Ludolf de Jongh or Ludolf Leendertsz. de Jongh (

Overschie Overschie is a neighborhood of Rotterdam, Netherlands, formerly a separate village with its own municipality. The village of Overschie was located on the intersection of four rivers called "Schie": the Delftsche Schie, Schiedamsche Schie, Delfs ...

, 1616 –

Hillegersberg Hillegersberg is a neighbourhood of Rotterdam, Netherlands. Primarily a green residential area with lakes, canals and parks, it was incorporated into the city of Rotterdam in 1941. History Hillegersberg was named after Hildegard van Vlaandere ...

, 1679) was a Dutch painter, known for his

genre Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other for ...

scenes, hunting scenes, history paintings, landscapes, cityscapes and portraits.Ludolf de Jongh
at the

Netherlands Institute for Art History The Netherlands Institute for Art History or RKD (Dutch: RKD-Nederlands Instituut voor Kunstgeschiedenis), previously Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (RKD), is located in The Hague and is home to the largest art history center i ...

He was further a merchant, an officer in the civil guard of Rotterdam and a ''

schout In Dutch-speaking areas, a ''schout'' was a local official appointed to carry out administrative, law enforcement and prosecutorial tasks. The office was abolished with the introduction of administrative reforms during the Napoleonic period. Fu ...

'' (sheriff) of Hillegersberg.Ludolf de Jongh
at Jean Moust He was in the 1650s the leading genre painter in Rotterdam whose work influenced artists such as

Pieter de Hooch Pieter de Hooch (, also spelled "Hoogh" or "Hooghe"; 20 December 1629 (baptized) – 24 March 1684 (buried)) was a Dutch Golden Age painter famous for his genre works of quiet domestic scenes with an open doorway. He was a contemporary of ...

.Walter A. Liedtke, Michiel Plomp, Axel Rüger, ''Vermeer and the Delft School''
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2001, pp. 318-322 He was active as a

staffage In painting, staffage () are the human and animal figures depicted in a scene, especially a landscape, that are not the primary subject matter of the work. Typically they are small, and there to add an indication of scale and add interest. Before ...

painter and added the figures in the works of artists such as the church interior painter

Anthonie de Lorme Anthonie de Lorme (Tournai 1610 or between 1600 and 1605 – Rotterdam, 1673)Anthonie de Lorme
at the

and the landscape painter

Joris van der Haagen ''Surroundings of Arnhem'' Fine Arts of Carcassonne Joris Abrahamsz. van der Haagen (c. 1615 – The Hague, 23 May 1669 (buried)) was a Dutch Golden Age painter specialized in landscapes. Biography It is unclear where Joris van der Haa ...

.Anthonie de Lorme and Ludolf de Jongh, ''Interior of the St. Laurenskerk in Rotterdam''
at the

Life

De Jongh was born in Overschie (then a village near Rotterdam, which has now become part of Rotterdam) as the son of Leendert Leendertsz de Jongh and Annetje Leuvens. The family later moved to Rotterdam where the father was mentioned in 1647 as an inn-keeper. The de Jongh family was rather well-off as at the death of the father in 1670 he owned several houses.P. Haverkorn van Rijsewijk, 'Ludolf (Leuff) de Jongh', Oud-Holland 14 (1896), pp. 36-46 The early Dutch biographer Arnold Houbraken who is the main source on de Jongh's life claims that the young artist was a pupil of the versatile genre and landscape painter

Cornelis Saftleven Cornelis Saftleven (c. 1607 in Gorinchem – 1 June 1681 in Rotterdam) was a Dutch painter who worked in a great variety of genres. Known in particular for his rural genre scenes, his range of subjects was very wide and included portraits, farmho ...

.Ludolf de Jongh
at Getty Center) Houbraken also states that he studied under the genre and portrait painter

Anthonie Palamedesz. Anthonie Palamedesz., also Antonie Palamedesz, birth name Antonius Stevens (1602 in Leith, ScotlandM. Westhoff, 'Fragmentgenealogie van Palamedes Stevensz', Gens Nostra 73 (2018), p. 188-189 – 27 November 1673 in Amsterdam), was a Dutch po ...

in Delft and subsequently with the Caravaggist painter

Jan van Bijlert Jan Hermansz van Bijlert (1597 or 1598 – November 1671) was a Dutch Golden Age painter from Utrecht, one of the Utrecht Caravaggisti whose style was influenced by Caravaggio. He spent some four years in Italy and was one of the founders of the ...

