Pieter van der Werff(Kralingen 1665 – 1722Rotterdam)

How To CiteBakker, Piet. "Pieter van der Werff." In The Leiden Collection Catalogue. Edited by Arthur K. Wheelock Jr.
New York, 2017.
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Pieter van der Werff was baptized in Kralingen on 1 May 1665. His parents were Arjen Jans, the owner of aflourmill on the Oudendijk, and Maertje Adriaens. Pieter was the younger brother of “the renowned
throughout Europe and world famous” painter Adriaen van der Werff (1659–1722).[1] The family belonged
to Kralingen’s upper middle class, and Pieter’s father served several terms as an alderman.[2] Pieter studied
under his brother, who was six years older, as a matter of course, and Adriaen’s international breakthroughin 1696 would have contributed to Pieter’s decision to stay on as an assistant in his workshop. His activities
consisted primarily of making copies of Adriaen’s pictures. He also produced signed inventions of his own,
which are still deeply indebted to his brother’s art. The siblings’ relationship was strictly professional, as
evidenced from a journal in which Adriaen kept a detailed record of Pieter’s activities on the basis of which
he would pay him down to the nearest penny in accordance with his share and hours.[3] “The only favor theKnight bestowed him free of charge was the loan of his works, from which Pieter culled models forcomposing the principal part of his originals.”[4]In 1694 Pieter married Maria Bosman (1672–1700), the daughter of Adriaen Bosman, scion of a wellestablished Rotterdam brewers’ family, and Sara Teniers.[5] Pieter must have met her in his brother’sworkshop, because according to Johan van Gool she had been “a pupil of the Knight van der Werff, alreadywonderfully advanced in art.”[6] If she were actually a practicing painter, she was not so for long because“her marriage dulled her drive, and in the end her artistic skill came to naught.”[7] Moreover, she did not live
much longer, and was carried to her grave from their house in the Hoogstraat on 22 March 1700. Shortly
after being widowed, Pieter and his young daughter Elisabeth moved in with Adriaen on the Delftsevaart,next to the house called Paradijs.[8]Pieter must have enjoyed a certain authority among his colleagues because he served as dean of theRotterdam Guild of Saint Luke from 1703 to 1716. However, this appreciation could not prevent his life fromtaking a troubled turn. According to Van Gool, he had “een heel wonderzinnigen inborst” (a very peculiar
disposition), which first manifested itself in a penchant for seclusion, and later in “noch vreemder grillen”(even stranger quirks) as a consequence of “eener ongemakkelyke Zenuwkwael, of zo genoemde© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Pieter van der Werff
Page 2 of 4Hypochondrie” (a disturbing nervous disorder, or so-called hypochondria), whereby “tot groote droefheit”(to the deep regret) of his family he could no longer function normally.[9] Pieter died in September 1722, andhis body was carried from Adriaen’s house to the family grave in the Grote Kerk. His brother made the same
sad journey seven weeks later; however, his funeral did not go unnoticed and displayed a certain pomp andcircumstance: bells pealed loudly and without interruption in the town for no less than four hours.
The totally different circumstances surrounding the two funerals are highly illustrative of the brothers’
careers. While Adriaen’s was grand and compelling, Pieter’s was very modest and practically invisible. IfAdriaen enjoyed a clientele from far beyond the borders of the Dutch Republic and the highest social
circles, Pieter’s patrons came predominantly from Rotterdam and were of middle-class standing. Adriaen’s
art was praised in every possible way, yet nothing is known about the contemporary appreciation of Pieter’sart; Van Gool was the first to mention him (1750). Van Gool believed that Pieter “can rightly be counted
among the respectable masters.”[10] Pieter’s extant portraits, as well as his genre and history scenes,
confirm Van Gool’s observation, even though, as has been noted, his work lacks originality. Pieter was soskilled in imitating his brother’s paintings that it was impossible even for connoisseurs “to distinguish with
their eyes what was authentic or not.”[11]Pieter was paid well for his work, in part because of this ability. Van Gool reports that at the 1713 auction of
the renowned collection of Adriaen Paets, treasurer of the Rotterdam Admiralty, two works by Pieter went
under the hammer for a substantial 550 and 335 guilders, respectively. In his biography of Adriaen,
however, Van Gool mentions this same auction noting that six works by Adriaen fetched a total of no lessthan 15,600 guilders, an exorbitantly high amount, so high that “his art again garners a shining reputation
throughout Europe, such that everyone yearns to see it, and even own it.”[12] According to Van Gool, “theKnight beheld all of this, leaning out of a window next to me, his inner satisfaction palpable.”[13] Whether
Pieter witnessed his brother’s triumph (one of many) is unknown; Van Gool does not devote a single word tohim in Adriaen’s biography.
-Piet Bakker

