the larson family of statuary founders: seventeenth-century reproductive sculpture for gardens and...

The Larson Family of Statuary Founders: Seventeenth-Century Reproductive Sculpture forGardens and Painters' StudiosAuthor(s): Frits ScholtenSource: Simiolus: Netherlands Quarterly for the History of Art, Vol. 31, No. 1/2 (2004 -2005), pp. 54-89Published by: Stichting voor Nederlandse Kunsthistorische PublicatiesStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4150578 .

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54

The Larson family of statuary founders: seventeenth-century reproductive sculpture for gardens and painters' studios*

Frits Scholten

Johan ("Jean") Larson, "in life, sculptor in The Hague," died in the summer of 1664. On 4 August an inventory was made of his estate which provides a fascinating insight into a specialist, mid-seventeenth century sculpture workshop.' With dozens of statues and statuettes, the majority batch-produced in lead or plaster, the Lar- son inventory is the most detailed Dutch list of sculptures to have survived from the period. An attempt will be made here to reconstruct part of Larson's oeuvre and clientele in order to get a better idea of the function and status of sculpted multiples in the seventeenth century. In particular, this is a first step towards the study of lead

sculpture in the Netherlands, an area that has to date almost completely escaped the notice of art historians.2

THE LARSON FAMILY Johan Larson was born into a

family of artists that was active in the first half of the

seventeenth century in London and The Hague. Given the name, the Larsons probably came from Sweden, al-

though no clear traces of their origins have been found

there.3 His father was Willem or Guillaume Larson, whose name regularly crops up in the Hague archives between 1647 and I66o, where he is invariably referred to as "mr. beeltmaecker, beeltsnijder" ("master sculptor, statue carver") or "schulpteur."4 Guillaume twice rented a house on Spui, and in 1659 he bought a house with a plot of land and timber yard on Geldeloos Pad for

I,ooo pounds, so his business was evidently not doing badly.5 He died soon afterwards, however, for on 22

June i66o steps were taken to divide up his estate. It is only then that Guillaume's three sons emerge

from the shadows: Johan, who took over the sculpture workshop, the sculptor Willem junior, and the painter Dirck." The latter two were in London in 1664, where

* I was grateful to have the help of Prof. Dr Christian Theuerkauff, Dr Charles Avery, Jaap van der Veen, Friso Lammertse and Maximilian Heimler while preparing this article. An earlier, far shorter version was

presented as a paper at the symposium "Collecting of sculpture in early modern Europe" at the National Gallery of Art in Washington on 7 February 2003. The translation from the Dutch is by Michael Hoyle.

I The Hague City Archives (hereafter GADH), Notarial Archive

(NA), inv. nr. 379, fols. 188-95: Contrabouck gehouden bij mi' on-

dergeschreven vanden Sterffhuiise van Johan Larson. In 1915 Bredius

published condensed forms of this and several other documents relat-

ing to the Larson family; see A. Bredius, Kiinstler-Inventare: Urkunden zur Geschichte der holldndischen Kunst des XVIten, XVIIten und XVIII-

tenJahrhunderts, 7 vols. The Hague 1915-22, vol. I, pp. 325-33. 2 See, for example, H. Liier and M. Creutz, Geschichte der Metall-

kunst, 2 vols., Stuttgart 1904; L. Weaver, English leadwork: its art and

histor-y, London 1909, and for the Netherlands, A.M. Koldeweij, "De loden beelden van Francesco Righetti voor Welgelegen te Haarlem," Bulletin KNOB 82 (1983), pp. 1-24.

3 Enquiries at the Riksarkivet in Sweden and the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm failed to turn up any clues as to the Larsons' origins. My thanks to Mikael Ahlund of the Nationalmuseum for his help.

4 GADH, NA, inv. nr. 204 (fol. 219, 30 January 1647), inv. nr. 195a (fol. 43, 19 February 1647), inv. nr. 18o (fol. 33o,

8 February 1649),

inv. nr. 181 (fol. 175, 8 February 1652), inv. nr. 169 (fol. 186, 13 June 1651), inv. nr. 170 (fol. 14, 31 January 1652), inv. nr. 181 (fol. 364, 2

May 1652), inv. nr. 247 (fol. 322, 29 June 1654), inv. nr. 410 (fol. 157, 24 February 1657), inv. nr. 388 (fol. 72, Io April 1657). Evidence that the Larsons did indeed work in stone is provided by Johan Larson's

will, in which he left to his brother Willem "all the tools pertaining to the art of sculpting and casting statues" ("...alle het gereetschap het

geene tot den const van beelthouwen ende beelden te gieten naliet"); see GADH, NA, inv. nr. 379, fol. 176. The mention of a model of the tomb "for the son of the Lord of Sommelsdijk" in Larson's inventory also indicates that Willem and Johan Larson worked in stone; see Bredius, op. cit. (note i), vol. I, p. 326.

5 GADH, NA, inv. nr. 294 (fol. I I, 22 february 1659). 6 Bredius, op. cit. (note i), vol. i, p. 325, gives a muddled account

of the relationships between the various members of the family. For in-

stance, he wrongly makes a distinction between Dirck and Richard

Larson, who were in fact the same person using the name Richard in

England and known as Dirck in The Hague. This is clear from a notarized document of 1670 (GADH, NA, inv. nr. 363, fol. 177) in which he and his brother Willem are mentioned as the sole witnesses and which

is signed with the names Richard Larson and Will Larson. Bredius, p. 329, is also wrong in believing that Richard Larson was the son of Willem junior.



55

I William Larson (after), Equestrian statuette ofKing James II, c. 1690, bronze, h. 64 cm. Dublin, National Gallery of Ireland

Willem called himself a "carver" in his will of 1659, al-

though he also had himself described as a statue founder and stated that he still owned possessions in the Nether- lands.' Willem (or William, as he was called in England) also made plaster sculptures, for Samuel Pepys among others, and he received his most important commission in 1688 for an equestrian statue of King James II to be erected in Newcastle-upon-Tyne.8 It only stood there

briefly, for it was destroyed in the Glorious Revolution of 1689. It is known today from a bronze statuette in Dublin (fig. I).9

The Larsons' English connection is less surprising than it might seem, for there was already a sculptor called George Larson working there in the first half of the century (active c. 1634-54), who was probably a brother of Guillaume's.I' It is assumed that the latter decided to move to The Hague at some point, leaving George behind in London." It is not known why Guil- laume came to Holland, but he may have been attracted

by the prospects of finding work at the Dutch court. The sculptor Francois Dieussart had made a success of his move from London to The Hague in 1641."2 That was also the year of the marriage of the English princess Mary Stuart to the Dutch prince, Willem II-an event that further strengthened Anglo-Dutch cultural ties. There is only one documented work by George Larson: a bronze bust of Lady Digby (fig. 2). That portrait shows that he was a capable sculptor who had evidently specialized in metal casting. The bust, which he made c.

1634 and signed "G Larson", displays a clear stylistic affinity with the work of the English court sculptor, Hu- bert le Sueur (c. I58o-after 1658). It is not inconceiv-

able, then, that George collaborated with le Sueur for a while around I630 on the latter's many large-scale projects for the court of King Charles I.I3 The presence of

7 GADH, NA, inv. nr. 379, fols. 176-78 (15 July 1664): "...sijne twee broeders met name Dirck ende Willem Larson, jegenwoordich woo- nende tot London in Engelant" ("...his two brothers, Dirck and Willem Larson, at present living in London, England"). See also A.

White, "A biographical dictionary of London tomb sculptors c. 1560-c. 166o," The Walpole Society 61 (I999), pp. 1-162, esp. pp. 76-77. Willem junior is also recorded as a painter and art dealer; see E. Buij- sen, Haagse schilders in de Gouden Eeuw: het Hoogsteder lexicon van alle schilders werkzaam in Den Haag 1600-1700, The Hague & Zwolle 1998, p. 323.

8 K.A. Esdaile, "Pepys's plaisterer," The Times Literary Supple- ment, 2 October 1943, p. 480.

9 On this see M.R. Toynbee, "A statuette ofJames ii," Country Life,

29 September 1950, p. oo007. io See White, op. cit. (note 7), P-. 76. i E. Neurdenburg, De zeventiende eeuwsche beeldhouwkunst in de

Noordelijke Nederlanden, Amsterdam 1948, p. 234. 12 See C. Avery,

"Francois Dieussart (c. 600oo-6I): portrait sculptor

to the courts of Northern Europe," in idem, Studies in European sculpture, London 1981, pp. 205-35, and F. Scholten, Sumptuous memories: studies in seventeenth-century Dutch tomb sculpture, Zwolle 2003, pp. S13-43.

13 For le Sueur see C. Avery, "Hubert Le Sueur, the 'unworthy Praxiteles' of King Charles I," The Walpole Society 48 (1980-82), pp. 135-209.



56 FRITS SCHOLTEN

2 George Larson, Portrait of Venetia Stanley, Lady Digby, signed and dated 1634, bronze, h. 49.5

cm. England, private collection

"the king of England, modeled" ("den koninck van En-

gelant geboutseert") in Johan Larson's shop inventory of 1664 may point to a connection between the Larsons and the English court. George was probably also re-

sponsible for the tomb of Lady Digby erected in Christ

Church, Newgate Street, in London after 1634, which contained a gilt-bronze portrait of the deceased.4" The

tomb, the style of which recalls Le Sueur, was destroyed in the Great Fire of London, but its design is known from a contemporary depiction.'" The fairly large dis-

14 White, op. cit. (note 7), P. 76. 15 Ibid., p. 76 and note 9.



The Larson family of statuary founders: seventeenth-century reproductive sculpture 57

tance between London and The Hague did not prevent the brothers George and Guillaume, and the latter's son

Johan, from working closely together on a major commission for the elector in Berlin, which is discussed in detail below.

Johan Larson was already a fully qualified and re-

spected sculptor when he took over his father's work-

shop around 166o. This is apparent not only from the size and value of his estate, but also from his position as warden of The Hague's Const- en Schildersbroeder-

schap (Art and Painters' Fraternity) in 1663 and 1664.16 Johan Larson was at this time "statuarius," a position he shared with Rombout Verhulst and Bartholomeus Eg- gers, which indicates that his activities were not limited to making smaller statues in all kinds of materials, but extended to monumental stone sculpture, although no such work is known today." In early 1662, however, he did have two plaster putti for sale in the fraternity's as-

sembly room.'s Johan Larson also had one documented

pupil, the Fleming Gabriel Grupello (1644-1730), who later became court sculptor to King Charles II of Spain in Brussels, to King-Stadholder Willem III, and finally to Elector Johann Wilhelm of the Palatinate in Diissel-

dorf, and gained wide fame as a statuary founder.'9

Johan Larson's estate comprised some 275 pieces of

sculpture and models, largely made of plaster. Only around 20 were of lead, bronze, clay, marble, ashlar or wax. Most of the sculptures consisted of unspecified "heads" and statuettes, with another group being copies after classical sculpture. The list includes various ver-

sions, lifesize or nearly so, of Venus ("i grieksche

3 Johann Sigismund Elsholtz after Pieter Strengh, The Neptune fountain in the Berlin pleasure garden, drawing in J.S. Elsholtz, Hortus Bero-

linensis, 1657. Berlin, Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin

4 Johann Sigismund Elsholtz after Pieter Strengh, Statues of Ceres, Flora and two sundials in the Berlin pleasure garden, drawing in J.S. Elsholtz, Hortus Berolinensis, 1657. Berlin, Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin

16 F.D.O. Obreen, Archief voor Nederlandsche kunstgeschiedenis, 7 vols., Rotterdam 1877-90, vol. 4, pp. 45, 99, 1 19, and vol. 5, p. 155.

17 Neurdenburg, op. cit. (note i I), p. 13. 18 Obreen, op. cit. (note 16), vol. 4, pp. 131-32, and Neurdenburg,

op. cit. (note 11), p. 232.