Utrecht Utrecht ( , , ) is the fourth-largest city and a municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the province of Utrecht. It is located in the eastern corner of the Randstad conurbation, in the very centre of mainland Net ...

.Ludolf de Jong biography
in Arnold Houbraken, ''De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen'', 1718 Some doubts have been raised about his study with Jan van Bijlert as in his early works the influence of the Utrecht Caravaggisti is not discernible and only appears in his works from the late 1640s onwards.''Ludolf de Jongh'', ''Portrait of a boy, full-length, with a dog''
at Christie's (London) on 2 December 2008, lot 3Wayne E. Franits, ''Seventeenth-century Genre Painting: Its Stylistic and Thematic Evolution'', Yale University Press, 2004 Ludolf de Jongh - Portrait of a boy, full-length, with a dog

Ludolf de Jongh - Portrait of a boy, full-length, with a dog

Houbraken claims that de Jongh travelled in 1635 at the age of 19 to

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

in the company of a certain Frans Bacon. He stayed in France for seven years and only returned to the Dutch Republic in 1642 upon learning that his mother had fallen ill. He took up residence in Rotterdam the same year and his earliest signed paintings date from that year. He married on 6 February 1646 in Rotterdam Adriana Pietersdr. Montagne, the daughter of Pieter Montagne who was reportedly a member of the highest circles of Rotterdam. In the 1650s he became one of the most fashionable painters of Rotterdam achieving success with innovations in portraiture. He was awarded the rank of major in the schutterij (civil guard) of Rotterdam in 1652. In 1659 he was appointed to the College of the Oude-mannenhuismeesters (Board of the Masters of the Old Men's Home) on which he served for two years. In 1665 he was appointed the ''

'' of Hillegersberg ( a village near Rotterdam), a position he fulfilled until his death. He sold his house in Rotterdam and moved to Hillegersberg to exercise his duties as a ''schout''. From 1660 onwards he painted less, possibly because of his various responsibilities as a major, a merchant, and later, a ''schout'' in Hillegersberg. He was the master of Johannes van der Meer and the more famous genre and portrait painter Jacob Ochtervelt. He died in Hillegersberg between 27 May 1679 and 8 September 1679.

Work

Ludolf de Jongh - Hunting Party in the Courtyard of a Country House - 58

General

De Jongh was a very versatile painter who practised most genres popular in the Dutch Republic except still life painting. This versatility is possibly explained by the fact that he was of independent means due to his inheritance and did not need to cater to the varying tastes of his patrons or specialise in a specific genre such as landscapes in order to ensure a steady income. Due to the broad scope of genres in which he painted, his frequent changes of style and his habit not to sign his works often, attributions of work to the artist have been difficult. None of his works from his French period are known. He probably created portraits during that period. His earliest known paintings are genre scenes and portraits dating from his return to Rotterdam around 1642. By the 1660s he had moved away from genre scenes of peasants, taverns and guardrooms towards elegant, even aristocratic subjects such as hunts. In the 1650s he was one of the most fashionable painters of Rotterdam.

Genre scenes

His genre scenes from the early 1640 typically depict peasants or soldiers in dark and monochromatic interiors with some bright color accents. This shows a similarity with the genre paintings of his presumed master

and the Delft painter

His genre subjects and hunting scenes of the late 1640s show an indebtedness to the Dutch followers of Caravaggio, the so-called Utrecht Caravaggisti, especially

Jacob Duck Jacob Duck (also ''Ducq, Duyck, Duick, Duc'') (1600 – buried 22/28 January 1667) was a Dutch painter and etcher.Jac ...

. Like his master Palamedesz. he painted guardroom scenes, which show soldiers in guardrooms who are engaged in recreational activities. This genre was particularly popular in the Dutch Republic although it was also practised in Flanders by artists such as David Teniers the Younger. The principal exponents in this genre were

Pieter Codde Pieter Jacobsz Codde (December 11, 1599 – October 12, 1678) was a Dutch painter of genre works, guardroom scenes and portraits. Life Codde was a technically skilled painter. He is said to have studied with Frans Hals, but it is more likely ...

