Arent de Gelder(Dordrecht 1645 – 1727 Dordrecht)

How To CiteBakker, Piet. "Arent de Gelder." In The Leiden Collection Catalogue. Edited by Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. NewYork, 2017.
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No other Rembrandt pupil worked more emphatically and longer in the style of his master than theDordrecht painter Arent de Gelder. De Gelder was Rembrandt’s last pupil, and he adopted the master’s late
expressive style, remaining faithful to it for the rest of his career, even in the face of the prevailingclassicizing fashion. Nevertheless, his style displays distinctive features that give it a personal identity. His
sense of form was less stable than Rembrandt’s, but his palette was more adventurous and colorful. De
Gelder also differed from Rembrandt in his effective use of colored grounds and other underlayers ofpaint.[1]Arent de Gelder was born in Dordrecht on 26 October 1645. His parents were Jan Aertsz de Gelder andMaria Lotterich, who came from an affluent Dordrecht family.[2] Jan Aertsz started out as a cooper of winebarrels. In 1638 he succeeded his father as the caretaker of the West-Indisch Huis, located on theWijnstraat from where, as a merchant, he also conducted business with Brazil. The family lived there aswell until 1686, when they moved to another house on the same street. The De Gelders prospered, andArent’s father became a wealthy and well-respected citizen. In 1664 he held the highest position in a militiacompany, and in 1667 he was appointed dean of the Coopers’ Guild—a position usually reserved forregents—which he would hold for six consecutive years.[3] From 1672 on he also sat on various municipal
councils that were involved in appointing the city fathers.
De Gelder first trained under his fellow townsman Samuel van Hoogstraten (1627–78), who was in
Dordrecht between 1656, when he returned from Vienna, and 1662, when he left for England.[4] It is difficultto pinpoint when exactly De Gelder first entered Van Hoogstraten’s workshop, where he was introduced tothe “de gronden van de schilderkonst” (the rudiments of painting).[5] This may have been around 1660,
when he turned fifteen, though it is possible that it was earlier, considering that his near contemporary
fellow pupil Godefridus Schalcken (1643–1706) was already working with Van Hoogstraten in 1656, theyear of his thirteenth birthday.[6] Van Hoogstraten’s departure for England would explain why De Gelder andSchalcken had to find a new teacher to complete their training. According to Houbraken, De Gelder headed
to Amsterdam “to learn how to paint in Rembrandt’s manner,”[7] and spent two years with the master before
returning to Dordrecht for good. Assuming that De Gelder went to Amsterdam shortly after Van© 2017 The Leiden Collection

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Hoogstraten’s departure, his tutelage with Rembrandt would have taken place between the summer of1662 and the summer of 1664. Although Rembrandt generally gave his pupils great freedom in assisting
him in his paintings, De Gelder’s hand cannot be discerned in any of the master’s works from the first half ofthe 1660s.[8] What De Gelder did there during these years is still unclear. The first concrete sign of hisindependence is his earliest dated painting of 1667, a depiction of Judah and Tamar, a subject he would
later revisit a number of times (see AG-100).[9] Like Rembrandt, De Gelder painted, in addition to portraits,
almost exclusively history scenes.
Back in Dordrecht, De Gelder, who never married, moved in with his parents on the Wijnstraat, as his onlybrother, the lawyer Johan de Gelder (1650–1727), would also later do. From there he took part in the city’sartistic and social life. Judging from extant portraits and documents, it would appear that he profited greatly
from his father’s social standing, and his own prestige rose as well. He received commissions frommembers of the highest circles in Dordrecht and joined the civic guard, moving up through the ranks andserving as captain between 1694 and 1711.
Houbraken writes that De Gelder and the woodcarver Hendrik Noteman (1654–1737) visited the Hague
painter Augustin Terwesten (1649–1711) when he was painting “een kamer in het rond” (the walls of aroom) in the house of burgomaster Barthoud van Slingelandt (1654–1711) in Dordrecht. Terwesten,
however, had little time for them.[10] De Gelder and Noteman were close friends, and De Gelder’s painted
portrait of the woodcarver has been preserved.[11] Schalcken also portrayed the woodcarver (twice), butthese likenesses have been lost. De Gelder, moreover, was well acquainted with the amateur painter andprintseller Jacob Moelaert (1649–1727), a pupil of Nicolaes Maes (1634–93). At his death in 1727,
Moelaert left De Gelder three albums of prints and drawings, including one with work by Rembrandt.
De Gelder died suddenly on 27 August of that same year, less than a month after Moelaert. According toWeyerman, he had planned to go for a ride (“te gaan speelenryden”) that morning with friends, but theyfound him, dead, at home.[12] His estate included close to 190 paintings, mostly history scenes.[13] Yet weonly know with certainty that “twenty-two pictures depicting the Passion of Christ” in the schildercamer(studio) were painted by De Gelder.[14] Houbraken mentions them specifically and informs us that twenty ofthe works in this series had already been completed in 1715. On 30 September 1727, an auction wasannounced in the Amsterdamsche Courant of all the paintings left behind by “the late Arent de Gelder, theonly pupil of Rembrandt who faithfully followed his famous master in painting.”[15]-Piet Bakker