19 U. Kultermann, Gabriel Grupello, Berlin 1968, p. 32. Kulter- mann fails to point out that Grupello could have learned how to cast from Larson. On Grupello's fame as a founder see C.W. Fock, "Willem van Mieris als ontwerper en boetseerder van tuinvazen," Oud

Holland 87 (1973), PP. 27-48, esp. p. 36: "...den anders vermaarde

metaal gieter Gripello" ("...the otherwise celebrated metal founder

Grupello"). The source is a manuscript of 1731 by Pieter de la Court.

For a lead crucifix by Grupello see C. Theuerkauff, exhib. cat. Eu-

ropaische Barockplastik am Niederrhein: Grupello und seine Zeit, Diissel- dorf (Kunstmuseum) 1971, nr. 82. "Gabriel Grupelen" is also listed as

one of Johan Larson's creditors after the latter's death; see GADH, NA,

inv. nr. 379, fol. 2oo (31 August 1664).



58 FRITS SCHOLTEN

5 Johann Sigismund Elsholtz after George Larson, Twelve allegorical putti in the Berlin

pleasure garden, drawing in J.S. Elsholtz, Hortus Berolinensis, 1657. Berlin,

Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin

Venus," "i venus met een appel"), Bacchus, Cleopatra, Diana, Mercury (in lead and plaster), Neptune, Lucre-

tia, Flora, a gladiator (probably the so-called Borghese warrior), a plaster centaur ("centaurus van pleyster"), and Roman emperors. There are also pieces with less

specific descriptions, such as a dancer ("Een dansent

beeld"), numerous figures of children in lead and plaster, sleeping Cupids, a dog, a horse, and various casts of human body parts like a woman's back and a plaster hand ("i vrouwe rugge," "i hant van pleijster").

COMMISSION FOR BERLIN The key to identifying several works from the Larson studio is a manuscript of

1657 titled Hortus Berolinensis, which describes the garden of the Great Elector in Berlin. It was compiled and illustrated by the court physician and botanist Dr Jo- hann Sigismund Elsholtz, who discusses all the stat-

ues-48 in all-that were in the elector's pleasure garden at the time.20 Almost all of them have since been

lost, so Elsholtz's illustrated manuscript is an important source for our knowledge of the garden's original deco-




6 Johann Sigismund Elsholtz after George Larson, Twelve allegorical putti (including the signs of the zodiac) in the Berlin pleasure garden, drawing in J.S. Elsholtz, Hortus

Berolinensis, 1657. Berlin, Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin

rative program. It also shows that when ordering garden statues, Elector Friedrich Wilhelm made frequent use of Dutch sculptors, which is hardly surprising, given the cultural orientation of the Berlin court towards the Dutch Republic." For example, in 1656 the Rotterdam

sculptor Pieter Strengh supplied an imposing Neptune fountain ("fons artificiosus") for the central axis of the

garden (fig. 3), which was based on a similar sculpture in the garden of the stadholder's Ter Nieuburch Palace near Rijswijk. A year before he had made a seated Ceres,

2o The Hortus Berolinensis is in the Staatsbibliothek Preussischer

Kulturbesitz in Berlin. I am grateful to Christian Theuerkauff for

drawing my attention to this manuscript and for letting me read his un-

published paper on the sculpture in the Lustgarten. 21 For the history of the garden see F. Wendland, Berlins Gdrten

und Parks von der Griindung der Stadt h bis zum ausgehenden 19. Jahrhun- dert, Frankfurt, Berlin & Vienna 1979, and L. Wiesinger, Das Berliner Schloss: von der kurffirstlichen Residenz zum Konigsschloss, Darmstadt

1989, pp. 83-127.



60 FRITS SCHOLTEN

a standing Flora and two sundials for Berlin (fig. 4).2" In

1652, Frangois Dieussart (c. 16oo-61) had executed the marble statue of the elector, the only work from the garden that survives today, which Elsholtz hailed as a work

by the "alter Phidias Franciscus Dussardus italus."23 Another work by Dieussart was a posthumous statue of

Kurprinz Wilhelm Heinrich (1648-49), who died as an infant and is depicted as a cherub holding the electoral

crown, which is now only known from a small sketch in Elsholtz's manuscript.24 In 1663, 168o and between

1685 and 1687, Bartholomeus Eggers (c. 1637-92) again supplied a large number of marble sculptures to the Berlin elector, including a series of i i statues of all the

electors, of which the 1657 Hortus Berolinensis naturally makes no mention.25

Elsholtz also describes 24 lead putti that had been

painted white as "opera Georgii Larsoni Angli A[nno] 1654 omnes fabricati." It is clear from the accompany- ing text and illustrations that the group consisted of 12

putti representing the signs of the zodiac, and the same number of allegorical figures of children depicting the four seasons, the five senses, a Cupid carving a bow, a

putto drinking and a putto urinating (figs. 5, 6). The

putti stood in the central walk of the lower-lying part of the garden, along with large copies of Giambologna's Mercury and other statues of classical gods.26

Although George Larson of England ("Angli") is

specifically mentioned as the maker, it is very doubtful that he was solely responsible for this major Berlin commission. Precisely because the Great Elector's patron- age was focused on the Netherlands, which was natural-

ly fostered by his marriage to Henrietta Louise, daughter of Stadholder Frederik Hendrik, one would

expect the commission to be awarded to Guillaume Lar- son in The Hague rather than to George Larson in Lon- don. And indeed, there are several indications of Anglo- Dutch collaboration between the two brothers.

In the first place, there is the Cupid carving a bow

(fig. 5, nr. 12). This image is not the invention of the

7 Francois Duquesnoy, Cupid carving a bow, Rome, before 1629, marble, h. 76 cm. Berlin, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Skulpturen- sammlung (before 1945)

Larson workshop but a replica of a famous statue by the

Fleming Frangois Duquesnoy, which was in the Dutch

Republic in the mid-seventeenth century and is now in Berlin (fig. 7). Until 1637 it was part of the collection of the Dutch banker Lucas van Uffelt, who lived in

Venice, and in that year it was acquired for 6,000 guilders by the city of Amsterdam, which later presented this marble god of love to Amalia van Solms, the wife of Stadholder Frederik Hendrik."7 It is not impossible

22 G. Galland, Der Grosse Kurfulrst und Moritz von Nassau der

Brasilianer, Frankfurt 1893, PP. 154-55; Neurdenburg, op. cit. (note ii), p. 252; Wiesinger, op. cit. (note 21), p. 91.

23 Avery, op. cit. (note 12), pp. 227-28. 24 Ibid., p. 228 and fig. 36a. 25 W. Halsema-Kubes, "Die von Artus Quellinus und Bartholo-

meus Eggers fiir Johann Moritz geschaffenen Skulpturen," in G. de Werd (ed.), exhib. cat. Soweit der Erdkreis reicht: Johann Moritz von

Nassau-Siegen 1604-1679, Kleve (Stadtisches Museum Haus Koek-

koek) 1979, pp. 213-32, esp. pp. 222,228. 26 Wiesinger, op. cit. (note 21), p. 92.

27 See M. Fransolet, Francois du Quesnoy: sculpteur d'Urbain VIII

1597-1643, Brussels 1942, pp. 79-82, and J. Hildebrand and C. Theuerkauff (eds.), Die Brandenburgisch-Preussische Kunstkammer: eine Auswahl aus den alten Bestainden, Berlin 1981, p. 94.




8 Daniel Heinsius, Nederduytsche Poemata, Amsterdam 1616 (emblem 20 of the Emblemata amatoria)

9 Johann Sigismund Elsholtz after George Larson, Allegoricalputto representing winter in the Berlin pleasure garden, 1654, drawing in J.S. Elsholtz, Hortus Berolinensis, 1657 (detail of fig. 5)

that George could have had a copy of this statue in Lon-

don, but it is not very likely. His brother in The Hague, on the other hand, had every opportunity to make a mold or model after the marble original, which ended

up in Noordeinde Palace together with a sleeping child

by Dieussart and two other statues of cupids.28 The little boy urinating (fig. 5, nr. 6) is also a replica

of a well-known, public statue in the Low Countries, namely Manneken pis in Brussels, which was made by

Jer6me Duquesnoy in 1619. That models of this play- fully provocative statue were circulating in the Nether- lands in the first half of the seventeenth century is evident from a bronze version of 1636 by the otherwise unknown brass founder Daniel Hanman.29 As with the

Cupid carving a bow, it would have been far easier to make a mold or model after Manneken pis from The

Hague than from London. An even stronger pointer to the involvement of Guil-

laume (and possibly his son Johan) in the Berlin commission comes from a comparison of Johan Larson's

shop inventory of 1664 with the statues commissioned for Berlin. One iconographically rare and eye-catching composition is found in both Elsholtz's manuscript and in Johan's estate. It is the putto depicting Winter in the four seasons suite: a nude little lad on skates, which is derived from an emblem in Daniel Heinsius's Neder-

duytsche Poemata of i616 (figs. 8, 9). It is described in the inventory as "twee kleyne schaetrijderkens" ("two little skaters"). Also in Larson's studio at the time of his death were a further two, unfinished skating boys in

plaster.3n In other words, this allegorical figure of Win- ter was part ofJohan Larson's stock in 1664, but had al-

ready been cast in lead by 1654 for the Berlin garden- by George Larson in London, according to Elsholtz. It

seems, then, that there was an exchange, possibly on a

regular basis, of models and molds between London and The Hague, so it is credible that the execution of the Berlin commission was also a family affair that was not restricted to one Larson studio.

28 S.W.A. Drossaers and T.H. Lunsingh Scheurleer, Inventarissen van de inboedels in de verblijven van de Oranjes en daarmee gelijk te stellen

stukken, 1567-1795, 3 vols., The Hague 1974, vol. 2, p. 258, nrs. 606, 610-12. Duquesnoy's Cupid is in the Skulpturensammlung in Berlin, Dieussart's sleeping putto is in Orienbaum, near Worlitz.

29 In Patricia Wengrafs gallery, London (i999). 3o Bredius, op. cit. (note i), vol. I, p. 329.



62 FRITS SCHOLTEN

Io Johann Stridbeck the Younger, View of the castle and pleasure garden in Berlin, c. 1690, drawing. Berlin, Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin

Although Elsholtz does mention the name of Larson in connection with other statues in the Berlin Lust-

garten, it is perfectly possible that some of the lifesize lead sculptures were supplied by George, Guillaume or

Johan. A drawing in pencil and wash of c. 169o by Jo- hann Stridbeck with a view of the lower-lying part of the garden shows eight statues, which according to the

inscription were of "gilt metal," which would have meant gilt-lead (fig. io).3' The drawing, in any event, makes it possible to distinguish a version of the flying Mercury after Giambologna, as well as several classical

sculptures, such as a standing Venus pudica, a nude, dancing woman, a Fortuna, a Bacchus with one arm

raised, and a version of the well-known classical Dancing

faun. It was suspected that this series of statues was executed by the Walloon Jacques Voulleaume (or Vi-

gnerol), a founder who was appointed to a post in Berlin for a year in 1649 to make "all manner of statues and figures, grottoes and fountains and other things that His Electoral Highness might desire of him."32 However, it is unlikely that the otherwise unknown Voulleaume was

responsible for all these statues, given the relatively short period that he worked for the elector. Since the stock in Larson's shop in 1664 included various lifesize

statues, the descriptions of which correspond to the gilt- lead ones seen in Stridbeck's drawing, such as the

Venus, the Mercury, the Bacchus and the dancing figure, it is not inconceivable that some or all of those gar-

31 Wiesinger, op. cit. (note 21), pp. 91, 92, 96, and fig. 49. 32 See Galland, op. cit. (note 22), pp. 154, 189. The quotation,

"...allerhandt statuen und figuren, grotten und fonteinen und sonsten

was S. Churfl. Dchl. Von ihm begehren," has been taken from the un-

published paper by Prof. Christian Theuerkauff mentioned in note 20.




den statues were part of a second commission awarded to the Larsons by the elector. The same applies to the fountain with two putti and dolphins depicted in Elsholtz's manuscript (fig. i i).

