Pieter Verelst

Dordrecht 1616/18 – ca. 1678
Hulst ?)How To Cite. "Pieter Verelst." In The Leiden Collection Catalogue. Edited by Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. New York, 2017.
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Pieter Verelst was born in Dordrecht in 1616 or 1618. His parents were Herman Verelst and his second wife
Marieke Backx, the daughter of a cloth merchant.[1] Some confusion surrounds Herman’s occupation. In
1630 (around twelve years after Pieter’s birth), Herman joined the painters’ guild, but “in den 2den eed” (inthe 2nd oath), which implies that he had sworn a first oath at another (unknown) guild.[2] For the time being
we are groping in the dark about Herman Verelst’s primary profession, as well as his reasons for joining theGuild of Saint Luke.
Pieter probably grew up in comfortable circumstances. He lived in the Voorstraat, close to the Vismarkt, atwhich address his father was taxed for a capital of 4,000 guilders in 1626.[3] A certain prosperity is also
evident in the sale of Groenewolt, a house that was part of his parents’ estate, which Pieter and his siblings
sold for a substantial 2,500 guilders in 1639.[4] This house, also on the Voorstraat but on the opposite sideof the Vismarkt, had belonged to the family of Pieter’s mother. Marieke Backx was living there when she
married Pieter’s father in 1612.[5]It is unknown who taught Verelst to paint. His oeuvre, consisting of portraits, tronies, genre and history
scenes, and a few still lifes of fruit and game, displays a variety of artistic influences. His scenes of inns andof peasants recall the work of Isaac (1621–49) and Adriaen (1610–85) van Ostade of Haarlem, andCornelis Saftleven and Hendrick Sorgh of Rotterdam. His eclectic style is also manifest in his history
paintings, which suggest familiarity with the work of painters from the Rembrandt School, particularly that ofGovaert Flinck (1615–60), Jan Victors, and Salomon de Koninck. The influence of the “Leiden” Rembrandt,and of Lievens and Dou is also apparent. All three have been thought to be the maker of the fineReturn ofTobias and the Angel, which, however, was recently convincingly attributed to Verelst.[6] An affinity with
Rembrandt, Lievens, and Dou is also evident in a few works by Verelst’s fellow townsman Paulus Lesire(1612–ca. 1655).[7] Lesire’s Penitent Saint Peter displays so many compositional and stylistic similarities
with Verelst’s Saint Paul and his Scholar at Work that they almost seem to have come from the sameworkshop.[8] While the two artists surely knew one another, there is no evidence that Verelst studied under
Lesire, or of an apprenticeship with Lesire’s putative master Jacob Gerritsz Cuyp (1594–1652). This
notwithstanding, Cuyp—the leading Dordrecht painter at the time—is the most likely candidate.
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In Dordrecht on 11 June 1638 Verelst became engaged to Adriana van Gesel, whose father was the cooper
Simon van Gesel, who sat on the town council in 1608.[9] The next day Verelst registered with the Guild ofSaint Luke as “noch jonck gesel sijnde” (still unmarried), which, strictly speaking, was true, for the couple
wed on 3 August. He also took on a pupil in that year.[10] His daughter Maria was born in May 1639. Verelst
is generally assumed to have left a few years later for The Hague, where around 1643 he was living in theneighborhood of Jan van Goyen. Before settling in The Hague definitively, he seems to have stayed
regularly in Rotterdam. His son Herman, who became a still-life painter, was baptized there on 5 December
1640.[11] The only two portraits with identified sitters also indicate a sojourn in Rotterdam. Agatha vanHartigsvelt (1627–97) and Elizabeth Kievit († 1700), both of whom sat for Verelst in 1642, came fromleading Rotterdam regent families.[12]Verelst only officially left Dordrecht on 20 March 1644. Mention is made in a document bearing this datethat he was settling in The Hague, of which he became a citizen on 10 July.[13] At a sale of paintings held
there in 1674 he sold 81 works, most of them by his hand, for prices varying from ten stuivers to tenguilders.[14] Moreover, the four Verelst pictures that Jan van Goyen sold on this occasion fetched only a few
guilders each.[15] Seen in this light, Verelst seems to have been active primarily in the lower range of themarket. Yet in 1657 he painted “a picture of a few people smoking and drinking . . . which he priced at 50guilders” for the Hague Guild Chamber.[16]Earlier, in 1656, he had been one of the founders of the Confrerie Pictura, the painters’ confraternity, and hewas elected its dean in 1659 and 1660. Before that, on 30 September 1657, he married Elisabeth Scholts,
about whom no other information is known. She died not long thereafter, possibly already in 1659, shortly
after drawing up her will. Verelst still paid his contribution to the Confrerie on 30 January 1662 and he may
have served as its dean again in 1665. In 1667 he visited Amsterdam to witness his son Herman’s marriage
to Cecilia Fendt of Venice.[17] He may not have been doing well at that time. In fact, his financial problems
became so acute that he beat a hasty retreat from The Hague, leaving his property behind to his creditors,
which fetched 410 guilders at auction. Little is known about his subsequent movements. The next record
dates from 1671, at which time he was in Hulst in Brabant.[18] He seems to have given up painting in themeantime, and was training to be a brewer, a trade he practiced in Hulst until 1678. Nothing more about
him is heard after that year, and whether he died there is unknown.