Willem Duyster Willem Cornelisz Duyster (1599–1635) was a Dutch Golden Age painter from Amsterdam, best known for his " guardroom scenes" (''cortegaarddje''), genre paintings showing the military life. Biography According to the Netherlands Institute for ...

and

Simon Kick Simon Kick (1603, Delft – 1652, Amsterdam), was a Dutch Golden Age painter. Biography According to the RKD he was the son of the Delft varnish worker Willem Kick.Jacob Duck Jacob Duck (also ''Ducq, Duyck, Duick, Duc'') (1600 – buried 22/28 January 1667) was a Dutch painter and etcher.Jac ...

in Utrecht and Anthonie Palamedesz. and

Jacob van Velsen Jacob Jansz. van Velsen (1597 in Delft – 1656 in Amsterdam), was a Dutch Golden Age painter. Biography According to the RKD Jacob influenced Willem Cornelisz Duyster and is known for genre works and military pieces, most notably conve ...

in Delft. Often referred to in the Dutch language as 'cortegaerdje', guardroom scenes showed interiors with soldiers at rest. The genre became popular after 1621 when the

Twelve Years' Truce The Twelve Years' Truce was a ceasefire during the Eighty Years' War between Spain and the Dutch Republic, agreed in Antwerp on 9 April 1609 and ended on 9 April 1621. While European powers like France began treating the Republic as a soverei ...

with Spain ended. Stationed throughout the Dutch Republic, soldiers would often have long periods during which there was no military action. They used this leisure time to interact with the local population or entertain themselves.Anthonie Palamedesz., ''A Guardroom Interior with a Company of Pikemen, card players, and a woman with a child''
at Sotheby'sJochai Rosen, ''Masculinity Pacified: Women as Mothers in the Guardroom Scenes of Anthonie Palamedes (1602-1673)''
De Zeventiende Eeuw. Jaargang 24(2008), pp. 181-195 Examples of paintings of de Jongh broadly falling into this genre are the ''Tavern scene'' (1650,

National Gallery Prague The National Gallery Prague ( cz, Národní galerie Praha, NGP), formerly the National Gallery in Prague (), is a state-owned art gallery in Prague, which manages the largest collection of art in the Czech Republic and presents masterpieces of Cze ...

) and the ''Soldiers at reveille'' (1653,

North Carolina Museum of Art The North Carolina Museum of Art (NCMA) is an art museum in Raleigh, North Carolina. It opened in 1956 as the first major museum collection in the country to be formed by state legislation and funding. Since the initial 1947 appropriation that e ...

Portraits

Ludolf de Jongh - Portrait of Willem Everwijn with his Horse and Two Huntsmen

While now known mainly for his genre work, de Jongh's principal area of activity was portraiture. He started out painting portraits in the more traditional Dutch style characterised by its formal depiction of the sitters. He likely trained in this style with his teacher Anthonie Palamedesz. who had studied it himself under his presumed master

Michiel Jansz. van Mierevelt Michiel Janszoon van Mierevelt, often abbreviated as Michiel Jansz. and the surname also spelled Miereveld or Miereveldt, (; 1 May 1566 – 27 June 1641) was a Dutch painter and draftsman of the Dutch Golden Age. Biography Van Mierevelt wa ...

. De Jongh's later works reflect a development in the mid-17th-century Dutch Republic towards a more opulent style and a greater plasticity of handling of which the Amsterdam painter

Bartholomeus van der Helst Bartholomeus van der Helst (1613 – buried 16 December 1670) was a Dutch painter. Considered to be one of the leading portrait painters of the Dutch Golden Age, his elegant portraits gained him the patronage of Amsterdam's elite as well as th ...

was the principal proponent. He experimented with various innovations in portraiture in this period, both in his use of space and light effects as well as by paying more attention to the psychological expression of his sitters. This approach in his works had a significant influence on the young

. An example of a portrait from his later period is the ''Portrait of a boy, full-length, with a dog'' of 1648 (At Christie's (London) on 2 December 2008, lot 3) depicting a boy wearing a rich silken doublet and skirt. The modelling of the brushwork in this work is fluid and confident. The portrait shows three typical elements of his portraiture: the restricted palette used for the sitter, the careful delineation and representation of the features and the inclusion of a dog. In the latter he shows a knowledge of van Dyck’s portraits. He painted a '' schuttersstuk'' (a group portrait of officers of the civil guard) of Rotterdam. Houbraken saw the work in the target practice hall of the ''schutterij'' in the 18th century. The current location of the work is unknown.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Jongh, Ludolf Leendertsz de 1616 births 1679 deaths Dutch Golden Age painters Dutch portrait painters Dutch male painters Painters from Rotterdam