HOFWIJCK The fact that the Larsons received the commission for the 24 putti for the elector in Berlin in 1654 indicates that their studios must have had a reputation for this kind of work. It is not surprising, then, to discover that lead garden sculpture from the Larson range was also to be found in and around the stadholder's court in The Hague in the seventeenth century. The

drawings in Elsholtz's manuscript, for instance, make it

possible to recognize Larson's Seasons in the four putti on the bridge at Hofwijck, Constantijn Huygens's coun-

try house, just as they stood in the Berlin garden. In a

drawing of the front of the house made by Jan de Bis-

schop c. 1660, the four putti of the seasons can be made out as silhouettes on the first part of the bridge (fig. 12), in poses identical to those of their counterparts in Elsholtz's manuscript (fig. 5, nrs. 1-4). At front right is

skating Winter with his arms folded and right leg lifted, and at front left is Spring with a bunch of flowers in his raised left hand. Behind him is Summer brandishing a sickle and holding ears of corn, and at back right is Au- tumn with a basket of fruit in front of its stomach. A

drawing with a side view of the house and the bridge, which is attributed to Isaac de Moucheron, confirms the

accuracy of the identification.33 In Hofwyck, Huygens's paean to his country house, the silent statues are

brought to life as it were. His poetic description precisely matches the Elsholtz sketches of the four putti.

"Four naked children, even though they cannot speak, Here explain the lesson: Spring stands in front, Laden with early flowers from the young year. Summer follows it, and shows off ears of corn. Then comes ripe autumn, with tasty eatables.

Winter, idle and slack, with skates on its feet, Says that there must be a time for doing nothing."34

ii Johann Sigismund Elsholtz (after George Larson?), Fountain in the Berlin pleasure garden, drawing inJ.S. Elsholtz, Hortus Berolinensis, 1657. Berlin, Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin

It is not known when the statues were ordered from Larson. Huygens's country house was completed around 1642, so they must have been made between then and 1653, the year Hofwyck was published. They stood on the bridge for about a century, for on 29 April 1749 the then owner of the house offered them for sale "to the highest bidder, in public, in the presence of the sheriff and court of Voorburg: orange trees, secondary

33 T. van Strien and K. van der Leer, Hofwijck: het gedicht en de

buitenplaats van Constantyin Huygens, Zutphen 2002, p. 89. 34 Constantijn Huygens, Vitaulium: Hofwyck, The Hague 1653,

pp. Ioo-oI, lines 2542-48: "Vier naeckte kinderen; all konnen sy niet

praten/ Beduyden hier die leer: de Lente staet voor aen,/ Met vroege

Blommekens van't jonge jaer gelaen:/ De Somer volght'er op, en

pronckt met Coren-aeren;/ En dan den Rijpen Herfst met smakelicke

waeren;/ De Winter luy en leegh, met schaetsen aenden voet,/ Seght datter eens een tijd van leegh-gaen wesen moet." See also van Strien and van der Leer, op. cit. (note 33), PP. 89, 92.



64 FRITS SCHOLTEN

12 Jan de Bisschop, View ofthe main front ofHofwi'ck, c. i66o, drawing. Present whereabouts unknown

crops, lead statues and other goods."35 Some of them

probably ended up on the adjoining country estate of the Voorburg alderman Gerrit van der Spek, who

bought three lead statues: one small and two large ones.36 The large statues were probably two others on the bridge: a Flying Mercury after Giambologna and a

Perseus, both of which are clearly visible in de Bis-

schop's drawing. Since those statues were made of lead as well, it stands to reason that Huygens ordered them from Larson. Moreover, it is further evidence that the

Mercury in the Berlin Lustgarten also came from Larson, as assumed above.37 The contact between Constantijn Huygens and Johan Larson is underscored by the presence of a pewter (by which was probably meant lead)

bust of the Lord of Zuylichem (Huygens) in the sculptor's house after his death.38 It is logical to assume that the otherwise unspecified lead statues in the garden of Laurens Buysero, a confidant of the stadholder's family and a close friend of Huygens, also came from Johan Larson's workshop.39

FOUNTAINS On 28 April i66I Johan Larson signed a contract for the delivery of a fountain to Willem Huy- gens (no relation to Constantijn), a scion of a patrician family of Arnhem and a delegate to the provincial as-

sembly of Gelderland. The contract, which has survived, is particularly interesting in that it details a hitherto unknown aspect of Larson's oeuvre: the manufacture of

35 Van Strien and van der Leer, op. cit. (note 33), P. 122: "...in het openbaar ten overstaan van de schout en het gerecht van Voorburg aan de meestbiedende, oranjebomen, bijgewassen, loden beelden en andere

goederen." 36 Van Strien and van der Leer, op. cit. (note 33), P. 122.

37 See Weaver, op. cit. (note 2), p. 165, and frontispiece, for a lead

version of this Mercury in the garden of Holme Lacy (Herefordshire), which may be of a later date.

38 Bredius. op. cit. (note i), vol. I, p. 329.

39 H. Hijmans, Het Huis aan den Boschkant op den hoek van het Korte Voorhout te 's-Gravenhage, The Hague 1922, p. 24.




waterworks with a complex sculptural composition in lead, including the pipework.4' The Huygens fountain, which cost 6oo guilders, was probably between /2% and 2 meters high, and consisted of a basin supported by a mermaid and a triton with two dolphins. Standing in the basin was a pedestal with four cherubs and eight sea- monsters spouting water. The almost un-Dutch preten- tiousness manifested by this work may partly explain Larson's success as a statue founder, for apart from in the gardens of the stadholder's palaces, such fountains were a great rarity in the mid-seventeenth century, and Larson capitalized on the growing demand for garden decorations of this kind from the owners of country es- tates.41

One passage in the contract is especially important, for it shows that Larson had also worked for the stadholder's court, which is not all that surprising given his relationship with the Berlin court and Constantijn Huy- gens but has never before been documented.42 Willem Huygens stipulated that he wanted "eight sea-monsters cast in lead, as on the fountain in the garden of Her Highness the Princess of Orange at Noordeinde."'43 Like Willem Huygens's fountain, the one for Amalia van Solms's garden at Noordeinde Palace has not survived, but some idea of it can be gleaned from a poetic description written in 1681 by Jacob de Hennin, the steward of Amalia's household. "Pray step, too, into this small, beautiful garden for a moment, the flower garden of the late Princess Amalia whose court we have viewed.... What do you think of that beautiful fountain

made from the very finest marble. Behold all the cas- cades and fountain-heads, how refreshing it all is that issues forth. What a beautiful figure that is, that Diana, who stands upon it, there beside Neptune and Aquar- ius, those beautiful water-gods, they are also after the finest antique.... Behold, finally, these beautiful, incom-

parably well-made and carved marble children, they are almost alive, yea almost as if a skin had been drawn over

them, so exceptionally sturdy, light-hearted and decora- tive."44

De Hennin says that the fountain statues were of

marble, which must be a bit of poetic license, for there were never any large marble statues in this part of the

garden. The lead had probably been painted to resemble

marble, like the 24 allegorical putti in the Berlin Lust-

garten. Of the statues mentioned by de Hennin, a Diana and a Neptune are also listed in the inventory of Larson's

shop stock. A later description of the garden reveals that Amalia's "small garden," a walled enclosure behind the

palace, also contained a small lead fountain crowned by a figure of Fame and with two freestanding statues of women.45 It is no longer possible to say whether this too was Larson's work. The same applies to the fountains that Adriaen Hanneman and Jan Mijtens depicted in some of their paintings. In Mijtens's Granida and Daifi- lo there is a fountain with Cupid pouring water from a

pitcher and three seated putti (fig. 13), and elsewhere he

depicted a variant with a dolphin, and another with a

putto on a swan. The idea that these may have been modeled on work by Larson is made more persuasive by

40 GADH, NA, inv. nr. 597, fol. 17v; see also Bredius, op. cit. (note i), vol. I, pp. 330-31.

41 The Englishman Edward Wright visited Pieter de la Court's garden in Leiden in 1722, and reported that fountains were a rare sight in the Republic: "...the Fountain playing all the while, in a large Bason, which is not very frequent in the Dutch gardens; for, the Country be-

ing flat, the Water is all raised by force; not without considerable Ex-

pence"; see Fock, op. cit. (note 19), esp. p. 35, note 21. Willem Huy- gens, who may have been a son of the Arnhem burgomaster Rutger Huyghens (1592-1666), was probably either the owner or joint owner of the Clarenbeek estate. The lead fountain was probably intended for that pleasure garden, which had natural flows of water.

42 The name Larson features neither in Huygens's published corre-

spondence nor in D.F. Slothouwer, De paleizen van Frederik Hendrik, Leiden 1945.

43 GADH, NA, inv. nr. 597, fol. 17v: "8 Seemonsters van loot ge- gooten, gelijck op de fonteijn in 't Hoff van Haere Hooch[heit] de Princesse van Orangie int Noorteynde."

44 Jacob de Hennin, De zinri*ke Gedachten toegepast op de Vijf Sin-

nen van 's menschen Verstand, Amsterdam 1681, pp. 108-10, esp. p. og9: "Belieft u ook eens in deze kleene schone hof te treeden, welke is den Blomhof van zal: de Princesse Amilia wiens hof wy hebben bezichticht.... Wat dunkt u van die schoone fontein gemaakt van het alderbeste marmer; beziet doch alle de kaskadens en springh aders eens, hoe vervrissende dat dat alles opgeeft. Wat is dat een schoone figuer, die Diana, die daar op staat, daar neffens Nephtuinus en Aqua- rius, die schoone watergoden, het zijn ook van de beste antique.... Beziet doch voor 't leste alle deeze schoone onvergelijkelijke wel gemaakte en gesneden Marmure kinderkens eens aan, het is leven by na gelijk, jaa by na offer een vel was over getogen, zoo uitermaten vol, los en geestigh."

45 Drossaers and Lunsingh Scheurleer, op. cit. (note 28) vol. i, p. 259, nrs. 613-14; P. den Boer, Het huys int Noorteynde, Zutphen 1986, pp. 51-54; V. Bezemer Sellers, "'Condet aurea saecula': de tuinen van Frederik Hendrik," in M. Keblusek and J. Zijlmans, exhib. cat. Vorstelijk vertoon: aan het hof van Frederik Hendrik en Amalia, The Hague (Haags Historish Museum) & Zwolle 1997, pp. 126-42, esp. p. 141.



66 FRITS SCHOLTEN

13 Jan Mijtens, Granida and Daifilo, c. i66o. Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum

the fact that Mijtens and Johan Larson must have known each other well as leading members of The

Hague's artists' fraternity.46 A related putto emptying a

pitcher is also found in the series of garden statues which the Larsons made for the elector in Berlin (fig. 6, bottom right).

It can be inferred from an anecdote recorded by the

Hague lawyer Aernout van Overbeke (1631-74) for his

collection of jokes that Larson also supplied a fountain to Cornelis van Aerssen, Lord of Sommelsdijk, and his wife: "Jan Larson, the sculptor, was working on a fountain for the Lady of Sommelsdijk. Seated with her at table on one occasion, he buttered his bread rather

thickly. She, who was a little on the frugal side, could not remain silent. 'Well, well,' she said, 'Monsieur Lar-

son, do you intend eating that bread with butter alone?'

46 Buijsen, op. cit. (note 7), pp. 20o6-I I. Mijtens regularly served as warden of the fraternity from 1656 on. The paintings featuring fountains were with Frost & Reed Ltd, Bristol (I959), and in sale Amster- dam (De Zon), November/December 1960, nr. 5502. Hanneman was

one of the founders of the fraternity and a highly respected member; see 0. ter Kuile, Adriaen Hanneman 1604-1671: een Haags portret- schilder, Alphen aan den Rijn 1976, pp. II, 12, and figs. 17, 18 and 78.




