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Lot Essay
Van de Venne is best known for the many illustrations he designed for Jacob Cats's emblematic and moralising publications, which enjoyed great popularity and wide circulation.
Apart from his pictures with elegant company, often riding, music-making or engaged in games, he also depicted several historical events. These often includedg members of the House of Orange, such as the Princes Maurits and Frederik Hendrik. He portrayed several other members of the family after settling in The Hague in 1625, possibly summoned there by Frederik Hendrik, who succeeded Prince Maurits as Stadholder on 25 April 1625.
A very different genre of picture is connected with his moralising drawings. The subjects of these often reappear in the many grisailles he made, most of which are dated to the 1620s. A large number include a banner inscribed with the title like that in the present lot, which may be a preliminary study for an unidentified picture.
The subject of the poor and their struggle for life was frequently treated by Van de Venne, and many pictures of crippled beggars fighting are known. These are often inscribed with different sayings such as 'Twist-Kwist', 'Noot maeckt Bloot', 'Arm Geweld' and 'Jammerlyck'.
This theme appears in a painting dated 1621 in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, which like the present lot is entitled Al-Arm (Utterly Poor). Laurens Bol comments that this picture '... shows a melee of human savagery and violence, in the form of a wild fight between scruffy, crippled beggars. Violently brandished sticks and crutches serve as weapons and are used to threaten and strike. The conflicting directions of the battle-weapons heighten the sense of violent excitement.' (L. Bol, Adriaen Pietersz. van de Venne, Painter and Draughtsman, Doornspijk, 1989, p. 81). This description certainly applies to the present drawing.
Van de Venne's set of drawings in the Albertina, Vienna, inscribed 'Al-Arm' is illustrated by M. Royalton-Kisch, Adriaen van de Venne's Album in the Department of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum, London, 1988, pp. 89-90, figs. 51-3. That set is dated 1642, indicating that Van de Venne used this subject for over twenty years. A smaller drawing of crippled beggars fighting, in red chalk, is in the printroom of the Leiden University, De verzameling van Dr. A. Welcker, exhibition catalogue, Leiden, 1960, no. 70. Another, which includes the same kneeling figure as that on the left in the present lot, is in the Stdelsches Institut, Frankfurt, Stift und Feder, exhibition catalogue, 1927, no. 44.
Apart from his pictures with elegant company, often riding, music-making or engaged in games, he also depicted several historical events. These often includedg members of the House of Orange, such as the Princes Maurits and Frederik Hendrik. He portrayed several other members of the family after settling in The Hague in 1625, possibly summoned there by Frederik Hendrik, who succeeded Prince Maurits as Stadholder on 25 April 1625.
A very different genre of picture is connected with his moralising drawings. The subjects of these often reappear in the many grisailles he made, most of which are dated to the 1620s. A large number include a banner inscribed with the title like that in the present lot, which may be a preliminary study for an unidentified picture.
The subject of the poor and their struggle for life was frequently treated by Van de Venne, and many pictures of crippled beggars fighting are known. These are often inscribed with different sayings such as 'Twist-Kwist', 'Noot maeckt Bloot', 'Arm Geweld' and 'Jammerlyck'.
This theme appears in a painting dated 1621 in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, which like the present lot is entitled Al-Arm (Utterly Poor). Laurens Bol comments that this picture '... shows a melee of human savagery and violence, in the form of a wild fight between scruffy, crippled beggars. Violently brandished sticks and crutches serve as weapons and are used to threaten and strike. The conflicting directions of the battle-weapons heighten the sense of violent excitement.' (L. Bol, Adriaen Pietersz. van de Venne, Painter and Draughtsman, Doornspijk, 1989, p. 81). This description certainly applies to the present drawing.
Van de Venne's set of drawings in the Albertina, Vienna, inscribed 'Al-Arm' is illustrated by M. Royalton-Kisch, Adriaen van de Venne's Album in the Department of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum, London, 1988, pp. 89-90, figs. 51-3. That set is dated 1642, indicating that Van de Venne used this subject for over twenty years. A smaller drawing of crippled beggars fighting, in red chalk, is in the printroom of the Leiden University, De verzameling van Dr. A. Welcker, exhibition catalogue, Leiden, 1960, no. 70. Another, which includes the same kneeling figure as that on the left in the present lot, is in the Stdelsches Institut, Frankfurt, Stift und Feder, exhibition catalogue, 1927, no. 44.