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Identification and Creation

Object Number
1951.3
People
Leendert van der Cooghen, Dutch (Haarlem, Netherlands 1632 - 1681 Haarlem, Netherlands)
Title
Seated Old Man
Classification
Drawings
Work Type
drawing
Date
1653
Culture
Dutch
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/297209

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Black and white chalk on blue antique laid paper, faded to gray-blue, framing line in brown ink
Dimensions
38.7 x 21.6 cm (15 1/4 x 8 1/2 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • Signed: Dated, lower right, black chalk: 1653
  • label: on brown paper, in curatorial file, green typeface and black ink: L. 747a [FD[in ligature] / No [black pen] 114] (Maurice Delacre)
  • inscription: lower right, graphite: 452...[illegible digit]
  • inscription: verso, lower right, graphite: 184
  • inscription: verso, lower right, graphite: 4
  • inscription: verso, lower left, graphite: 1951.3 [underlined]
  • watermark: none

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Maurice Delacre, Ghent (with his label, L. 747a), sold; [Gutekunst and Klipstein, Berne, 21-22 June 1949, lot 184 (as 17th century Dutch School).] [Unidentified dealer, southern France], sold; to Fritz B. Talbot, Boston, 1951; gift of Dr. Fritz B. Talbot, 1951.3

Published Text

Catalogue
Drawings from the Age of Bruegel, Rubens, and Rembrandt: Highlights from the Collection of the Harvard Art Museums
Authors
William W. Robinson and Susan Anderson
Publisher
Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 2016)

Catalogue entry no. 19 by Susan Anderson:

The wealthy amateur Leendert van der Cooghen produced a relatively small oeuvre during the 1650s and 1660s: three paintings, sixty-six drawings, and ten etchings surviving today are attributed to him. Son of the flax merchant Jacob Adriaensz. van der Cooghen, Leendert, probably Catholic, remained unmarried and lived in the inherited family home, Ter Goes, on the Schagchelstraat in Haarlem. He participated in two of the city’s civic militias: the Old and Saint George Civic Guard in 1648, and the Nieuwe Doelen in 1669.

Dutch artist biographer Arnold Houbraken (1660–1719) claims that Van der Cooghen studied with Jacob Jordaens in Antwerp during the 1640s, although more recently this has been dated to Jordaens’s time in the Hague in the early 1650s. Whenever his training occurred, his entry into Haarlem’s Guild of Saint Luke in 1652 and appointment as warden in 1668 demonstrate that he ultimately earned the respect of his artistic peers. The drawings are by far the high point of his production, with their refined line and precise manner of hatching similar to those by other Haarlem draftsmen active during this time, including Cornelis Bega, with whom he studied around 1650–51 (see 25.1998.93). Like other Haarlemmers, including Gerrit Berckheyde (2009.207) and Cornelis Visscher, Van der Cooghen produced mainly figure studies and portraits in black and/or red chalk.1

As Baukje Coenen has observed, this drawing is one of eight depicting the same bearded, older man in black and white chalk on blue paper. Seven of these she assigns securely to Van der Cooghen, and the eighth she attributes to him (Figs. 1 and 2).2 Five of the secure drawings, including the present sheet, bear the year 1653 in Van der Cooghen’s hand. The model, consistently shown seated, sports the same thinning hair and full beard throughout this series. The costume changes slightly from drawing to drawing, but in all of these studies the man wears a loosely fitted doublet or cloak, in most cases knee-length with a long row of buttons. Knee-length breeches and loose-fitting stockings are sometimes visible, and in some cases a short cravat or scarf appears.

Across the group, Van der Cooghen appears to have purposefully captured a range of poses and gestures indicating speech. In our drawing, the man wears a billowing, three-quarter-length doublet and sits facing right. He raises his right hand while looking to the right and down, a gesture that has been interpreted as prayer, but could also suggest a request for silence. The drawings further serve as studies of drapery under light, here falling from the upper left and casting the many folds of the model’s doublet into areas of contrasting brightness and shadow.