Reply: 'No, not I, milady, I intend putting cheese on it too'."47 This 'joke,' which was circulating in The Hague around 166o, is indicative of Larson's reputation in the

city. He was evidently colorful enough to feature in a

story of this kind, in which he is portrayed as someone who led the good life. His nonchalant lifestyle is con- trasted with the parsimony of Mrs van Aerssen, which was presumably the point of the joke, for Cornelis van Aerssen was reputed to be the richest man in Holland. It is not surprising that the Lord of Sommelsdijk was one of Larson's customers, for he belonged to the same cir- cle of favorites of the house of Orange as Buysero and

Huygens, with whom he corresponded. As a military man and confidant of Stadholder Willem II, he was involved in the preparations for the assault on Amsterdam in 1650, which did nothing to help his reputation.

Larson also received another commission from van

Aerssen, which was to make a tomb for his son, for Lar- son's inventory mentions "a model of the tomb for the son of the Lord of Sommelsdijk" ("een model van het

sepultuur van den Heer van Sommelsdijck sijn soon"), which is undoubtedly a reference to Frangois van Aerssen (1630-58), who drowned on a crossing to Eng- land.48 It is not known for certain whether the tomb was ever executed, but if it was it must have perished in a fire in 1799, along with that of Cornelis van Aerssen's parents.49

It emerges from a deed of sale relating to Larson's estate that Johan Larson had a fountain of his own. It stood in his garden, and was doubtless intended as a showroom model for potential clients. On 3 October

1664 a statue founder from Delft bought Larson's

house, garden and land, with the express inclusion of

the fountain and its accoutrements, namely "the plaster molds for the figures or mermen, as they are there, and the copper or other instruments serving the waterworks of the said fountain."5s This fellow-founder saw his opportunity to carry on Larson's fountain business without too much of an outlay.5'

ELSWOUT The appearance of the Diana in the garden of Noordeinde Palace can be inferred from an eighteenth-century mention of another statue of the goddess by Larson. It concerns the sale of works of art from the collection of the Amsterdam merchant Gabriel Marselis

(1609-73) at his country seat of Elswout, near Overveen. In 1719 his descendants decided to sell various objects, among them "a Diana with her dog, more than 7 feet

high" ("een Diana met haar hondt hoog ruijm 7 voet"). It was bought for 143 guilders by Vincent van der Vinne. In the margin of the document there is a note that the statue was made by Johan Larson.52 Although this might indicate that the statue was signed, it is more

likely that Larson had supplied far more statues for Marselis's country house, and that his name was known to the descendants for that reason.

A painting of Elswout attributed to Jan van der Heij- den contains a bird's-eye view of several white statues in the garden, in the middle of which is a Diana with her

dog.53 It is a variant of the classical statue of the Diane chasseresse (Paris, Louvre), which had been on view in Paris since the sixteenth century and was highly regard- ed.54 The Rijksmuseum has a lead garden statue of the

goddess of the hunt and her dog which seems to be an

eighteenth-century re-cast of Larson's model (fig. 14).s5 It is about I6o cm high, 40 cm less than the 7-foot high

47 See R. Dekker and H. Roodenburg (eds.), Aernout van Overbeke, Anecdota sive historiaejocosae: een zeventiende-eeuwse verzameling mop- pen en anekdotes, Amsterdam 1991, p. 375, joke nr. 2349: "Jan Larson, de beelthouwer, was bij de vrouw van Sommelsdijck in 't werck van een

fonteyn te maecken. Eens met haer over tafel sittende, smeerde hij de booter vrij wat dick op sijn brood. Sij, die wat aen de deune kant is, kon niet swijgen.'Wel', seyde sij,'monsieur Larson, meent ghij die booter tot dat brood alleen te eeten?' R. 'Neen, ick toch niet, mevrou, ick meen er noch kaes op te leggen'." With thanks to Friso Lammertse for spot- ting this mention of Larson's name.

48 Bredius, op. cit. (note I), vol. I, p. 326. 49 See Scholten, op. cit. (note 12), fig. 89, for an eighteenth-century

drawing of the tomb of Cornelis van Aerssen's parents. 50 GADH, NA, inv. nr. 580, fols. 122-25, esp. fol. 123: "...de pleijster-

vormen van de Figueren ofte Meermans, soo deselve daer sijn, en de

coperen ofte andere instrumenten tot het Waterwerck van deselve

Fonteijn dienende." See also Bredius, op. cit. (note i), vol. I, p. 331. 51 The extent to which Larson's work on fountains inspired other

sculptors is unclear. He was a business associate of Joris Minnee, a

Hague sculptor involved in the construction of the fountain for the Vismarkt in Leiden. Minnee was another of Larson's creditors.

52 E. de Jong and C. Schellekens, Het beeld buiten: vier eeumen tuin- sculptuur in Nederland, Heino & Wijhe 1994, P. 95.

53 Ibid., fig. 76. 54 F. Haskell and N. Penny, Taste and the antique: the lure ofclassical

sculpture 1500-I900, New Haven & London 1981, nr. 30. 55 J. Leeuwenberg and W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het

Rijksmuseum, The Hague & Amsterdam 1973, nr. 396. It comes from a

garden in Monnickendam.



68 FRITS SCHOLTEN

14 Johan Larson (after), Diana, lead, c. 1740, h. i6o cm. Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum

statue in the garden at Elswout. Although that might mean that the model was reduced at some stage, it is also

possible that the figure of 7 feet included the pedestal. On Gabriel Marselis's death in 1673, Elswout passed

to his son Jan, who appears to have made little change to the garden. After he died in 1702, his heirs took steps to

dispose of the house, gardens and much of the contents. In preparation for the sale, Maurits Walraven surveyed the estate in 1703, and his detailed drawings give an ex- cellent idea of the ornate decoration of Elswout (figs. 15, 16). The eye is caught particularly by the statues stand-

ing at the back of the house. Here there was a walled

courtyard with a Neptune fountain in the middle. Around the rim of the basin are eight animals on

pedestals. According to the travel account of the Ger- man Christian Knorr von Rosenroth, who visited Elswout in 1663, the fountain statues were made of copper (he meant bronze): "in the middle is a magnificent piece of ornamental water with a copper statue of Nep- tune from which the spring-water issues, and around it are doves, a dolphin, lobster, armadillo, crocodile, par- rot and tortoise, all of copper, spouting water and rest-

ing on stone pedestals."56 Walraven's drawing shows that there were also two statues standing in niches in the rear wall of the house, as well as four putti on the top of the lower wall around the courtyard. Among them one can make out with little difficulty some of the statues that Larson had supplied for Berlin and Hofwijck. In the left foreground is a boy with a tazza and wine jug (fig. 5, nr. 5), while in the right background is the skat-

ing putto (fig. 5, nr. 4). The other two are unfortunately unidentifiable, as is the righthand of the two statues in the niches flanking the flight of steps. The one on the left was probably a Venus. A drawing of the Orangery, also by Walraven, shows another four statues in niches

(fig. 16), the identities of which are as yet undetermined. The fact that Larson made the statue of Diana for the

garden at Elswout, and that in the courtyard at the back of the house there were at least two of his allegorical putti, strengthens the suspicion that he was responsible for

most, if not all the cast garden statues on the estate. It is no longer possible to say whether he could also have cast in bronze. If Knorr von Rosenroth's observation is cor-

56 Elswout te Overveen (Bijdragen tot het bronnenonderzoek naar de

ontwikkeling van Nederlandse historische tuinen, parken en buitenplaatsen 12), Zeist 1983, p. 6.




15 Maurits Walraven, Rear ofElswout with the

Neptune fountain (situation in 1703), drawing, 1719. Leiden, Rijksuniversiteit, Bodel Nijenhuis Collection

16 Maurits Walraven, The orangery at Elswout (situation in 1703), drawing, 1719. Leiden, Rijksuniversiteit, Bodel Nijenhuis Collection



70 FRITS SCHOLTEN

rect, Larson would at most have supplied the models, delegating the casting to a specialist cannon or bell founder. He would not have had a special foundry of his own for heating bronze to its melting-point. It may be

important in this context that in 1651 and 1654 Guil- laume Larson resorted to a notary to resolve disputes with the brass founder Adriaen Vultson.57 It is possible that the two men collaborated on projects of this kind.

The later fate of the Elswout statues is not known in

full, and is also difficult to follow. In February 1703 the sale of the country estate did go through, the purchaser being the son-in-law ofJan van Marselis, one Jan Roms-

winckel, but because the new owner died a few months later the purchase remained in abeyance until 1718. The statues on pedestals (i.e. those that did not belong to the decoration of the facades of the house), five paintings, overmantels and tapestries were not part of the purchase, but could be bought at their valuation price. Romswinckel's underage son had the use of Elswout from 1703 until 1718, when he became the official owner. In the meantime, Jan van Marselis's descendants, the brothers Jan, Willem Hendrik and Hendrik, insisted on a valuation of the items that were not included in the

sale, among them the statues on pedestals. These had

evidently not yet been paid for due to Romswinckel's sudden death. In 1705 the painter Jan van Huchten- burch and the founder Barent Dronrijp of Amsterdam were asked to make the valuation.s8 The presence of the latter is yet another indication that the Elswout statues were made solely of cast lead or bronze. Most of the garden sculpture was still at Elswout when Jan de Beyer made drawings around the estate in 1746. Neptune stood in the now dry fountain, and three of the four putti were still on the lower wall.59 Elswout gradually fell into dis-

repair, and when it was transformed into a landscaped park in the late eighteenth century, the remaining statues also disappeared.

JOHAN LARSON'S LEGACY The surviving notarial records give a good idea of what happened to Johan Lar- son's estate. In the will that he made on 15 July 1664, very shortly before his death, he gave his mother the usufruct of his possessions, which would eventually pass to the children of his brothers Dirck and Willem

(who were in London at the time). Johan also left Willem all his sculpting and foundry tools on condition that he completed the unfinished lead and plaster sculptures in his workshop.60 His stock was then sold and his

outstanding debts paid. The purchasers included the

sculptor Jacob Roman, who bought a modeling stool, among other items.61

The main buyer of Larson's studio stock was Arent de Rijp of Delft, who bought Larson's house, shop, yard and garden in the autumn of 1664 for 5,300 guilders, in-

cluding the garden fountain, the casting molds for the fountain statues and, according to a second deed of sale drawn up in November, "some other models or molds on this date in said office or summer-house,... as well as six or seven lead pipes and three or four heads cast in

plaster and a copper mold for casting pipes and some

plaster in a bin, all being in the workshop or shed, and also a trass or plaster mill standing in a shed.",62 It is

tempting to identify the founder Arent de Rijp of Delft, whom we have encountered above in connection with the purchase of the fountain, with another founder from Delft-Barent Dronrijp, who was involved in the valuation of Larson's statues at Elswout in I705. Dronrijp had had a visit from the Swedish architect Tessin in Amsterdam in 1687, who wrote in his travel journal: "The best and almost the only founder of lead statuary is called Bernardus Dronrijp. The various casts that he can supply are apparent from the list that he [has] given me."6' Leaving aside the similarity of the names Dron-

rijp and de Rijp, which makes one suspect a slip of the

pen or a corruption of one and the same name, both de

57 GADH, NA, inv. nr. 169, fol. 186 (13 June 1651), and inv. nr. 247, fol. 322 (29 June 1654). Both disputes were personal, not professional. Johan did have several bronze objects, including heads and a sleeping child.

58 Amsterdam City Archives (hereafter GAA), NA, nr. 6482, pp. 1593-95 (notary Hendrik de Wilde, 28 December 1705).

59 Elswout, cit. (note 56), fig. io. 6o GADH, NA, inv. nr. 379, fols. 176-78 (will of 15 July 1664). 61 Bredius, op. cit. (note i), vol. I, p. 328. 62 GADH, NA, inv. nr. 580, fols. 122-25 (November 1664), esp. fol.

