly show the influence of the prominent Antwerp flower painter
Daniel Seghers.
[6]
The
Vanitas Still-Life with a Bouquet and a Skull
(Sotheby's, 29 May 2003, private collection) dated to 1643 was
identified as a work by van Utrecht based on the similarity of the
flower bouquet to the signed painting of the vase of flowers. The
subject of vanitas as depicted here was unusual for van Utrecht and
shows that his role in the development of new types of still life has
not been sufficiently recognized in art-historical literature.
[6]
Collaborations
Kitchen, a collaboration with Theodoor Rombouts
As was common in Antwerp’s art sector at the time, van Utrecht
collaborated with other specialist artists, typically figure painters.
He is known to have provided the still life elements in paintings by
Jacob Jordaens,
Erasmus Quellinus II,
Jan Cossiers,
Thomas Willeboirts Bosschaert. He is believed to have also collaborated with
David Teniers the Younger,
Theodoor Rombouts,
Theodoor van Thulden and
Jan van den Hoecke.
[9][14]
The collaborative work with Jan Cossiers (dated 1639, private
collection) depicts van Utrecht with his wife Constancia in a kitchen
amidst an extensive still life with game, lobster, fish and vegetables.
[15] It is not always clear who painted the figures in the large market and kitchen scenes and recently it has been suggested that
Gerard Seghers painted the figures in the
Fishmonger's Stall (
Museum of Fine Arts, Ghent).
[9]
The collaborations between artists often created opportunities for
patronage. Van Utrecht's regular collaborator Willeboirts Bosschaert
relied on his good connections with
Constantijn Huygens to secure for van Utrecht commissions for decorations at
Huis ten Bosch in
The Hague in 1646. Huis ten Bosch was the residence of the Dutch
stadtholder Frederik Hendrik of Orange 's widow,
Amalia von Solms.
[16]
Tapestry design
Van Utrecht also contributed to
tapestry designs. In particular, it is known that he was asked by court painter and designer
Jan van den Hoecke to assist with a series of tapestries under the title 'Allegory of Time' (c. 1650) made for
Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria. Several other artists such as
Pieter Thijs,
Jan Brueghel the Younger
and Thomas Willeboirts Bosschaert also worked on the series. Ten
preparatory oil sketches that van den Hoecke made for the series have
survived (four in the
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna), as have eight tapestries based on the designs for
Day and Night and
The Months.
Based on the differences between the modelli and the executed
tapestries of the tapestries representing the months of January and
February, it is believed that Adriaen van Utrecht made improvements to
the animals in van den Hoecke's modelli which were then included in the
finished works.
[17]
Influence
A barn interior with a turkey
Van Utrecht's work influenced
Jan Davidsz de Heem,
Evaristo Baschenis, and
Nicolas de Largillière.
[3] Abraham van Beyeren is believed to have been influenced by van Utrecht’s pronkstillevens, which he likely saw in the
Huis ten Bosch in
The Hague for which van Utrecht had contributed decorations in 1646.
[18]
Collections
Van Utrecht’s work is represented in numerous museum collections, including the
Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp, the
Rijksmuseum, the
Louvre, the
Hermitage, the
Nationalmuseet Stockholm, the
Bowes Museum, the
Kunsthistorisches Museum, and in the USA the
Getty Museum,
Malibu, the Fine Arts Museum,
San Francisco, the
Utah
Fine Arts Museum. It is also part of public collections in Arras,
Belgrade, Brussels, Cambrai, Cologne, Copenhagen, Lithuania, Munich,
Tokyo and other cities.
References
Oxford Dictionary of Art Terms: Pronkstilleven
- Walter A. Liedtke, 'Dutch Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art', Volumes 1-2, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2007, p. 34
Further reading
- Alan Chong, W. Th Kloek, Celeste Brusati, Still-life paintings from the Netherlands, 1550-1720, Rijksmuseum (Netherlands), Cleveland Museum of Art, Waanders Publishers, 1999
- Edith Greindl, Les Peintures Flamands de Nature Morte au XVIIe Siècle. Brussels 1956; 3rd ed., revised, Sterrebeek 1983.