Endnotes
1. Ernst van de Wetering, ‘‘Opmerkingen over de relatie tussen techniek, stijl en toeval bij Arent
de Gelder; een vergelijking met Rembrandt,” in Peter Schoon et al., Arent de Gelder(1645–1727), Rembrandts laatste leerling (Exh. cat. Dordrecht, Dordrechts Museum; Cologne,Wallraf-Richartz-Museum) (Ghent, 1998), 19–35.

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2. Unless otherwise stated, the biographical information is taken from Gabriël Pastoor, “The Lifeof Arent de Gelder,” in Joachim W. von Moltke, Arent de Gelder, Dordrecht 1645–1727(Doornspijk, 1994).
3. Gabriël Pastoor, “The Life of Arent de Gelder,” in Joachim W. von Moltke,Arent de Gelder,Dordrecht 1645–1727 (Doornspijk, 1994). 2 n. 13.
4. See the biography of Samuel van Hoogstraten in this catalogue.
5. Arnold Houbraken, De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en
schilderessen, 3 vols. (Amsterdam, 1718–21; rev. ed., The Hague, 1753; reprint, Amsterdam,1980), 3:206.
6. De Gelder is generally assumed to have studied under Van Hoogstraten for two years. Thismay have been based on Houbraken’s comment that De Gelder learned “de gronden van deschilderkunst” (rudiments of painting) from Van Hoogstraten, though nowhere does he mention
that this took exactly two years; Arnold Houbraken, De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche
konstschilders en schilderessen, 3 vols. (Amsterdam, 1718–21; rev. ed., The Hague, 1753;
reprint, Amsterdam, 1980), 3:206. Therefore, it is possible that De Gelder’s tutelage under Van
Hoogstraten was longer. The apprenticeship of a minor could sometimes last seven years.
Houbraken reports that De Gelder went to Amsterdam “om Rembrants wijze van schilderen teleeren” (to learn how to paint in Rembrandt’s manner); Arnold Houbraken, De grooteschouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen , 3 vols. (Amsterdam, 1718–21;rev. ed., The Hague, 1753; reprint, Amsterdam, 1980), 3:206. Taking Houbraken’s comment
literally, one could posit that De Gelder had completed his actual training. In that case, it would
certainly have lasted longer than two years. See Ronald de Jager, “Meester, leerjongen, leertijd:
Een

analysevanzeventiende-eeuwse

Noord-Nederlandseleerlingencontracten

vankunstschilders, goud- en zilversmeden,” in Oud-Holland 104 (1990): 69–71. On the variousstages of an apprenticeship, see also