124: "...nogh eenig ander modellen of vormtgens op dato deses in seker

comptoirtgen ofte thuynhuys gelegen,... als mede noch ses a 7 looden

pijpgen ende 3 a 4 pleyster gegoten tronien ende een coper vorm tottet

gieten van pijpen en eenig pleyster in sekeren bak sijnde alles gelegen in

het werckhuis ofte schuer, als mede sekere tras ofte pleyster molen staande in een schuer." See also Bredius, op. cit. (note I), vol. I, p. 331, for a related document of October 1664, in which the name of the buyer is not mentioned.

63 G. Upmark, "Ein Besuch in Holland 1687: aus den Reise-

schilderungen des schwedischen Architekten Nicodemus Tessin d.J.," Oud Holland 18 (1900), p. 127: "Der beste undt fast eintzige bleijgies- ser von Statuen heist Bernardus Dronrijp, wass er von all von giisse kan




Rijp and Dronrijp came from Delft and followed the same profession.64 However, they could not possibly be the same person, for when the former became betrothed in 1681 he gave his age as 22,65 meaning that he was born around 1659 and would only have been five years old when Larson died. However, it is not inconceivable that he later had access to models from Larson's estate after he settled as a founder in Amsterdam.

Dronrijp must have been a young and ambitious businessman who profited from the lack of competition in Amsterdam, witness Tessin's statement that he was "the best and almost the only founder of lead statuary" in the city. It can be deduced from the fact that Dronrijp gave his visitor a sort of catalogue of what he was able to

supply that he was doing well in Amsterdam, and that he ran his business on a professional footing. It was precisely because of his monopolistic position that Dronrijp was very probably also the supplier of 27 lifesize, gilt- lead statues for the garden of Herrenhausen in Hanover, the country palace of Ernst August von Braunschweig- Liineburg. The Hanoverian court had the reputation of

being one of the most flamboyant in Germany, compa- rable in its cultural taste and refinement to leading courts in France and Italy. The culture of the Veneto was a particularly fruitful source of inspiration for late

seventeenth-century court life in Hanover.66 In 1666, a

magnificent garden was laid out around the Herren- hausen country seat in a project that was not completed until the I69os. The garden sculpture was often commissioned from little-known Dutch artists like Pieter van Empthusen and Arnold Rossfeld. Another Dutch-

man, or possibly Fleming, Philip Jacob Borman, was appointed in the i68os to cast lead statues for a fountain.

17 Schloss Herrenhausen (Hanover), Open-air theater

However, that local lead foundry was evidently unable to meet all the demand for garden sculpture, for in 1689, two lead statues-versions of the so-called Borghese warrior, were ordered from Amsterdam for the open-air theater at Herrenhausen (fig. 17).67 That order was fol-

lowed two years later by another for no fewer than 25 statues (each I6o centimeters high) for the wings of the same theater. They included a number of dancing figures, as well as copies after classical sculpture such as

dancing satyrs, various types of Venus (with an apple, Medici Venus) and a Flora (figs. 18-22).

Seventeen of those statues survive today, although they were recently replaced by bronze copies.68 They

fournieren, weist dass register auss, so er mir mitgegeben [hat]." On Tessin see also E. de Jong, "Nicodemus Tessin the Younger travels to Holland in 1687," Konsthistorisk tidskrift 72 (2003), nrs. 1/2, pp. 33-46.

64 For Dronrijp's origins in Delft see W. Halsema-Kubes, "Bartholomeus Eggers' keizers- en keizerinnenbusten voor keurvorst Friedrich Wilhelm van Brandenburg," Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 36 (1988), pp. 44-53, esp. note 20.

65 Dronrijp got betrothed to Elsje Stubbe on 25 July 1681; see GAA, Doop- en Trouwboeken 692, p. 249. A later declaration reveals that he tried to divorce his wife, who treated him very rudely and called him a "damned fellow" ("dondersen vent") and "whoring beast" ("hoeren- beest"); see GAA, NA, nr. 6956, pp. 537-39 (notary Jan van Velen).

66 B. Arciszewska, "Re-casting George I: sculpture, the royal image and the market," in C. Sicca and A. Yarrington (eds.), The lustrous trade: material culture and the history ofsculpture in England and Italy c. 700oo-c. i86o, London & New York 2000, pp. 27-48, esp. pp. 29-32.

67 See further E. Schuster, Kunst und Kiinstler in den Fiirsten- thiiumern Calenberg und Liineburg in der Zeit von i636 bis 1727, Hanover & Leipzig 1905, pp. 87-89; R.E. Wallbrecht, Das Theater des Barockzeitalters an den welfischen Hiofen Hannover und Celle (Quellen und Darstellungen zur Geschichte Niedersachsens, 83), Hildesheim 1974, Pp. 79-89, esp. pp. 85-86; D. Hennebo and E. Schmidt, "Das Theater- boskett: zu Bedeutung und Zweckbestimmung des Herrenhauser

Heckentheaters," Niedersichsisches Jahrbuch fir Landesgeschichte 50

(I978), PP. 213-21. 68 With thanks to Dr Peter K6nigfeld of the Niedersichsisches

Landesamt fiir Denkmalpflege, Hanover. The 17 surviving statues are now being restored by Haber & Brandner in Regensburg; see M.

Heimler, "Die barocken Bleiplastiken des Heckentheaters im Herren-

hiuser Garten: aktuelle Restaurierungsmassnahmen, ein Vorbericht," Berichte zur Denkmalpflege in Niedersachsen 2004, nr. 2, pp. 37-39.



72 FRITS SCHOLTEN

18 B. Dronrijp (attributed to), Gladiator, 1689, gilt- lead, h. 1,60 m. Herrenhausen, Open-air theater

19 B. Dronrijp (attributed to), Venus, 1691, gilt-lead, h. 1,6o m. Herrenhausen, Open-air theater

2o B. Dronrijp (attributed to), Dancer, 1691, gilt-lead, h. 1,6o m. Herrenhausen, Open-air theater

21 B. Dronrijp (attributed to), Dancing bacchante, 1691, gilt-lead, h. 1,60 m. Herrenhausen, Open-air theater




22 B. Dronrijp (attributed to), Dancing satyr, 1691, gilt-lead, h. i,6o m. Herrenhausen, Open-air theater



74 FRITS SCHOLTEN

probably give a good idea of the standard of quality of lead sculpture in the Dutch Republic. There is a striking similarity with Johan Larson's stock inventory, which suggests that Dronrijp made use of models that were in Larson's house when he died: various dancing figures, a Flora, a Venus with an apple, a Greek Venus and a Gladiator, which could well have been reused by Dronrijp, the more so because making lifesize models must have been quite expensive.69 The height of the Herrenhausen statues, approximately I6o centimeters, corresponds to that of the Diana in the Rijksmuseum, which could also point to a common origin.

Finally, the name Dronrijp is mentioned in passing in connection with a plaster cast of Quellinus's bust of Jo- han de Witt. On 30 November 1673, Pieter de Graeff, de Witt's brother-in-law, noted in his diary: "Sent to my mother at home a cast plaster likeness of Frere de Witt, as cast and finished by Hendrik Dronrijp."70

While Dronrijp appears to have put items from Lar- son's estate to profitable use in Amsterdam, good business was done with foreign patrons in The Hague as well. It was there, after 1664, that the founder and silversmith Jonas Gutsche (I624-c. 1677), who came from Silesia, took over the position vacated by Johan Larson. He supplied the Count of Oldenburg with 20 lead statues, each 5 feet high, for the sum of 2,500 guilders.7' An example of his skill as a modeler and silversmith, and il- lustrative of the respect in which he was held by artists in The Hague, is the silver-gilt goblet which he made in 1670 for the local artists' fraternity. The seated female personification of Pictura is undoubtedly by him (fig. 23).7" On 22 May 1677, probably shortly after his death, an advertisement appeared in the Haarlemsche Courant announcing the sale of "His fine and outstanding art,

23 Jonas Gutsche, Guild goblet, The Hague 1670, silver-gilt. Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen

69 Versions of the Borghese warrior were also in the garden of Amerongen Castle around 1700, and at Honselaarsdijk Palace in 1755; see de Jong and Schellekens, op. cit. (note 52), p. 20, fig. 13, and Drossaers and Lunsingh Scheurleer, op. cit. (note 28), vol. 2, p. 501. The warrior was also depicted by Ludolf de Jongh in a painting of an imaginary country house; see F. Scholten, "LudolfdeJongh en de aris- tocratisering van het genre," in N. Schadee (ed.), exhib. cat. Rotter- dam, Rotterdamse meesters uit de Gouden Eeuw, Rotterdam (Rotterdams Historisch Museum) & Zwolle 1994, pp. 142-52, fig. I. A plaster model of the statue stands on the table in a painting of an artist's studio executed by Michiel van Musscher in 1690o (Basel, private collection). Dronrijp probably also reused models by others. Three lead busts of Roman emperors attributed to him are based on models by the sculptor Bartholomeus Eggers for marble statues; see Halsema-Kubes, op. cit.

(note 64), p. 48. Then there are four large lead statues, a Venus, a faun, a dancing nymph and a Mercury, which also recall Larson's range. They were sold from the Eversdijk Collection at the Tussenburg country estate in Voorburg in 1766; see the sale catalogue in the Netherlands Institute for Art History (RKD), The Hague.

70 G. van Ernst Koning, Het huis te Ilpendam en deszelfs voornaamste bezitters, Amsterdam 1836, p. 61: "Aan mijne Moeder te huis gezonden eene gepleisterde afgegoten beeldtenis van Fre. De Witt, zoo als dezelve door Hendrik Dronrijp afgegoten en opgezuiverd is." Hendrik ("Heinderick") Dronrijp was probably a brother of Barent's.

71 E. Voet and H.E. van Gelder, Merken van Haagsche gouden zil- versmeden, The Hague 1941, p. 59.

72 Buijsen, op. cit. (note 7), p. 42 (entry by J.R. ter Molen).




24 Jonas Gutsche, Mermaid, 1710, lead, h. c. 75 cm. Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum

consisting of lead and plaster statues, including many lifesized." ("Zijne schoone en uitnemende kunst, bestaende in lood en pleysterbeelden, waaronder vele

levensgrooten waren"). His son Andries (1658-1741) continued Jonas's foundry work, as shown by a contract

that he signed on i o December 1689 with von

Friessendorf, the king of Sweden's secretary, in which he agreed to supply two lead statues of Mercury and

Fortuna, and a further eight plaster ones of Mars, Venus, Diana, Adonis, and the four seasons.73 The lead

73 J. R6melingh, Een rondgang langs Zweedse archieven: een onder- zoek naar archivalia inzake de betrekkingen tussen Nederland en Zweden,

1520-I920, The Hague 1986, p. 214. On Andries Gutsche see also Voet

and van Gelder, op. cit. (note 71), P. 59.



76 FRITS SCHOLTEN

25 Johan Larson (after), The four seasons, Netherlands, c. 1750, lead, h. 44-48 cm. Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum

statues of a mermaid and a Mercury signed "Jonas Gutsche", which are dated 1710 and 1733 respectively, undoubtedly came from the same studio, but may be the work of a son of Andries (fig. 24).74 They are evidence of the length of time that sculptors kept reusing old models.

That the stadholder's court in the Netherlands

placed large orders emerges from the inventories of the house of Nassau. This is indicated, for example, by ensembles like the "io lead Cupids" ("io Cupidoos van

loot") or the "io lead statues, lifesize" ("io looden beelden levensgroote") that were inventoried at the

Frisian court in Leeuwarden in 1712. Unfortunately, it is no longer possible to identify the founder who supplied them. It stands to reason, though, that such com- missions from domestic patrons stimulated orders for lead sculpture from foreign courts.

THE FOUR SEASONS The reuse of Larson's models, as done by Barent Dronrijp, has a much longer history still. Replicas of the putti representing the four seasons which the Larsons made for the elector's garden in Berlin show how long their models remained in circula- tion among later generations of founders and sculptors.

