ABRAHAM BLOEMAERT (Utrecht 1566 – Utrecht 1651)
Farmstead with a Fire
Signed A. Bloemaert.fe: in the lower right
oil on panel
24 ¼ x 34 ½ inches (60.5 x 87.8 cm.)
PROVENANCE
According to a label on the reverse dated Liège May 17, 1939 this painting was part of an inheritance.
Private Collection, Liège by the early 1990s
B. Schoonderwoerd, Haarlem, 1994
LITERATURE
Marcel Roethlisberger, Abraham Bloemaert and his Sons, volume I, Davaco, Doornspijk, 1993, p. 681
M.G. Roethlisberger, “Vijf versies van één Keukenstuk Abraham Bloemaert als schilder van één populair genre”, Antiek, January 1996, p. 267
Marcel Roethlisberger, “Abraham Bloemaert: Recent additions to his Paintings” in Artibus et Historiae, 2000, pp. 163 – 164, no. 41, illustrated, p. 169, fn. 41
Jaap Bolten, Abraham Bloemaert, c. 1565 – 1651: The Drawings, volume 1, Leiden, 2007, figure 1345
At the time of the publication of Abraham Bloemaert and his Sons in 1993, Marcel Roethlisberger had only viewed a photograph of this work as noted in the addendum. In his 2000 update he described it as follows: “The exquisitely preserved Farmstead with a Fire – shows Dutch farmhouses half destroyed by a fire which is still raging in the background. A farmer and his wife are searching for debris, water buckets are on the ground. A girl is weeping, two firefighters are on the roof. In the left foreground, a seated woman clad in red is totally passive, the eyes shut. The composition is framed by the dark repoussoir on the left – the beam reaching into the sky acting as a pointer – and the trees on the right. There is a great chromatic intensity with yellowish – green grass, rich brick tones, a grey sky with yellow flames and dark smoke”.[1]
Approximately 209 paintings are known by the artist, with about 42 being landscapes. Other subjects include Biblical, classical and themes of genre. He further executed over 600 prints and more than 1,000 drawings. Probably due to the fact that Bloemaert owned a 14-acre farm located in Oostveen / Martensdijk “many of his works attest – reveal a profound love for nature, farming, plants, trees, and the countryside in general.” Around 1600 Bloemaert began a series of landscapes that featured dilapidated cottages in which the religious or mythological figures play a secondary role. “No previous Dutch master gave landscape the same importance as Bloemaert, both in painting and engraving”.[2] Roethlisberger dates our painting to having been executed most likely during the 1610’s. Comparisons with burning farmhouses can be drawn from his prints circa 1615 (see Roethlisberger, 1983, fig. 378, from the Elements series, as well as the smoking kilns in figs. 577 and 763). Drawings of the house are in the Albertina Museum, Vienna (reproduced in Jaap Bolten, op.cit., figure 1345a) and at the Centraal Museum, Utrecht, inventory no. 23151). Intriguingly Roethlisberger notes “Farmstead with a Fire is his only painted fire and the only landscape without a specific literary subject and without animals”. He goes on to suggest, “Perhaps inspired by the experience of a fire, the painting is a meditation on disasters that may befall people”.[3] Given the immediacy of its imagery and the palpable emotions of the victims, this could only have been a tragedy Bloemaert experienced firsthand, one that weighed on him heavily and could not be forgotten. The painting’s power is such that today in a world desperately combating the effects of fires caused by climate change the poignancy of Bloemaert’s panel remains undiminished.
“Abraham Bloemaert born at Christmas of 1566 in Gorinchem, deceased on January 13 of 1651 in Utrecht, has since his own time been regarded by collectors and connoisseurs as one of the most important masters of Dutch art”.[4] Bloemaert’s father was a sculpture, engineer, and architect. Abraham trained with his father, as well as Joos de Beer and possibly Gerrit Splinter. In 1581 or 1582 Bloemaert traveled to Paris to work with a certain Master Henry and then briefly with Hieronymus Francken. From about 1585 to 1590 Bloemaert was back in Utrecht presumably working with his father. From 1591 until 1593 he was in Amsterdam, and then settled in Utrecht after marrying Judith van Schonenburch. His father died in 1593, whereupon Bloemaert succeeded him in the Utrecht Saddlers’ guild, which included painters, and became its dean by 1594. His wife died of the plague in 1599. In 1600 Bloemaert remarried with Gerarda de Roij. They had numerous children, four of whom became artists: Hendrick, Cornelis, Adriaen and Frederick. Along with Paulus Moreelse, Bloemaert established a new painters’ guild in 1611, and shortly thereafter an academy to teach drawing.[5]
At the time of the painting of Farmstead with a Fire, Bloemaert was working in a mannerist style. This was followed by a Caravaggesque period which culminated in a distinctive melding of the two ideals in which he employed Caravaggio’s dramatic lighting effects with mannerism’s bright colors. Prince Frederick Hendrick, the Stadholder and other aristocrats were among his patrons. He remained active until the end of his life producing technically proficient paintings and drawings. He became the embodiment of the School of Utrecht due to his skill, longevity, and many pupils which included: Gerrit van Honthorst, Hendrick ter Brugghen, Jan van Bijlert, Cornelis van Poelenburch, Jan Both, Jan Weenix and Jacob Gerritsz. Cuyp. Such a stellar roster of students combined with the wide dissemination of his prints solidified his legacy.[6]
[1] Marcel Roethlisberger, 2000, op.cit., p. 163.
[2] Marcel Roethlisberger, op.cit., 1993, pp. 15-16, 23; Ibid, p. 165.
[3] Marcel Roethlisberger, 2000, op.cit., pp. 163 -165.
[4] Marcel Roethlisberger, 1993, op.cit., p. 15.
[5] Biographical information taken from Marcel Roethlisberger, op.cit., 1993, pp. 17, 23; and Walter Liedtke, “Abraham Bloemaert” in Dutch Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Yale University Press, New Haven, 2007, pp.40-41.
[6] Biographical information taken from Marcel Roethlisberger, 1993, op.cit., pp. 15-16; and C.J.A. Wansink, “Abraham Bloemaert” in From Rembrandt to Vermeer, The Grove Dictionary of Art, New York, 2000, pp. 28, 31.