The Great Theatre of Dutch Painters  

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De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen (The Great Theatre of Dutch Painters) (1718) is a book by Arnold Houbraken. Schouburgh is a compilation of 500 biographies of seventeenth-century painters. The three-volumes follow the tradition of Het Schilderboeck by Carel van Mander (1604) and the books Zichtbare wereld, and Inleyding tot de Hooge Schoole der Schilderkonst, both by his teacher Samuel van Hoogstraten. Other books that he quotes in this book are the similar biographies of painters written by Joachim von Sandrart (1678), Cornelis de Bie (Het Gulden Cabinet, 1662), André Félibien (1706), Florent le Compte (1708) and Roger de Piles (1708).

Other, unpublished sources for his material came from various contacts via his professional network, mostly members of St. Luke Guilds in Holland. He listed many men who became members of the Bentvueghels group in Rome while on their Grand Tour, but he also listed most of the men in a competency list drawn up by Vincent van der Vinne before he died in 1702. Houbraken himself died in 1719, and his wife finished and published his book after his death. Thirty years after Houbraken's death it was published for a second time, in expanded form. This book, important for art historians, was republished in a facsimile of the second edition in Amsterdam in 1976.

Houbraken kept to a system of importance where capitals meant very important, and lower case were honorable mentions. This book is now available on line in the Digital library for Dutch literature. Here is a list of approximately 500 painters that are listed in capital letters. The index of his book lists an additional 150 painters, while the number of people mentioned altogether in his book approaches 1000, including publishers.

Contents

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Volume I

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Volume II

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Volume III

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Notable omissions

The absence from Houbraken's work of several painters who are now much more highly regarded than very many painters he considered noteworthy, is an interesting feature of the work, and reveals changes in taste since his time; the most notorious omission is Jan Vermeer, who is mentioned once in passing. One must not forget however, that Houbraken himself died before publishing the final work, and he mentions again and again the impossibility of a complete list. In his first volume he includes painters that he complained were oversights by Karel van Mander, who he regarded as his greatest example. He highly respected all artist biographers who came before him, such as Sandrart, de Bie, and de Lairesse. In fact, Houbraken was quite keen to include painters that he thought were overlooked before him, and was quite thorough in his endeavors. Therefore, his omissions are equally the omissions of previous biographers, though it is Houbraken who receives all the blame. Unfortunately we don't know the exact state of his book at the time of his death, but his son Jacob, his daughter Antonina, and his wife all helped to patch things up for publication, and it is quite possible that their own opinions slipped in to the finished work. In general, Houbraken tends to follow the contemporary prejudices of the hierarchy of genres and undervalue landscapists, marine artists and painters of still life. One can also speak of certain prejudices of the Houbraken family. These were in order:

  • Family dynasties: All painters who made up a family dynasty received extra space in the book. More space was given to the founder of the dynasty than to any other member (note that Houbraken considered himself the founder of his own family dynasty). An example is that though Rachel Ruysch was the most famous painter of her family, Houbraken devotes more space to her grandfather Pieter Post and his brother Frans. Similarly, though Wouter Crabeth II was the most famous painter of the family, Houbraken devotes more space to his illustrious heritage in Gouda, the glass painters Dirk and Wouter.
  • Engravers: Houbraken had a business of his own in biographical engravings, and his large family probably all helped in the business, with his son and daughter helping with the oval portraits. Houbraken was quick to realize the importance of reprints, and used them whenever possible for art provenance. He highly respected good engravings. Therefore he was heavily prejudiced towards artists who were also good draftsmen and engravers, such as Rembrandt and the Visschers. He includes also notes about various publishers and engravers, who did not paint at all.
  • Rome: Houbraken had great respect for all artists who took the trouble and overcame many hardships to travel to Rome. He went to great pains to add entries for the entire list of painters mentioned in a poem about the Bentvueghels.
  • Flattery: As a Mennonite, Houbraken would have been against flattery; however, he writes again and again of the importance of flattering one's patrons in his books, and a recurring theme is when an artist fell onto bad times because he failed to flatter his patron. This type of artist is admired by Houbraken as a sort of "martyr to the artist's cause". Examples of flatterers that Houbraken deprecates are Anthony van Dyck and Sir Peter Lely followers, and his omissions speak for themselves if we note famous portrait painters of his day such as Adriaen Hanneman, Johannes Cornelisz Verspronck and Thomas de Keyser. Similarly, though architecture was considered one of the highest genre's, the popular "family portrait with a view of the house or garden" was omitted as a genre entirely from Houbraken's praise, since this just showed off the wealth of the sitters. Thus landscape-portraitists were often omitted or deprecated, such as Hendrik van Steenwijk II and his wife.
  • Religion: Certainly Houbraken included artists of all religions in his book, but we can say that Mennonites are over-represented (see his story on the Mennonite martyr Jan Woutersz van Cuyck), while Catholics are under-represented. These were the De Grebbers, the De Brays, the Ruisdael family, Jan Vermeer, Adriaen Coorte, Adriaen Hanneman, Johannes Cornelisz Verspronck, Hendrick Dubbels, Pieter Anthonisz. van Groenewegen, Meindert Hobbema, and others.

Other notorious omissions are Jan van de Cappelle, Judith Leyster, Jan Wynants, Jacobus Mancadan, Hendrick Avercamp, and others.

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Schilderessen

Translated, the title of the book is Theatre of Painters and Paintresses, indicating that Houbraken wrote about women painters, or schilderessen. However, the list of women he included in the book is really quite short. Though he included short biographies of very many painters who were closely related to women painters, the only paintresses he included were: Artemisia Gentileschi, Maria de Grebber (sister of Pieter de Grebber), Alida Withoos, Catharina Oostfries (from a glaspainting family, married glasspainter Claes van der Meulen), Maria van Oosterwijk, Geertgen Wyntges (who he mentions as being the servant of Maria van Oosterwijk), Anna Katrina, Catharina Rozee (1632–82), Adriana Spilberg (daughter of Johannes Spilberg), Rachel Ruysch, the three sisters Anna Maria van Thielen, Francoise Katharina van Thielen, and Maria Theresa van Thielen, Diana Glauber, Maria Sybilla Merian, and Johanna Koerten Blok.

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Legacy

Arnold Houbraken's books sold quite well during the entire 18th century. Jacob Campo Weyerman published his updated version (1729–47) in serial form that was published as a complete set in 1769. Houbraken's engravings of the artists are in some cases the only surviving portraits of these people.

The first to make a published sequel to Houbraken's work was Johan van Gool in 1750-51. Though these books published well, with changing fashions, during the course of the 19th century Houbraken fell out of favor with art historians, especially when his sketches were found wanting, incorrect, or even slanderous. Houbraken was very careful to check and double check his sources, and today many of his personal judgements still stand up to our modern scrutiny. Attacks of his judgement due to the spelling of artist's names or accusations that he was nationalistic and deemed all of these artists as "Netherlandish" must be dismissed on the grounds that the various borders between the Netherlands, Germany, and Flanders were far from decided in the period during which he was writing, and spelling conventions in the Netherlands regarding names were only introduced by Napoleonic decree in the 1790s. Excepting those cases where the artist died quite young, or whose oeuvre was lost during various wars, very few artists were included in the Schouburg who do not hang in international museums today.

The first modern art historian to publish an update of his work was Adriaan van der Willigen, in 1866. Since then he has remained a valuable resource for art historians.

The Schouburgh is part of the Basic Library of the dbnl (Database of Dutch Literature) which contains the 1000 most important works in Dutch literature from the Middle Ages to today.


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