74 Leeuwenberg and Halsema-Kubes, op. cit. (note 55), pp. 283-84.




26 Johan Larson (after), Standing putto (Spring?), Netherlands, c. 1680-1700, gilt-lead, h. 50,2 cm. Amsterdam, Amsterdams Historisch Museum

An example of this is the set of four small lead sculptures of the seasons made around 1750 (going by the evidence of the rocaille bases) and bought by the Rijksmu- seum in 1950 (fig. 25). They are said to have come from a garden in Rotterdam, although their size suggests that

they were more likely to have been found indoors.75

That the putti are in fact reused, reduced Larson models is clear from two of them: the little skater symboliz- ing winter, and the putto with sickle and ears of corn

27 Eglon van der Neer, Family on the terrace ofa country house, 1671. Present whereabouts unknown

standing for summer are identical to the models drawn

by Elsholtz in 1657 (fig. 5). The other two lead figures probably also come from Larson's repertoire, given the similarities of the faces. The putto depicting spring is a variant of its Berlin counterpart (the position of the left arm has been changed), and the pose of the autumn put- to recalls the little boy with the tazza and wine jug in Berlin (fig. 5, nr. 5). These century-old models were still

evidently considered relevant around 175o, and only needed minor modifications for them to take on a new life.

A lead putto 50 centimeters high in the Amsterdams Historisch Museum is also a Larson invention (fig. 26). Its pose is identical to that of the putto standing for

spring in the Berlin ensemble (fig. 5, nr. i) and on the

bridge at Hofwijck. A hole in its right hand shows that it

originally held an attribute. It might have been a bunch of flowers, as in Berlin and Hofwijck, but the presence of the figure in several paintings by Eglon van der Neer shows that the statuette was also executed with a bird in its hand (fig. 27).76

75 Ibid., nr. 392 (inv. nrs. BK-I6447a-d), and R. Baarsen (ed.), exhib. cat. Rococo in Nederland, Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) & Zwolle

2001, nr. 5. 76 M. Jonker et al., In beeld gebracht: beeldhouwkunst uit de collectie

van het Amsterdams Historisch Museum, Zwolle & Amsterdam 1995, nr.

56. For van der Neer's painting see sale London (Sotheby's), 19 April

1989, nr. 46.



78 FRITS SCHOLTEN

28 Johan Larson (after), Skating putto (Win- ter?), Netherlands, c. 1710, lead, h. c. 70 cm.

Abbeville, Mus&e Boucher de Perthes

29 Johan Larson (after), Putto with a tambourine

(Hearing?), Netherlands, c. 1710, lead, h. c. 70 cm. Abbeville, Musee Boucher de Perthes

30 Johan Larson (after), Putto with a bunch ofgrapes (Autumn?), Netherlands, c. 1710, lead, h. c., 70 cm. Abbeville, Musee Boucher

A second, slightly larger lead personification of winter and four other putti stood in the garden of the H6tel de Rames in Abbeville in northern France. They are now in the town's Musee Boucher de Perthes (fig. 28).77 La Manufacture de Rames was built between 1709 and

1713 for the cloth-maker Josse van Robals, who was

originally from Courtrai and Middelburg, and who had been encouraged to move his factory to Abbeville by Colbert. A Dutch origin for the lead figures is perfectly conceivable, since the van Robals family maintained their ties with Middelburg, where Josse was actually buried in 1733. At least one of the other Abbeville putti, a dancing figure who originally held a tambourine (fig. 29), is found among Elsholtz's sketches (fig. 5, nr io). The other ones-a boy with a citadel on his head (possibly a personification of the city of Middelburg), a boy with a bunch of grapes (fig. 30), and a girl with a bead bracelet-are stylistically so close to Winter and the lit-

tle dancer that they must have seen the light of day in Larson's shop and may have been modified by a later founder.

The changes that the sculptor Aegidius Verhelst

(1696-1749) made to Larson's models were more radi- cal. In 1718 this Antwerp artist entered the service of the Bavarian court in Munich.78 Verhelst probably had models of Larson's putti in his baggage, and reworked them in two groups of seasonal putti at play (figs. 31, 32). The pose, size and detail of the figures of spring (with flowers) and autumn (with tazza and bunch of

grapes) correspond precisely to their counterparts in Amsterdam. Although no different in style from these two figures, the other two, seated putti may well be Ver- helst's own invention, going by the evidence of two related groups in lead with the signature "AE VER- HELST I[nvenit]. F[ecit]."79 Finally, the Brussels

sculptor Roucourt was inspired for his group of terra-

77 Leeuwenberg and Halsema-Kubes, op. cit. (note 55), nr. 392.

78 For the attribution to Verhelst see D. Dietrich, Aegid Verhelst (1696-1749): ein flmischer Bildhauer in Siiddeutschland, Weissenhorn

1986, pp. 131-39. Dietrich wrongly attributed the lead figures in Am- sterdam to Verhelst.

79 Dietrich, op. cit. (note 78), p. 138 and figs. 76-77.




31 Aegidius Verhelst, The four seasons (Summer and Autumn), Munich,

c. 1740, lead, h. c. 50 cm. Munich, Bayerisches Nationalmuseum 32 Aegidius Verhelst, The four seasons (Spring and Winter), Munich, c. 1740, lead, h. c. 50 cm. Munich, Bayerisches Nationalmuseum

cotta four seasons by a model of the skater, this time in

contemporary dress (fig. 33).80

These replicas in lead and terracotta illustrate the ease with which artists ex-

changed, adopted, recycled and reworked each others' models and inventions over several generations, open- ing up the possibility of a second or even third life for such compositions. At the same time, the different versions demonstrate how much of an anonymous activity the making of sculpture multiples usually was, consign- ing the name of the original designer to oblivion.

SCULPTURE FOR PAINTERS Whether they were aware of it or not, the Larsons were themselves responsible for the popularity and rapid dissemination of their models, and a look at the stock in the shop in 1664 makes it clear

why. By far the majority of the sculptures listed were made of plaster, which means that Johan Larson's activities also extended into the field of reproductive sculpture for the cheaper end of the market. Here his clients were not princes or wealthy burghers but his own col-

leagues, among others. Thanks to Elsholtz's drawings it is possible to ascertain that several of Johan Larson's

8o With Aronson Antiquairs, Amsterdam, in September 2003. My thanks to R. Aronson for providing a photograph. It is impossible to

say how much the skating children made by the German sculptor

Franz Schiffland around 90Io owe to Larson's little skater; see H.

Berman, Bronzes: sculptors &5 founders 1800-1930, 4 vols., Chicago 1974-80, vol. 2, nrs. 938-39.



80 FRITS SCHOLTEN

33 F. Roucourt, The four seasons, Brussels, 1774, terracotta, h. 70 cm. Amsterdam, Aronson Antiquairs

painter contemporaries made use of his models as studio

props. A rather primitive work by the Gouda painter Constantijn Verhout shows an artist, perhaps Verhout

himself, sketching Larson's little skater (fig. 34)."8 The

painting is dated 1663, which makes it likely that the

plaster figure indeed came from Larson's workshop. The same skater is standing on the left on a shelf on the back wall of an artist's studio that Michiel van Musscher drew in 1667 (fig. 35).82 There are other plaster casts on the shelf, among them an ecorche after a model by Willem van Tetrode (1525-80), while in the foreground there is the bust of a Roman emperor, some heads, a Pal-

las Athena and a young Hercules. The third case is a work by Godfried Schalcken in which two young artists are drawing from plaster models by the light of an oil

lamp, and here too the skater stands prominently on the table (fig. 36).83

Other paintings, mainly genre pieces, illustrate the

way in which such studio props were used. Larson's

plaster models of putti are found in several interiors and

garden and terrace scenes illustrating the outdoor activities of the well-to-do. In The terrace sometimes attributed to Hendrick van der Burgh, Larson's skater and his

Cupid carving a bow after Duquesnoy stand on white

81 Cat. Galerie Friederike Pallamar, Vienna (Autumn 1968), p. 16o. 82 Haarlem, Teylers Museum, pen and brush, dated 1667.

83 Sale Vienna (Dorotheum), 30 November and 23 December 1976, nr. 84 and fig. 31.




34

35

36

34 Constantijn Verhout, Draughtsman with a plaster model, 1663. Present whereabouts unknown

35 Michiel van Musscher, A painter in his studio, 1667, drawing. Haarlem, Teylers Stichting

36 Godfried Schalcken, Twoyoung artists drawingfrom plaster models, c. 1670. Present whereabouts unknown



82 FRITS SCHOLTEN

37 Hendrick van der Burch (?), The terrace, c. 166o. Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago

38 Pieter de Hooch, Game ofninepins, c. 1665. England, Waddesdon Manor

pedestals in a walled garden (fig. 37). Although seem-

ingly neutral and convincing as garden adornments, both figures can also be viewed as masked comments on the amorous intentions of the two couples in the painting. Cupid carving his bow is preparing to use it in his

capacity as the god of love. The skater, which Larson

presented as the personification of winter, recovers the

original connotation given to it by Daniel Heinsius in the emblem "In lubrico," namely that those embarking on the path of love are venturing onto slippery ice (fig.

8).84 It is perhaps in that sense that the winter putto was also included in an interior of 1672 by Pieter Cornelisz van Slingelandt, titled The poultry seller, where he bal- ances on a corner of the mantelpiece.8s One example which is probably less charged with a specific connotation is Larson's figure of summer included by Pieter de Hooch in his Game ofninepins of c. 1665 (fig. 38), and in the family portrait by van der Neer mentioned above

(fig. 27).86

The same model re-emerges years later in a

print by Jan Luiken from his series of crafts and occupa-

84 Daniel Heinsius, Nederduytsche Poemata, Amsterdam 1616, p. 78 (emblem nr. 20 of the Emblemata amatoria).

85 P. Hecht, exhib. cat. De Hollandse fijnschilders: van Gerard Dou tot Adriaen van der Werff Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum), Maarssen & The Hague 1989, nr. 48. Van Slingelandt repeatedly used plaster stat-

uettes, possibly by Larson, in his work, as well as staffage with sculpted fountains and garden statues. He did so, for example, in an interior with a woman and child once in the collection of Countess Franqoise Melzi d'Eril de Lodi, sale Paris (Drouot) 29-30 April 1920, nr. 97 (a

sleeping putto with a coat of arms on a cupboard); Interior with the Meerman family, Paris, Louvre (standing putto on the mantelpiece); Portrait ofJ. van Musschenbroek and his wife, 1688, sale London (Sothe- by's), 25 November 1970, nr. 31 (garden statue, possibly of Apollo); and a portrait of a lady and a child by a country house, sale London

(Sotheby's), 8 July 1992, nr. 84 (a fountain with a urinating putto on a

dolphin). 86 P.C. Sutton, Pieter de Hooch, Oxford 1980, p. 94, nr. 6oA, and

fig. 64.




)De Beeldht rwer. 6 mens 21eckies, i*ist ult 9 edUes.

Gelyck al uit de rocwet Steer, Het cieri ckTedld door kttnit vcreteen,

Caar Aegs het onaut gaadt tdrloorert; Soo haa k de Vv eid Gods,naa avens, Het Christrs "Beeld wt m Ada is tmens, ot eert Graaduir's heerme koorertn

39 Jan Luijken, The sculptor, engraving in J. Luiken, Het menselyk

bedryf, Amsterdam 1694

tions, where it is situated in a sculptor's workshop (fig. 39).

Cupid carving a bow was also used by Jan Steen in his

Fantasy interior with Jan Steen and Jan van Goyen of around i66o (fig. 40). There it forms an ensemble on top of a cabinet with a standing Venus and Cupid and a seated child bacchante with a tazza and bunch of grapes. It is unclear whether these statuettes have a specific mean-

ing, for example as allusions to love and wine, but they do add greatly to the splendor of the room. Like van

Slingelandt's interior, Steen's painting reflects the cus- tom of using plaster statuettes to decorate a room, a

practice that can also be deduced from some old probate inventories. For example, the Leiden professor and art collector de La Boe Silvius had some 30 statuettes in two rooms at the back of his house on Rapenburg.87 Most of them, modeled in clay, were probably made by the Leiden sculptor Pieter Xaveri, but there were also works in plaster and alabaster, as well as a few cast in an

unspecified material (lead or bronze, perhaps). White statuettes also adorn Petronella de la Court's doll's house (Utrecht, Centraal Museum), which was made in Amsterdam in the last quarter of the seventeenth centu-

ry. Made of ivory to imitate marble or plaster, they stand on two cabinets in the art gallery, in the alcove of the lying-in room, and in the front room of the house.

They consist of miniature all'antica busts and, striking- ly, two series of four putti representing the seasons and children's games.88 A similar arrangement of two ar- chaistic plaster busts was painted by Samuel van

Hoogstraten (1627-78) in 1662 in a trompe l'oeil of the front room of a house, which confirms yet again that such displays were standard seventeenth-century practice.89

Evidence that the Larsons did indeed supply painters with models is provided by a notarized document of 1661 in which Johan Larson testified that in or around

1652 his father Willem gave the Hague painter Alexan- der Petit (c. 1612-58/59) "a certain plaster statue called

87 T.H. Lunsingh Scheurleer et al., Het Rapenburg: geschiedenis van een Leidse gracht, 6 vols., Leiden 1986-92, vol. 3a, p. 338; J. Loughman and J.M. Montias, Public and private spaces: works of art in seventeenth-

century Dutch houses, Zwolle 2000, p. 38; and E.J. Sluijter, "'All striving to adorne their houses with costly peeces': two case studies of paintings in wealthy interiors," in M. Westermann, Art & Home: Dutch interiors in the age ofRembrandt, Zwolle zool, pp. 103-27, esp. pp. 105-16.

88 See J. Pijzel-Dommisse, Het Hollandse pronkpoppenhuis: interieur en huishouden in de 17de en i8de eeuw, Amsterdam & Zwolle 2000, figs. 65, 69 and io6, and idem, Het poppenhuis van Petronella de la Court, Utrecht & Antwerp 1987.

89 Dyrham Park, The Blathwayt Collection (The National Trust), England, dated 1662.



84 FRITS SCHOLTEN

40 Jan Steen, Fantasy interior with Jan Steen and Jan van

Goyen. Kansas City, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art

the Greek Venus" in exchange for painting lessons."9 The fact that the shop inventory lists life casts of body parts also indicates that Larson's clientele included artists. More systematic research will have to chart the dissemination of Larson's works in plaster among painters. As matters stand at present, it appears that it was mainly painters working in or near The Hague who

profited the most from the presence of the Larson work-

shop in the city.91

EPILOGUE The Larsons' work cannot be seen in isola- tion from a long tradition in northwestern Europe, and

in the Low Countries in particular, where since the late middle ages there had been a streamlined workshop or-

ganization for the manufacture of sculpture in series with the purpose of reproducing sculpture fairly cheap- ly. In the late fifteenth and the sixteenth century there was already considerable batch production in Utrecht of

pipeclay devotional sculpture that was pressed into molds. In Antwerp there were sculpted retables for the free market which were produced more or less in series, while the same was done in Mechelen with alabaster re-

liefs.92 Plaster and lead casts were also being made from the early seventeenth century in the Netherlands and

go Bredius, op. cit. (note I), vol. I, p. 333: "...een seecker pleijster- beelt genaemt de griekse Venus." In Buijsen, op. cit. (note 7), P. 335, it is incorrectly assumed that Willem Larson received lessons from Petit in 1649. The document makes it clear that the date should be c. 1652.

91 It is not inconceivable, given the similarities in style and size with the Rijksmuseum's lead statuettes representing the seasons, that a wooden putto on a dolphin standing 40 centimeters high also came from the Larson workshop. The model must in any case have circulat- ed among late seventeenth-century painters, as is demonstrated by

works by Jan Weenix, Caspar Netscher and Willem van Mieris. See F.

Rademacher, "Ein hollandisches Brunnenmodell des 17. Jahrhun- derts," in G. von der Osten (ed.), Festschriftfiir Herbert von Einem zum M6. Februar 1965, Berlin 1965, pp. 203-11.

92 C. Perier-D'Ieteren and A. Born, Retables de terre cuite des Pays- Bas (XVe-XVIe siedcles): etude stylistique et technologique, Brussels

1992; L.F. Jacobs, Early Netherlandish carved altarpieces, 1380-1550: medieval tastes and mass marketing, Cambridge 1998.




elsewhere. For example, there were plaster copies of the best-known pieces of classical sculpture, as can be seen in Willem van Haecht's depiction of the art collection of Cornelis van der Geest in Antwerp around 1615 (Antwerp, Rubenshuis; dated 1628). Standing along the walls are lifesize copies of the Apollo Belvedere, the Far- nese Hercules and the Capitoline Urania among a few

contemporary statues. That such casts in a relatively in-

expensive material like plaster were nevertheless considered worthy of inclusion in an art collection shows that neither the material nor the fact that they were re-

productions played a decisive role in people's appreciation of them. The same attitude is evident in Gabriel Kaltemarckt's advice to use casts in all kinds of materials when putting together a princely Kunstkammer.93 Artists also owned casts of classical and contemporary sculpture at an early date. Cornelis van Haarlem had a

very large collection of plaster sculpture, and the 1621

will of the widow of the sculptor Hendrick de Keyser mentions a small model of the Laocoon.94 These are clear indications that there were plenty of plaster reproduc- tions of well-known classical sculpture in the Nether- lands around i6oo, and that they were not just owned by wealthy collectors.

In addition, artists worked from plaster casts of famous sixteenth-century Italian sculpture and contem-

porary Netherlandish works. Around 1585 Hendrick Goltzius was already working after a model of Willem van Tetrode's Hercules pomarius, and the latter's models remained popular with Dutch artists throughout the seventeenth century. Casts of his Hercules pomarius, flying Mercury, flagellated Christ, Bacchus, and above all his ecorch6, feature regularly in paintings by seven-

teenth-century Dutch and Flemish masters.95 Specialist casters like the Delft silversmith Thomas Cruse were instrumental in putting these and other models in circu- lation. In 1624 Cruse had works (and molds of statues) by Michelangelo, Giambologna, Hendrick de Keyser, Willem van Tetrode and Arent van Bolten. Here the ac- cent is on more or less contemporary Dutch works,

41 Hendrick de Keyser (after), Mercury, Netherlands, c. 1725, lead, h. c. 45 cm. Present whereabouts unknown

which were evidently easier to obtain, while Italy was

only represented by Michelangelo and Giambologna. What is noteworthy is the correspondence with the

surviving works of the founder Caspar von Tiirckelstein of Brussels, who cast bronze statues of well-known com-

positions. His range included works by Willem van

93 B. Gutfleisch andJ. Menzhausen, "'How a Kunstkammer should be formed,' Gabriel Kaltemarckt's advice to Christian I of Saxony on the formation of an art collection," Journal of the History of Collections I (1989), pp. 3-32, esp. pp. 5, 28.

94 P.J.J. van Thiel, Cornelis Cornelisz van Haarlem 1562-1638: a

monograph and catalogue raisonne, Doornspijk 1999, pp. 253-74 (Ap-

pendix 2); E. Neurdenburg, Hendrick de Keyser: beeldhouwer en bouwmeester van Amsterdam, Amsterdam 1930, p. 144.

95 F. Scholten, "Willem van Tetrode, alter Praxiteles," in F. Scholten et al., Willem van Tetrode, sculptor/Guglielmo Fiammingo scul-

tore, Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum), New York (The Frick Collection) & Zwolle 2003, pp. 10-77, esp. pp. 70, 72, 77 (notes 204-06).



86 FRITS SCHOLTEN

Tetrode, Hendrick de Keyser and Giambologna.96 In- terestingly, both he and Cruse specialized in more or less contemporary sculpture, and had no classical works in their stock. The similarities in both cases also suggest that there was some kind of Dutch canon of taste in which de Keyser, Tetrode and Giambologna were rated the highest. There is even an eighteenth-century re-cast in lead of de Keyser's Mercury of 16 11, of which both Cruse and von Tiirckelstein had molds, which again points to a conservatism of taste that persisted for a long time in this segment of the market (fig. 41).

The Larsons did not continue with this canonical tradition. Their range combined their own inventions with casts of classical sculpture. Moreover, the scale of their

output was probably far larger than that of their prede- cessors. They could profit from the rapid growth in demand for relatively cheap but artistically legitimate Kleinplastik. Research into Amsterdam probate inventories in the period i6oo-8o has shown that most of the

sculptures in Dutch interiors were small, and were made from fairly cheap materials like lead, alabaster, wood, plaster or wax.97 Together with alabaster reliefs from Mechelen, another mass-produced form of sculpture, plaster statuettes formed the bulk of the sculpture in Dutch homes in the seventeenth century. Ivory, marble and bronze were restricted to the wealthier house- holds and are chiefly found in collectors' cabinets, al-

though it is interesting to note that even in that

specialist setting plaster statues are rarely entirely ab- sent. Almost three-quarters of them in the inventories examined were valued at I guilder or less, which once

again suggests that they were mainly simple, probably

mass-produced items. Such prices closely match the

money paid for the smaller pieces that were in Johan Larson's house when he died, so it is fair to assume that his smaller plaster sculptures would have found their

way into the living rooms of well-to-do burghers with

taste, although the traces of that are no longer de-

tectable.98 The Larsons activities in the realm of monumental

lead statues and fountains roughly coincided with the

growing taste for stylized country life and garden art

among wealthy burghers, a process that took on more serious form in imitation of the stadholder's court.99

Larger stone or lead statues and fountains were still a

rarity in the Dutch Republic before 1650, certainly out- side the court, but the demand for them increased

rapidly with the large-scale building of country seats. A

quotation of 1675 from Joachim von Sandrart illustrates this development: "At the same time, there are many rare statues in the Netherlands... everywhere in Holland with the devotees, but the most in the pleasure garden of the Serene Prince of Orange in The Hague, at Rijswijk and Honselaarsdijk, from antique to modern.""'0 The inventories of the house of Orange clearly show that lead sculpture was given a prominent place in the gardens of the stadholders and their relatives.'0' The Lar- sons and those who came after them profited greatly from this development, although further research is needed to gain a more precise idea of their clientele. Given the price for lead sculpture and the relatively short delivery time, sometimes even directly from stock, this type of garden sculpture was a serious alternative to statues in stone or bronze.'o2 A simple comparison of the

96 See V. Krahn, "'...alles von brunzo': Kleinbronzen im Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum in Braunschweig," Weltkunst 1990, no. 8, pp. I213-17, and U. Berger and V. Krahn, Bronzen der Renaissance und des Barock: Katalog der Sammlung (Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum Braun-

schweig), Braunschweig 1994, pp. I6-i8, 20. Among the von Tiirckel- stein bronzes in Braunschweig, apart from the two works by Tetrode, are a Mercury by Hendrick de Keyser, and Giambologna's Mercury, Hercules and Antaeus, The rape of the Sabine women, and Nessus and Deianeira. Von Tiirckelstein's horse, nr. 136 in Berger and Krahn, might be one of the horses by Hendrick de Keyser listed in the Cruse

inventory. 97 J.M. Montias, Artists and artisans in Delft: a socio-economic study

of the seventeenth century, Princeton (N.J.) 1982, p. 228; Loughman and

Montias, op. cit. (note 87), PP. 37-40. 98 The situation is better documented for England in the eighteenth

century. A great deal of plaster sculpture was produced there for domestic interiors, on a scale unparalleled elsewhere in Europe; see T.