- J. de Maere, Jennifer A. Martin, and Marie Wabbes. Illustrated Dictionary of 17th-Century Flemish Painters. Brussels: Renaissance du livre, 1994; p. 401.
F. J. Van den Branden, 'Geschiedenis der Antwerpsche schilderschool', 2 vols (Antwerp, 1883), pp. 1082–1084 (Dutch)
Adriaen van Utrecht at the Netherlands Institute for Art History (Dutch)
Guilliam van Nieulandt (II) at the Netherlands Institute for Art History (Dutch)
Constancia Utrecht-van Nieuwlandt at the Netherlands Institute for Art History (Dutch)
F Meijer, Some
Flower paintings by Adriaen van Utrecht 1599-1652 , a Still Life of
Fruit by Constancia van Utrecht (after 1606- after 1647 and a portrait
of Adriaen and Constancia, in: Oud Holland, 109, 1995, pp. 165- 169
Scott A. Sullivan. "Utrecht, Adriaen van." Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. Web. 15 Sep. 2015
Adriaen van Utrecht (1599 - c.1652), 'Still Life of a Lobster, Vegetables, Fruit, and Game' at the Ashmoleum
Jahel
Sanzsalazar, 'Adriaen van Utrecht (1599-1652) y Gergard Seghers?
(1591-1651). Puesto de pescado. Lienzo, 215 x 298 cm. Gante, Museo de
Bellas Artes (Inv. S-10)', in: M. Díaz Padrón, J. Sanzsalazar, A.
Diéguez, M.M. Doval, El Triunfo del Mar. Las riquezas marinas en la Pintura europea del siglo XVII, Madrid, From, 2003 (Spanish)
Adriaen van Utrecht, Still Life with Lovers at the Bowes Museum
D. H. van Wegen, Het Vlaamse schilderkunst boek, Waanders, 2005, p. 296 (Dutch)
Banquet Still Life at europeana
Göttler, Christine (2013), The
Alchemist, the Painter, and the 'Indian Bird': Joining Arts and
Cultures in Seventeenth-Century Antwerp. Adriaen van Utrecht's 'Allegory
of Fire' in the Royal Museums of Fine Arts in Brussels. In:
Hoffmann, Annette; de Giorgi, Manuela; Suthor, Nicola (eds.), 'Synergies
in Visual Culture / Bildkulturen im Dialog. Festschrift für Gerhard
Wolf', (pp. 499-512). München: Wilhelm Fink
Adriaen Van Utrecht (Anversa 1599-1652) e David Teniers (Anversa 1610-1690 Bruxelles), Composizione di ortaggi e cacciagione, con figura femminile, at Christie's (Italian)
Adriaen van Utrecht and Jan Cossiers, 'Kitchen still life with the portraits of Adriaen en Constancia van Utrecht', dated 1639, at the Netherlands Institute for Art History (Dutch)
I. Broekman, Constantijn Huygens, de kunst en het hof, Phd Thesis, Faculty FGw: Instituut voor Cultuur en Geschiedenis (ICG, tot 2014) Year 2010, p. 170 (Dutch)
Thomas
P. Campbell, Pascal-François Bertrand, Jeri Bapasola, 'Tapestry in the
Baroque: Threads of Splendor', Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1 Jan 2007
i/ˈæntwɜːrp/, Dutch: Antwerpen [ˈɑntʋɛrpə(n)] (
listen), French: Anvers [ɑ̃vɛʁ(s)]) is a city in Belgium, the capital of Antwerp province in the region of Flanders. With a population of 510,610,[2] it is the most populous city proper in Belgium. Its metropolitan area houses around 1,200,000 people, which is second behind Brussels.[3][4]
