Born into a family of painters, Gerard van Nijmegen was trained by assisting his father Dionys van Nijmegen (1705-1798) producing wall hangings and ceiling paintings. When these became less fashionable, he switched to pastoral landscapes, inspired by artists like Jacob van Ruisdael (1628/29-1682) and Adam Pijnacker (1620/21-1673) after whom he also copied drawings and paintings for collectors.[1]
Gerard also made several title-pages for drawing albums (kunstboeken) and adorned mounted (fragments of) prints with drawings.[2] A splendid example of the latter, is the cut-out tondo portrait of the remonstrant preacher Pieter Weiland (1754-1842) from the aquatint by Lodewijk Gottlieb Portman (1772-1828/48), around which Gerard drew a tondo frame, mounted with a ribbon on a massive pillar, adorned with a draped flower garland. The column atop of a freeze with laudatory poem commemorating Weiland. Both the solitary aquatint and the adorned tondo print preserved at Atlas van Stolk, Rotterdam.[3]
The present drawing, although fully drawn and not a collage of print and drawing, seems to closely follow the nature of this personal tradition, where a richly adorned urn with portrait of the deceased infant supported by two putti rests on a pedestal, bathing in abundant sunlight in a mystical forest. The mystical nature affirmed by a carved portrait in profile of a faun.
The sheet depicts the urn of Hélène Otteline Groeninx van Zoelen (1805-1806) bathing in mystical forest light. Hélène Otteline was the daughter to Otto Paulus baron Groeninx van Zoelen (1767-1848) and Catharina Maria Theodora van Staveren (1770-1827). They owned the estate with country house Huys ten Donck in Ridderkerk.
The diary of Otto Paulus Groeninx van Zoelen, father to the deceased infant gives a most appealing and moving essay on the unfortunate situation. What initially seems an uncomplicated case of mild illness swiftly changes into an unsudden death of 'het beminnelijkste, het teedergeliefdste, het engelachtigste kindje dat men zich kon verbeelden' (the most amiable, well-beloved and angelical little child imaginable) on the night of 1 and 2 January 1806 in the family house in Rotterdam. The most accurately recorded burial was solemnized on the 6th of January in the church of Ridderkerk after travelling from Rotterdam to Ridderkerk by yacht.
A warm thanks to Charles Dumas for confirming the authorship of Gerard van Nijmegen.[5]
[1] Charles Dumas in Daan Van Heesch, Sarah Van Ooteghem, Joris Van Grieken - Bruegel and Beyond Netherlandish Drawings in the Royal Library of Belgium, 1500-1800. Hannibal Books, 2022. p. 370.
[2] Ch. Dumas, 'Gerard van Nijmegen (1735-1808)',
Delineavit et Sculpsit no. 25 (september 2002), p. 40-43
[3] J.C. Nix, 'Gerard van Nijmegen (1735-1808)',
Delineavit et Sculpsit no. 26 (november 2003), p. 52-53
[4] J.W. Niemeijer, 'Gerard van Nijmegens 'Berglandschap met ossewagen' en het dagboek van zijn reis langs de Rijn', Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 32 (1984), p. 64-70
[5] Charles Dumas has confirmed the authorship for Gerard van Nijmegen.
Correspondence by e-mail, 22 September 2020.