Clifford, "The plaster shops of the rococo and neo-classical era in

Britain," Journal ofthe History of Collections 4 (I992), PP. 39-67. 99 E. de Jong, Natuur en kunst: Nederlandse tuinen landschapsarchi-

tectuur i65o- 1740, Amsterdam 1993, PP. 33-34. ioo Joachim von Sandrart, Teutsche Academie der Edlen Bau-, Bild-

und Mahlerey-Kiinste, 3 vols., Nuremberg I675-80, vol. i, bk. 2, p. 41: "Ingleichen befinden sich viel rare Statuen in Niederland... iiberall in Holland bei den Liebhabern jedoch am meisten in des Durchleuchti-

gen Prinzen von Oranien Lustgarten in Grafenhag zu Reswick und Hontslardick von antichen und modernen."

ioi Drossaers and Lunsingh Scheurleer, op. cit. (note 28), vol. I, pp. 682-83 (Het Loo, 1713), and vol. 2, pp. 206 (Oranienstein, 1698), 297 and 301 (Leeuwarden, 1712), 500-o0 (Honselaersdijk, 1755).

102 On the subject of rapid delivery from stock see T. Friedman and T. Clifford, The man at Hyde Park Corner: sculpture byJohn Cheere

1709-1787, Leeds (Temple Newsam) 1974, p. 12.




prices for lead, plaster and marble sculpture is significant in this connection. The lifesize lead statues that Larson left on his death were valued at between I 13 and 18o guilders each, the smaller ones at 40 guilders.'o3 Large plaster statues after the same models were worth approximately one-fifth of the lead versions. At around that date a lifesize marble statue would have cost ten times more than a lead one, largely because of the higher labor costs. One example is provided by the four lifesize statues of the princes of Orange that Frangois Dieussart made for Amalia van Solms in 1646, each of which must have cost around 1,250 guilders.'04 However, there is little evidence of a difference between lead and marble in status and appreciation in the mid-seventeenth century, as might be suggested by the price differential and by the two methods of manufacture (unique work of art versus multiples).

The range that the Larsons offered was international in taste: classical statues, allegorical putti and famous contemporary works. This raises the question of how they could have developed such a modern stock, and thus how they came by the often lifesize models and molds of classical sculpture. The collaboration between George Larson and Hubert le Sueur postulated above may have been important here. Le Sueur owned the casting molds for the Borghese warrior, which he cast in bronze in 1630 for St James's Palace (now in the garden of Windsor

Castle)."'5 A year later he traveled to Italy on an assign- ment for King Charles I to acquire molds of specific classical statues. In 1634 he was hard at work casting bronze copies, six of which were already finished, while others were in progress. Those copies included the Di- ane chasseresse, Antinous, Commodus as Hercules, the

Spinario, and possibly a Venus and a Cleopatra. George Larson's presumed collaboration with le Sueur on these

copies may have been the source of the Larsons' knowl-

edge of casting technology, and might also explain how lifesized models of the Gladiator and Diane chasseresse came to be in the Netherlands only a few decades later. Seen in this light it is perhaps no coincidence that

George Larson's first known commission, for the bronze bust of Lady Digby (fig. 2), dates from c. 1634, the year in which le Sueur had completed most of his bronze copies.

With the breadth and modernity of their repertoire, the Larsons played an important part in extending the

range of garden sculpture available in the Republic and

neighboring countries. That is particularly true of the

allegorical use of putti in all sorts of guises, with which the Larsons made a vital contribution to the development of the figures of "young children" into a distinct

allegorical genre in garden sculpture. Whereas statues of children were only found sporadically in Dutch gardens in the first half of the seventeenth century, mainly in those of the stadholder's palaces, Johan Larson and his father and uncle enriched the genre with many new ensembles and types, as was seen with the commission for the Great Elector's garden.,"6 The 'canon' that the Larsons created for Berlin would set the tone until well into the eighteenth century in all kinds of variants, possibly assisted by the depictions of Larson putti by painters. Sculptors in the Republic, Flanders and Eng- land varied on the Larsons' inventions and subjects, as has already been demonstrated with the imitations of the little skater. The subjects, poses and attributes of Larson putti reappear in the work of sculptors like Michiel Schee, Willem Rottermondt,'07 Ignatius and

103 By way of comparison, on I October 1674 Jacob van Kessel of

Amsterdam, who may have been the founder or the middleman, met his contractual requirement to deliver 12 lead figures of children, each

2/2 feet high, for a total of 499 guilders to one "Weleven Hooft- meester." That works out at more than 40 guilders per statue. See the notes by N. de Roever in the Rijksprentenkabinet, Amsterdam.

Io4 Scholten, op. cit. (note 12), p. 46. For the prices of lead and

plaster statues by John Cheere see M. Fulton, "John Cheere, the emi- nent statuary: his workshop and practice, 1737-1787," Sculpture four- nal Io (2003), pp. 21-39, esp. pp. 26, 29-30.

105 Avery, op. cit. (note 13), PP. 148-51, and nrs. 16-20; Haskell and Penny, op. cit. (note 54), P. 31.

Io6 The term "kindertjes" was regularly used to denote a distinct

category of sculpture in the seventeenth and the eighteenth century. See, for example, the advertisement that J.B. Xavery placed in the

Haagsche Courant of 29 September 1734: "Uyt de hand te koop, zeer

fraey gewerkte Marmere Groepjes, Kindertjes en Borstbeelden, gemaekt door De Kok, Albert Xavery, Van Logteren, en andere Brave Meesters" ("Available for private sale: most beautifully worked marble

groups, young children and busts by de Kok, Albert Xavery, van

Logteren and other worthy masters"). See also Bezemer Sellers, op. cit. (note 45), P. 141, for "kinderkens" as a genre in the seventeenth

century. 107 The Hague founder Willem Rottermondt supplied 14 small

lead statues for the grotto at Schloss Wilhelmstal in Kassel between

1746 and 1753. The court had earlier ordered lead garden statues from

Jacobus Cressant of Utrecht which were cast by an unknown Haarlem

founder; see F. Bleibaum (ed.), Bau- und Kunstdenkmaler im Regierungsbezirk Cassel, vol. 7, pt. i, Schloss Wilhelmstal, Cassel 1926, pp. 22, 23, 95, 96, 126 en 127-



88 FRITS SCHOLTEN

42 William Hogarth,John Cheere's statuary yards at Hyde Park Corner, engraving in The analysis ofbeauty, London 1753 (pl. 1)

Jan van Logteren, Jan Baptist Xavery, the Flemings Verhelst and Roucourt, and Englishmen like John (van) Nost and John and Henry Cheere.,s8

Further research will have to show whether the activities of the Larsons on both sides of the North Sea also contributed to the development and professionalization of English leadwork in the late seventeenth century.

Little is known about the origins of this branch of indus-

try, which was concentrated at Hyde Park Corner in London and had a great flowering in the eighteenth cen-

tury.o"9 It is not impossible that it was modeled on the

professional organizations run by the Larsons, the Gutsches and Dronrijp. It is significant that one of the first producers of lead sculpture in London came from

io8 See, for example, M. Whinney, Sculpture in Britain, 1530 to

1830, Harmondsworth 1964, p. 61; Weaver, op. cit. (note 2), p. 169, and figs. 270, 271. The Bert Crowther gallery, Isleworth, had a set of four lead putti representing the four seasons by John Cheere (1948). Cf. also sale London (Christie's) 26 November 2003, nr. 432, for an

eighteenth-century English lead putto after Larson's Berlin putto of Gemini. On Nost's Flemish origins see S. O'Connell, "The Nosts: a revision of the family history," The Burlington Magazine 129 (1987), pp. 802-06.

Iog A few sculptors and founders settled in this part of the city, among them Andrew Carpenter, John Nost, John Cheere, Richard Dickinson and Thomas Manning. Contemporary accounts show that

they flourished in the first half of the eighteenth century. In 1734 the

"shops and yards at the statuaries" with their many pieces of sculpture were even described as a tourist attraction in a guide to London; see J. Ralph, A critical review of the publick buildings, statues and ornaments in, and about London and Westminster, London 1734, PP. 34-35. See also Friedman and Clifford, op. cit. (note 102), pp. 5, 6.




the Low Countries: John (van) Nost of Mechelen. His

origins could have given him a good opportunity to learn about aspects and products of statue casting in the

Republic. In the mid-eighteenth century, the leading English caster, John Cheere, was using a catalogue, which may have been a Dutch marketing tool in this branch of sculpture (Barent Dronrijp had already been

using one in 1689) and was naturally associated with the sales from stock that are characteristic of a statue foundry. William Hogarth gives an impression of Cheere's statu-

ary yard in his well-known print from his Analysis of beauty of 1753, where the various models were shown to

potential buyers out in the open air (fig. 42)."' Johan Larson may also have had an outdoor display room of this kind, admittedly on a smaller scale. He certainly had a public and professional attraction in the shape of the fountain in his garden that was sold along with the house and workshop after his death, as we saw.

There was a marked decline in the casting of lead statues in the Netherlands after the middle of the eighteenth century. It is likely that the works supplied by Ja- cob Cressant and Willem Rottermondt to the court in Kassel in the second quarter of the century were a final flourish of this craft."' Leaving aside the drop in orders, from both home and abroad, a possible deprecation of

reproductive sculpture may have played a part, prompt- ed by the ideas of Winckelmann and others about classical sculpture. In England, where in addition to reproductive lead statues far more marble sculpture was

produced than in the Republic, there is clear evidence of uneasiness about lead multiples in the course of the

eighteenth century."' Their reproductive nature, often

poor quality, lack of refinement, and the baseness of the

material, led to a denigration of their artistic integrity."'3 Lead statues were considered inferior to the unique works in marble, and were thus more craft products than the fruits of pure, artistic creation. In 1734, for in-

stance, one author wrote about the statues in the statu-

ary yards at Hyde Park Corner: "Among a hundred stat-

ues, you shall not see one even tolerable, either in design or execution; nay, even the copies of the antique are so

monstrously wretched, that one can hardly guess at their originals.""4 Moreover, lead garden statues were ridiculed by critics as examples of the taste of the nou- veau riche and the parvenu. They represented the luxu-

ry with which the newly rich surrounded themselves in their country houses. The mockery reached such

heights that in Richard Cumberland's Visit to Sir Theodore and Lady Thimble of 1791 a visitor actually mistook a "leaden statue on a pair of scates, painted in a blue and gold, with a red waistcoat" for his host."s Pass-

ing over the remarkable fact that this passage appears to introduce us to a clothed and modernized version of Larson's lead skater, what is important is the derision with which the stupidity of the visiting parvenu is

equated with the spuriousness of the statue. There was no disapproval of sculpture multiples in

the seventeenth-century Dutch Republic. The status of lead and plaster statues went largely unchallenged, probably because cast sculpture was for a long time re- garded as something special, and on top of that there were hardly any serious alternatives. The Larsons and their colleagues profited greatly from this situation. Their specialist businesses could thus grow to become a new and respected branch of industry working for a small and exclusive sector of the market for luxury goods. As a result of the professional organization of their workshops, high technical standards, and a modern range that could be supplied from stock, two generations of Larsons working on an international scale made a substantive contribution to the pluriformity of the Dutch output of works of art, but above all to the development of the art of statue casting in the Republic.

RIJKSMUSEUM

AMSTERDAM

IIo Fulton, op. cit. (note 104), p. 24. III In 1781 John Hope ordered a series of lead statues for Welgele-

gen in Haarlem from the Roman founder Francesco Righetti, who also used a catalogue. His models were based directly on classical sculpture in Rome, and were thus considerably more faithful than the Dutch de- rivatives; see Koldeweij, op. cit. (note 2).

12 M. Baker, Figured in marble: the making and viewing of eight-

eenth-century sculpture, London 2000, pp. I9-27, esp. pp. 120-24. 113 For the status of lead see T. Raff, Die Sprache der Materialien:

Anleitung zu einer Ikonologie der Werkstoffe, Munich 1994, p. og9. 114 Baker, op. cit. (note I 12), p. 121. The quotation is from Ralph,

op. cit. (note og9), p. 34. 115 Baker, op. cit. (note 112), p. 127.



the larson family of statuary founders: seventeenth-century reproductive sculpture for gardens and...

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