Endnotes
1. “Den door gansch Europe vermaerde en wereltberoemden.” Johan van Gool, De nieuwe
schouburg der Nederlantsche kunstschilders en schilderessen (The Hague, 1750), 1:235.
2. Pieter’s uncle on his mother’s side also served as an alderman for some time. See E.
Wiersum, “Ridder Adriaen van der Werff,” Rotterdamsch Jaarboekje 5 (1927): 2.
3. For a transcription, see B. Gaethgens, Adriaen van der Werff 1659–1722 (Munich, 1987),442–44.

© 2017 The Leiden Collection

Pieter van der Werff
Page 3 of 4

4. “De eenigste gunst dan, die hem de Ridder gratis bewees, was het leenen zyner Stukken, vanwelke zich Pieter bediende als patroonen om er het hooftwerk zyner Origineelen na te richten.”
Johan van Gool, De nieuwe schouburg der Nederlantsche kunstschilders en schilderessen(The Hague, 1750), 1:238.
5. For genealogical details of Maria’s family, see E. A. Engelbrecht, De Vroedschap vanRotterdam 1572–1795 (Rotterdam, 1973), 135–37. Her great-grandfather was Iman Hendricks
Bosman, brewer at De Bijl, member of the city council from 1618 to 1624, and mayor ofRotterdam in 1621 and 1622. Maria’s mother, Sara Teniers, was a daughter of the surgeon
Pieter Teniers, originally from Bergen op Zoom (Gemeentearchief Rotterdam, Trouwboek).
6. “Eene Discipeles . . . van den Ridder van der Werf, zynde al fraei in de Kunst gevordert.”
Johan van Gool, De nieuwe schouburg der Nederlantsche kunstschilders en schilderessen(The Hague, 1750), 1:241.
7. Haer huwelyk verflaeude de lust, en ging op ’t laetst, met haer Kunstvermogen, geheel te niet.”
Johan van Gool, De nieuwe schouburg der Nederlantsche kunstschilders en schilderessen(The Hague, 1750), 1:241.
8. Presumably Pieter also lived in this house, which his brother bought in 1692 before hemarried. E. Wiersum, “Ridder Adriaen van der Werff,” Rotterdamsch Jaarboekje 5 (1927): 5.
Pieter gave “Delftsevaart” as his address when he married in 1694.
9. Johan van Gool, De nieuwe schouburg der Nederlantsche kunstschilders en schilderessen(The Hague, 1750), 1:236.
10. “Met recht onder de brave Meesters mag getelt worden.” Johan van Gool, De nieuwe
schouburg der Nederlantsche kunstschilders en schilderessen (The Hague, 1750), 1:237.
11. “Om door hunne oogen te kunnen onderscheiden, wat echt is of niet.” Johan van Gool,Denieuwe schouburg der Nederlantsche kunstschilders en schilderessen (The Hague, 1750),
1:236.
12. “Zyn Kunst op nieuw grooten luister door gansch Europe, dat elk reikhalse om die maer eenste zien, laet staen te bezitte.” Johan van Gool, De nieuwe schouburg der Nederlantsche
kunstschilders en schilderessen (The Hague, 1750), 1:384–85.

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Pieter van der Werff
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13. “Van dit alles was de Ridder aenschouwer, die naest my uit een venster lag, men kon devergenoeging uit zyn wezen zien.” Johan van Gool, De nieuwe schouburg der Nederlantsche
kunstschilders en schilderessen (The Hague, 1750), 1:385.

Literature
Van Gool, Johan. De nieuwe schouburg der Nederlantsche kunstschilders en
schilderessen. 2 vols. The Hague, 1750.
Wiersum, E. “Ridder Adriaen van der Werff.” Rotterdamsch Jaarboekje 5 (1927): 1–15.

© 2017 The Leiden Collection