Born def mute, Hendrick Avercamp was born as the oldest son of the apothecary and physician Berent Avercamp and Beatrix Vekemans. The Family moved to Kampen when Hendrick was only one year old. Probably Hendrick had an apprenticeship to Pieter Isaacsz. (1568-1625) in Amsterdam where he stayed between 1606 and 1609 supported by his mother who lovingly took care of her def mute son after which Hendrick returned to Kampen in 1613/14 (hence his nickname De Stom(me) van Campen). Avercamp was influenced by Flemish artists like Hans Bol (1534-1593), Jacques Savery (1565-1603) and David Vinckboons (1576-1631) who produced finished drawings in watercolour and gouache for the market. The three of them who settled in Amsterdam shortly prior to Avercamp's apprenticeship in the capital. Avercamp would become one of the pioneers to produce fully finished watercolour drawings for the free market in the Northern Netherlands.
When mentioning Hendrick Avercamp, one thinks of Winter Landscapes as this is the genre which he pioneered. His painted oeuvre consists almost exclusively of Winter scenes, though in his drawn oeuvre he also executed other seasons and subjects, though these are a minority in his corpus of drawings. For some time he was thought to have been not very productive or living in isolation due to his physical condition of being deaf and dumb, which is a mistake. On the contrary, he appeared to be a most prolific and successful artist as proven by the enormous corpus of drawings found in the inventory of the painter and collector Jan van de Capelle (1626-1679).[1][2] This inventory mentions one portfolio in his Constcaemer with 286 tekeningen van de Stom van Campen and two portfolios in his comptoir with 288 tekeningen van en naer de Stomme van Campen and 306 schetsen van de Stom van Campen together comprising a total of 880 drawings from the workshop of Hendrick Avercamp. It is speculative, though well possible this was the complete inventory of Avercamp's studio.[3] A large group of 48 drawings, most probably from the van de Cappelle inventory, entered the collection of King George III of Great Britain and Ireland, now part of the Royal Library at Windsor Castle. Whereas his fully completed and signed drawings (sometimes called pseudo-paintings due to their high degree of finishing) were meant for the market, the figure studies were used in his studio to provide staffage for his paintings of winter landscapes often crowded with skaters, elegant companies, Kolf players, fishermen, beggars etc. One of the earliest documented signed and finished watercolour drawings by Avercamp was sold to a collector who inscribed the drawing on the verso Hendrick Avercamp heeft my dit gelewert / den-28 January 1613. In Campen (Hendrick Avercamp supplied this to me 28 January 1613 in Kampen).[4]
Although the corpus of drawings produced by Hendrick Avercamp must have been huge, rather few drawings have survived nowadays and their surfacing on the market is utmost scarce. The present and recently discovered double-sided figure study on blue paper is therefore even more rare, as drawings on blue paper by Avercamp are among the rarest within the artist's oeuvre, this sheet even being double-sided.[5] Both these figure studies with abundant pentimento show the artist's thoughts while sketching, adapting his swiftly applied lines in black chalk and graphite (recto) and finally catching the perfect line with a few bold strokes in pen and black ink (verso).
The study of A Woman doing laundry in an ice hole has since long time been regarded as the recto of the sheet, as indicated by it's framing lines in pen and black ink. Nevertheless this drawing, with it's swift and very loosely handling of the chalk and graphite which dates around c.1620s appears to be of later date compared to the verso. The verso with studies of two gentlemen appears to be of slightly earlier date as the fashion of their clothing dates around c.1618 or earlier. Their high-crowned hats, starched standing collars, tight-fitting doublets with aiglers and wide slobs show great similarity to the drawings An Elegantly Dressed Youth Skating and An Elegantly Dressed Young Couple on Skates at Winsdor Castle.[6][7] Although the sticks both gentlemen hold in our drawing have been rendered with only one or two rapidly executed strokes in pen and black ink depleted of any further details, they are most likely to be Kolf players who appear frequently as staffage in the foreground of Avercamp's paintings. Despite the sketchy nature of both men, especially both their heads have been drawn most convincingly and show Avercamp's masterly draughtsmanship. The present sheet is of notably importance as a document that showcases Avercamp's development through time with two fine examples of his figure studies captured together on one sheet.