Marion Goosens, “Schilders en de markt, Haarlem

1600–1635” (Ph.D. dissertation, Leiden University, 2001), 77–83.
7. “om Rembrants wijze van schilderen te leeren.” Arnold Houbraken,De groote schouburgh derNederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen, 3 vols. (Amsterdam, 1718–21; rev. ed., TheHague, 1753; reprint, Amsterdam, 1980), 3:206. According to Schatborn, De Gelder was withRembrandt already in 1661. As proof, he puts forth a drawing by De Gelder of 1661 that isstrongly influenced by dated work by Rembrandt from 1661–63. Peter Schatborn, “Tekeningenvan Arent de Gelder,” in Peter Schoon et al.,Arent de Gelder (1645–1727), Rembrandts laatsteleerling (Exh. cat. Dordrecht, Dordrechts Museum; Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum) (Ghent,1998), 111.
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8. Peter Schoon, “Arent de Gelder (1645–1727), ‘de beste Leerling die Rembrandt teelde by deadelijke Schilderkonst,’’’ in Peter Schoon et al., Arent de Gelder (1645–1727), Rembrandts
laatste leerling (Exh. cat. Dordrecht, Dordrechts Museum; Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum)(Ghent, 1998), 14.
9. Judah and Tamar, oil on canvas, 64 x 88 cm, signed and dated 1667, private collection.
Werner Sumowski, Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler in vier Bänden , 6 vols. (Landau, 1983),
2:1161, no. 728; Joachim W. von Moltke, Arent de Gelder, Dordrecht 1645–1727 (Doornspijk,1994), 65, no. 11, pl. V (color), pl. 11; Peter Schoon et al., Arent de Gelder (1645–1727),
Rembrandts laatste leerling (Exh. cat. Dordrecht, Dordrechts Museum; Cologne, WallrafRichartz-Museum) (Ghent, 1998), 126–27, no. 2.
10. Arnold Houbraken, De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en
schilderessen, 3 vols. (Amsterdam, 1718–21; rev. ed., The Hague, 1753; reprint, Amsterdam,1980), 3:268 (Terwesten).
11. Portrait of Hendrik Noteman (1656–1734) , oil on canvas, 85 x 68.3 cm (oval), signed anddated 1698, Dordrechts Museum, Dordrecht. Werner Sumowski, Werner Sumowski, Gemälde
der Rembrandt-Schüler in vier Bänden , 6 vols. (Landau, 1983), 2: 1178, no. 806, 1266; Joachim
W. von Moltke, Arent de Gelder, Dordrecht 1645–1727 (Doornspijk, 1994), 101, no. 101, pl.
XXXVIII (color), pl. 86; Peter Marijnissen et al., De Zichtbaere Werelt, schilderkunst uit deGouden Eeuw in Hollands oudste stad (Exh. cat. Dordrecht, Dordrechts Museum) (Zwolle,1992), 170–72, no. 37; Peter Schoon et al., Arent de Gelder (1645–1727), Rembrandts laatsteleerling (Exh. cat. Dordrecht, Dordrechts Museum; Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum) (Ghent,1998), 1990–91, no. 30.
12. Jacob C. Weyerman, De levens-beschryvingen der Nederlandsche konst-schilders en konstschilderessen (The Hague, 1729), 3:44.
13. See Gemeentelijk Autobusbedrijf Dordrecht, Notarial Archives, inv. 84, fol. 269–91v, 29
August 1727 (notary A. Cant). For a transcription of this extremely extensive inventory with all of
the paintings, see Joachim W. von Moltke, Arent de Gelder, Dordrecht 1645–1727 (Doornspijk,1994), 200–4.
14. “22 stukken schilderijen, verbeeldende de passie Christi.” See Gemeentelijk Autobusbedrijf
Dordrecht, Notarial Archives, inv. 84, fol. 280 (August 1727) (notary A. Cant).
15. “Arent de Gelder, zalr., d’eenigste Discipel die zynen beroemden Meester Rembrant stiptelyk
in de Schilderkonst naer gevolgt heeft.”© 2017 The Leiden CollectionPowered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

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Literature
Houbraken, Arnold. De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en
schilderessen. 3 vols. Amsterdam, 1718–21; rev. ed., The Hague, 1753; reprint,Amsterdam, 1980, 3:206–10.
Weyerman, Jacob C. De levens-beschryvingen der Nederlandsche konst-schilders en
konst-schilderessen. The Hague, 1729, 3:41–44.
Sumowski, Werner. Gemälde der Rembrandt-Schüler in vier Bänden. 6 vols. Landau, 1983,
2:1154–277; 5:3101–2; 6:3712–13.
Von Moltke, Joachim W. Arent de Gelder, Dordrecht 1645–1727. Doornspijk, 1994.
Marijnissen, Peter et al. De Zichtbaere Werelt, schilderkunst uit de Gouden Eeuw inHollands oudste stad. Exh. cat. Dordrecht, Dordrechts Museum. Zwolle, 1992, 162–87.
Schoon, Peter et al. Arent de Gelder (1645–1727), Rembrandts laatste leerling. Exh. cat.
Dordrecht, Dordrechts Museum; Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum. Ghent, 1998.
Liedtke, Walter. “Rembrandt’s ‘Workshop’ Revisited.” Oud-Holland 117, nos. 1–2 (2004):
48–73.

© 2017 The Leiden Collection