JAN SIEWERTZ KOLM (Amsterdam 1589 – Amsterdam 1637)
A Portrait Group of the Painter Jan Siewertz Kolm, his Wife Fijtge Lindemans, their Children Anna Jansdr., Siewert Jansz., and Hans Jansz. with a Maidservant
Signed JAN SIEWERTZ on the Dutch flag in the center right, and dated 1624 in the lower right
oil on panel
26 x 45.7 inches (66 x 116 cm.)
PROVENANCE
Private Collection, Bavaria
Until the manuscript Ghedenck Boeck appeared at auction in 1985, now in the collection of the Stadsarchief Amsterdam, no artwork was believed to have survived from the painter poet Jan Siewertz Kolm. Its pages provide a “surprising glimpse into the life and business of an Amsterdam rhetorician”, outlining his literary and artistic endeavors, as well as detailing his family life.[1] It also has 77 drawings of Kolm and his family among other subjects. Based on these drawings we were able to confirm that this panel represents Kolm and his family. To date it appears to be the only known oil painting to exist by the artist.
Kolm began his artistic training at 13 when apprenticed to a painter whose name is unknown. In 1613 he married Anna Seroyen who along with their child died the same year. By 1616 a happier union ensued with Fijtge Lindemans. They lived near the Zuiderkerk, an area where many painters resided, and as a “master” at this point he would have had his own studio.[2] Not choosing to specialize, Kolm executed scenes of ruins, historical works, landscapes, portraits, still lifes, as well as illustrations.[3]
In 1618 after the birth of their son Hans, the family moved to Alkmaar probably assuming there would be less competition for work. They purchased a house and a second son Siewert was born in 1619. Not long after they returned to the Zuiderkerk area in Amsterdam. With the birth of their daughter Anna in 1621 they purchased a house on the Nieuwe Uilenburg. Sadly Siewert died before reaching his fifth birthday. By 1628 Kolm had stopped painting altogether for the far more lucrative position of “coopmansboode” (merchant’s agent) in Antwerp.[4]
At the start of 1628 Kolm purchased a house on the Prinsengracht and the following year the house at 406 Keizersgracht. As he constantly now had to travel to Antwerp there was no time to pursue his art. In 1631 Fijtge died and shortly thereafter Kolm married Jannetje Davidts. Upon his death in 1637, Kolm died a prosperous man.[5]
His literary achievements were poems for weddings and songs to be sung at special gatherings for amusement. His most successful play was Malle Jan Tots boerdige vryery from about 1618 featuring the antics of an Amsterdam boy whose behavior is only restrained by his mother. This play proved popular until 1665 as it was considered “one of the treasures of the Amsterdam Theater”.[6]
In this panel Kolm is immediately recognizable from his 1622 self-portrait at an easel in his Ghedenck boeck. His placement on the right side of his wife derives from the tradition found in dynastic portraiture of the sixteenth century.[7] Once more dressed in all brown the clothes have become more elegant with a ruff collar, gold trimmed belt, tasseled garter, and tall hat with one arm fashionably wrapped in a cape. The stance depicts a man of action. Fijtge closely resembles her 1622 portrayal in the Ghedenck boeck in dress and pose, but similarly is a bit more stylish. Her right hand clutches a chatelaine that would have hung from her belt used to carry keys and other items, indicative of her management of a large household.[8] Siewert stands to her left with his hand in his pockets. He is about 4 ½ years old and the only one in the panel whose gaze directly engages the viewer. Marked by the overturned hourglass, cast off rose and fallen petals on the ground before him, this is a posthumous portrait. Deceased children were commonly included in 17th century Dutch family group portraits. Kolm wrote of Siewert’s death “what you had lent us through your goodness, Lord, you withdrew in the fifth year of this world”.[9]
To his left, dressed in a similar fashion except wearing a ruff collar is his older brother Hans. In what is a particularly moving passage, he reaches towards his brother holding a shell with a straw from which soap bubbles rise. This is a motif traditionally linked to the Latin phrase “Homo Bulla” (Man is like a Bubble) and refers to the fleetingness of life.[10]
The most exquisitely dressed of the group is little Anna born on December 2, 1621. Her dress echoes that of her mother but is further embellished by a split linen collar trimmed with lace and a lace edged linen apron. The visible folds in her apron mark it as freshly laundered and having just been removed from a cupboard, signifying a well-run household. She wears a coral necklace with a heart-shaped pendant as coral was believed to ward off disease and evil spirits.[11] Her coral colored cap is trimmed with lace bands. Tied to her waist is a small hanging purse and teething piece. On her right arm she carries a basket of cherries and her hand displays a red and white carnation. Cherries were regarded as the fruits of paradise and symbolized the wish for a fruitful life.[12] The carnation was associated with marriage and the promise of love.[13] In a charming detail Anna reaches for a cherry branch held out by her father. It is a demonstration of the artist’s wish for her future happiness but has added a cautionary note with the scattering of cherries, an orange and apple at her feet, an allusion to transience.
Behind the little girl is a figure identified in the Ghedenck boeck as the family helper and neighbor. Her simpler dress defines her lesser status. Her extended arm towards Anna illustrates her role within the family.
Although almost 400 years have passed, we cannot help but be moved by Jan Siewertz Kolm’s display of the pride and sorrow he felt for his family, and surrounded by all that he loves the painter resolutely shows himself striding towards the future.
[1] Mieke B. Smits – Veldt, “De nalatenschap van Jan Sijwertsz Kolm (1589 – 1637) Het gezicht van een Amsterdamse rederijker” in Literatuur Tijdschrift Over Nederlandse Letterkunde 8, 1991, no. 2, p. 93.
[2] Ibid, pp. 97-98.
[3] “Jan Siewertsz Colms” on Ecartico at ecartico.org.
[4] Mieke B. Smits – Veldt, op.cit., pp. 88-89.
[5] Ibid, pp. 100-101.
[6] Ibid, pp. 94-95.
[7] Frauke Kathrin Laarman, “Herman Meindertsz. Doncker – Ein origineller künstler zweiten Ranges“ in Oud Holland, volume 114.1, 2000, p. 24.
[8] Rudolf E. O. Ekkart, Portret von Enkhuizen in de gouden eeuw, Zuiderzeemuseum, Enkhuizen, 1990, p. 29.
[9] Mieke B. Smits-Veldt, op.cit., p. 100.
[10] Wayne Frantis, Dutch Seventeenth Century Genre Painting, Yale University Press, New Haven, 2004, p. 112.
[11] Katlijne Van der Stighelen, “Peter Paul Rubens” in Pride and Joy, Children’s Portraits in the Netherlands 1500 – 1700, Leiden Press, Ghent, 2000, p. 81.
[12] Denise Giannino, Familial Identity and Site Specificity. A Study of the Hybrid Genre of Seventeenth Century Dutch Family – Landscape Portraiture, Ph.D. dissertation, University of Kansas, November 2017, p. 64.
[13] Luca Impelluso, “Carnation” in Nature and Its Symbols, The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, 2003, p. 115.