The style of A Woman doing Laundry in an Ice Hole (the little girl on the upper right is most probably her daughter, wiping the tears from her face, due to the freezing cold) is closely related to the drawing A Standing Girl with her Hands under her Apron.[8] Both drawings A Seated Peasant Mending his Doublet and A Sleigh Accident on the Ice with both their loose handling of the chalk and graphite must have been drawn in the same years.[9][10] Aside of the gap in time and style between the dates of recto and verso, both studies also show two completely different layers of society, as the woman doing laundry bare handed in the freezing cold water of an ice hole obviously belongs to the lower working class while both men elegantly dressed in fashionable clothing are cleary from the upper class of society, a controversy Avercamp depicted in the vast majority of his paintings and finished drawings. Although we haven't located a painting yet where we found this Woman doing laundry in an ice hole yet, the motif returns in several of Avercamp's paintings in Genève and Amsterdam.[11][12] The drawing Winter landscape with merry company at the Paalhuis outside Amsterdam at the Fondation Custodia/Collection Frits Lugt, shows a woman doing laundry accompanied by her daughter on the far right which is very closely related to our drawing.[13][14]
Of both studies on the verso especially the man on the left with his arm Akimbo shows great resemblance to the figure on the lower center of the Winter Landscape in Genua. The figure study on the right of our drawing appears in the same tondo on the center right with minimal changes in his posture.[15]
A warm and big thanks to Marijn Schapelhouman for his kind visit, appraisal and discussing the drawings with me in Rotterdam.[16]
[1] Clara J. Welcker, Hendrick Avercamp 1585-1634 bijgenaamd "De Stomme van Campen" en Barent Avercamp 1612-1679 "Schilders tot Campen".
Davaco Publishers, Doornspijk, 1979.
[2] Charles Dumas et al., Goltzius to van Gogh; Drawings and Paintings from the P. & N. de Boer Foundation. Fondation Custodia/P&N de Boer Foundation/Thoth Publushers, Paris/Amsterdam/Bussum, 2014. No. 69, p. 158-159 by Marijn Schapelhouman.
[3] Marijn Schapelhouman, De tekeningen: Overdenkingen bij een oeuvre in Pieter Roelofs, Jonathan Bikker, Marijn Schapelhouman et al., Henrick Avercamp, De meester van het ijsgezicht.
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam 2009. p. 85-117.
[4] Hendrick Avercamp, Landscape with Buildings on a river-bank.
Pen and black and brown ink, watercolour, heightened with white on a sketch in black chalk, 139 x 191 mm (oval). Fondation Custodia/Collection Frits Lugt, Paris. inv. no. 4953
[5] Christopher White and Charlotte Crawley, The Dutch and Flemish Drawings at Windsor Castle.
Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge, 1994. p. 149-178.
[6] ibid. no. 251, p. 158
[7] ibid. no. 258, p. 161
[8] ibid. no. 280, p. 173
[9] ibid. no. 264, p. 164
[10] ibid. no. 275, p. 170
[11] Hendrick Avercamp, Winter landscape with a Peat Ship.
Oil on panel, 47 x 73 cm. Musée d'Art et d'Histoire, Genève, Fondation Lucien Bantzinger. inv. no. Basz. 4.
[12] Hendrick Avercamp, Skaters on the ice in a village.
Oil on panel, 35,7 x 70,4 cm. Royal Cabinet of Paintings, Mauritshuis, The Hague. inv. no. 785.
On long term loan from The Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. inv. no. SK-A-1320.
[13] Hendrick Avercamp, Winter landscape with merry company at the Paalhuis outside Amsterdam.
Fondation Custodia/Collection Frits Lugt, Paris. inv. no. 5462.
[14] Clara J. Welcker, Hendrick Avercamp 1585-1634 bijgenaamd "De Stomme van Campen" en Barent Avercamp 1612-1679 "Schilders tot Campen".
Davaco Publishers, Doornspijk, 1979. Cat. T 131.14, p. 276, plate XXXV.
[15] Hendrick Avercamp, Winter Landscape.
Oil on panel, 25 cm (tondo). Galleria de Palazzo Rosso, Genua. inv. no. P.R.65.
[16] First hand inspection of the original, Rotterdam, 21 February 2024.