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1. On 2 March 1610 Herman Verelst married Marieke van Bernagie, who died soon thereafter. In1612 he married Marieke Backx, whose father was the silk merchant Jacques Backx. Between
1611 and 1624 Herman fathered a total of six children with these two women. Only three of them
are recorded with a name in the baptism register: Jacques (1614) who later became a silkmerchant like his grandfather, Adriaan (1621), and Anneke (1624). One of the three namelesschildren registered in April 1611, June 1616, and November 1618 must thus be Pieter. The year
1611 can be eliminated, because in the protocol of a few official documents he is always
mentioned after his brother Jacques, indicating that he was younger. Whether he was born in1616 or 1618 cannot be determined. The most suitable year of birth is 1616. There are two
extant signed and dated paintings by him from 1633. Should he have been born in 1618 hewould have been only fifteen years old when he signed them. A date of birth of 1616 is thus moreprobable, even if seventeen is also very young for an artist to produce independent paintings.
Moreover, 1616 corresponds better with the date of his marriage: 3 August 1638. Should hehave been born in 1618, he would have married as a nineteen-year old. This would have been
young, although marriages were not infrequently entered into at a young age. It cannot be
definitely excluded that he was born in 1618. Unless mentioned otherwise, the following
biographical information is from G. H. Veth, “Aanteekeningen omtrent eenige Dordrechtsche
schilders, XXXIX Pieter Hermansz. Verelst en zijne zonen,” Oud-Holland 14 (1896): 99–112.
2. On 2 December 1630 “Herme Janse Verelst’” entered “in’t schildersgilt” (the painters’ guild).
F. D. O. Obreen, Archief voor Nederlandsche Kunstgeschiedenis (Rotterdam 1877–78) 1:207.
3. Gemeentearchief Dordrecht (GAD), Stadsarchief III, Register van de 1000ste Penning, inv.
3975, fol. 106v.
4. The name and location of the house is given in the deed of sale. GAD, Archief van deWeeskamer, Stukken betreffende boedelinventarissen en scheidingen, rekeningen en
testamenten, inv. 1185.
5. GAD, Ondertrouwregisters, 2 September 1612.
6. F. G. Meijer, “A New Attribution Proposed for an Enigmatic Painting: The Return of Tobias
and the Angel by Pieter Verelst,” in Rembrandt 2006: Essays, ed. M. Roscam Abbing (Leiden,2006), 96–101.
7. See the biography of Paulus Lesire in this catalogue.

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8. For Lesire’s Penitent Saint Peter, see: Werner Sumowski, Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler,6 vols. (Landau, 1983), 3:1715 (no. 1148) and 1729. For Verelst’s Saint Paul and Scholar atWork, see Sumowski, Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler, 5:3117 (nos. 2169/70).
9. M. van Balen, Beschryvinge der stad Dordrecht, (Dordrecht, 1677), 1:330.
10. GAD, Gildenarchief, inv. 890, Het boek van knechts en jongens, fol. 4v. The pupil’s namewas W. Van Nispe. This is the only time that Van Nispe’s name appears in the records; nothing isknown about him.
11. See Gemeente Archief Rotterdam, DTB. This baptism certificate was not noticed previously.
12. Portrait of Agatha van Hartigsvelt (1627–1697) , oil on panel, 67.90 x 57.40 cm, Musée desBeaux-Arts,Dijon; PortraitofaYoungWoman,ProbablyElizabeth

Kievitgez.?

Bisschop [Biscop in RKD] († 1700), oil on panel, 68 x 58 cm, Netherlands Cultural Heritage
Agency, Amsterdam; E. A. Engelbrecht, De Vroedschap van Rotterdam 1572–1795 (Rotterdam,1973), passim.
13. GAD, Archief Hervormde Gemeente, Uitgegane attestaties. G. H. Veth, “Aanteekeningenomtrent eenige Dordrechtsche schilders, XXXIX Pieter Hermansz. Verelst en zijne zonen,”OudHolland 14 (1896): 101.
14. The entire proceeds amounted to 286 guilders and 4 stuivers. Abraham Bredius,KünstlerInventare: Urkunden zur Geschichte der holländischen Kunst des XVIten, XVIIten und XVIIIten
Jahrhunderts (The Hague, 1915), 1:456–520.
15. Verelst himself buys from Van Goyen two original works by Van Beijeren and Lievens, theformer for 36 guilders and the latter for an unknown amount.
16. “Een stuckie schilderije inhoudende eenige Tabak drinkers (…) bij hem geset op 50 gulden.”G. H. Veth, “Aanteekeningen omtrent eenige Dordrechtsche schilders, XXXIX Pieter Hermansz.
Verelst en zijne zonen,” Oud-Holland 14 (1896): 103.
17. Stadsarchief Amsterdam, DTB, 491/122.
18. Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker, Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenen Künstler von der Antike
bis zur Gegenwart (Leipzig, 1907–50), 34: 237.

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Literature
Van Balen, M. Beschryvinge der stad Dordrecht. 2 vols. Dordrecht, 1677.
Obreen, F. D. O. Archief voor Nederlandsche Kunstgeschiedenis. 7 vols. Rotterdam
1877–78.
Veth, G. H. “Aanteekeningen omtrent eenige Dordrechtsche schilders, XXXIX PieterHermansz. Verelst en zijne zonen.” Oud-Holland 14 (1896): 99–112.
Thieme, Ulrich and Becker, Felix. Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenen Künstler von der Antike
bis zur Gegenwart. Leipzig, 1907–50.
Bredius, Abraham. Künstler-Inventare: Urkunden zur Geschichte der holländischen Kunst
des XVIten, XVIIten und XVIIIten Jahrhunderts. 8 vols. The Hague, 1915.
Engelbrecht, E. A. De Vroedschap van Rotterdam 1572–1795. Rotterdam, 1973.
Sumowski, Werner. Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler. 6 vols. Landau, 1983.
Meijer, F. G. “A New Attribution Proposed for an Enigmatic Painting: The Return of Tobias
and the Angel by Pieter Verelst.” In Rembrandt 2006: Essays.

Edited by M. Roscam

Abbing. Leiden, 2006, 96–101.

© 2017 The Leiden Collection