Notes

1 Baukje J. L. Coenen, “The drawings of the Haarlem amateur Leendert van der Cooghen,” Master Drawings. Vol. 43, no. 1 (Spring 2005): 5–90, pp. 5–6, and Pieter Biesboer and Neeltje Köhler, eds. Painting in Haarlem 1500–1850: The Collection of the Frans Hals Museum (Ghent, 2006), pp. 128–9.

2 See Coenen, p. 28 and cats. A19–A25 and B7. See also Emmanuel Starcky, Inventaire générale des dessins du Nord: Supplément aux inventaires publiés par Frits Lugt et Louis Demonts (Paris, 1988), under cat. 217, p. 155. Leendert van der Cooghen, Bearded Old Man, Seated Full Length, Holding a Stick (Fig. 1), 1653, black chalk heightened with white on blue paper (faded), 388 × 241 mm, Edinburgh, National Galleries of Scotland, D. 1954 (Coenen A19); Leendert van der Cooghen, Bearded Old Man, Seated Full Length on a Chair (Fig. 2), 1653, black chalk heightened with white on blue paper (faded), 356 × 211 mm, Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, LvdC 2 (Coenen A20).

Figures

Fig. 1 Leendert van der Cooghen, Bearded Old Man, Seated Full Length, Holding a Stick

Fig. 2 Leendert van der Cooghen, Bearded Old Man, Seated Full Length on a Chair

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Gift of Dr. Fritz B. Talbot
Accession Year
1951
Object Number
1951.3
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • Agnes Mongan, French Drawings of Five Centuries from the Collection of the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, exh. cat., Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, 1951), cat. no. 11, n.p., repr.
  • Agnes Mongan, De Clouet a Matisse: Dessins français des collections américaines, exh. cat., Musée de l'Orangerie (Paris, 1958), cat. no. 12, repr. pl. 19, repr. (as Unidentified Artist, 17th-century French)
  • Agnes Mongan, Van Clouet tot Matisse: tentoonstelling van franse tekeningen uit amerikaanse collecties, exh. cat., Museum Boymans (Rotterdam, 1958), cat. no. 12, pl. 17, repr. (as Unidentified Artist, 17th-century French)
  • Agnes Mongan, French Drawings from American Collections: Clouet to Matisse, exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, 1959), cat. no. 12, p. 34, pl. 17, repr. (as Unidentified Artist, 17th-century French)
  • Emmanuel Starcky, Inventaire Générale Des Dessins Du Nord: Supplément aux Inventaires Publiés par Frits Lugt et Louis Demonts, Ministere de la culture... (Paris, France, 1988), under cat. no. 217, p. 155
  • A.W.F.M. Meij and Ger Luijten, From Pisanello to Cézanne: Master Drawings from the Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen and Art Services International (Rotterdam and Alexandria VA, 1990), under cat. no. 31, pp. 93–94, (n. 9)
  • Baukje Coenen, "The Drawings of the Haarlem Amateur Leendert van der Cooghen", Master Drawings (Spring 2005), vol. XLIII, no. 1, pp. 5-90, cat. no. A21, pp. 28 and 51, repr. fig. 58
  • William W. Robinson and Susan Anderson, Drawings from the Age of Bruegel, Rubens, and Rembrandt: Highlights from the Collection of the Harvard Art Museums, Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 2016), cat. no. 19, pp. 82-84, repr. p. 83

Exhibition History

  • French Drawings of Five Centuries from the Collection of the Fogg Museum of Art, Harvard University, Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, 05/15/1951 - 09/30/1951
  • French Drawings from American Collections: Clouet to Matisse, Museum Boymans, Rotterdam, 07/31/1958 - 09/28/1958; Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris, 10/24/1958 - 01/02/1959; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 02/03/1959 - 03/15/1959
  • The Drawing, Pomona College Gallery, 09/22/1960 - 10/16/1960

Subjects and Contexts

  • Dutch, Flemish, & Netherlandish Drawings

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu