Hendrick Avercamp

Dutch, 1585 - 1634

Hendrick Avercamp, born in Amsterdam in a house next to the Nieuwe Kerk, was baptized in the Oude Kerk on January 27, 1585. In 1586 the family moved to Kampen, where Avercamp’s father was appointed town apothecary. After his death, his business was taken over by his wife, Beatrix Peters, and by one of their other sons, either Lambert or Pieter. Another son became a physician, and the members of this well-educated family were for many years prominent citizens of Kampen.

For his artistic training, Hendrick went to Amsterdam, where in 1607 he lived with the Danish portrait painter Pieter Isaacks (1569–1625). In that year King Christiaan IV recalled Isaacks to Denmark, and Avercamp appears among the list of buyers at the auction of Isaacks’s effects as “de stom tot Pieter Isacqs” (Pieter Isaacks’s mute). Various other records testify to Avercamp’s disability: a document from 1622 refers to him as “Hendrick Avercamp de Stomme,” and his mother’s will, drawn up in 1633, instructs that her unmarried, “mute and miserable” son Hendrick should receive, in addition to his portion of the inheritance, an extra annual allowance of one hundred guilders for life from family capital. Avercamp died five months after his mother’s remark, so her description of her son as “miserable” may have referred not to his muteness but rather to him being ill at that time.

In Amsterdam, Avercamp came under the influence of the Flemish painters of mannerist landscapes who were then living in the city, notably van Coninxloo, Gillis III and Vinckboons, David. Based on stylistic evidence, it is probable that one or both of these painters was Avercamp’s teacher, but no documentation of his apprenticeship exists.

By January 28, 1613, Avercamp was back in Kampen, where he seems to have remained until his death in May 1634.[1] There, in relative isolation from the mainstreams of Dutch art, he devoted himself almost entirely to the painting of winter scenes and specifically to depictions of crowds of people engaging in a wide range of activities on frozen rivers. Avercamp had no important direct followers, although he had several pupils, among them his nephew Barent Avercamp (c. 1612–1679), Arent Arentsz (called Cabel) (1585/1586–1635), and Dirck Hardenstein II (1620–after 1674).

 

 

[1] Avercamp must have returned occasionally to Amsterdam, as is suggested by a drawing he made of the Haarlemmerpoort in Amsterdam, which was constructed between 1615 and 1618. See Marijn Schapelhouman and Peter Schatborn, Tekeningen van oude meesters: De verzameling Jacobus A. Klaver (Zwolle, 1993), 56, no. 23, repro.

 

 

Explore Selected Works

Hendrick Avercamp, Winter Games on the Frozen River Ijssel, c. 1626, pen and black and gray ink with watercolor, gouache, and graphite on laid paper; laid down, Woodner Collection, Gift of Andrea Woodner, 2006.11.3

Winter Games on the Frozen River Ijssel

Hendrick Avercamp · c. 1626 · pen and black and gray ink with watercolor, gouache, and graphite on laid paper; laid down ·  Accession ID  2006.11.3

We look slightly down onto a panorama with dozens of pale-skinned men, women, and children skating and standing on a frozen river in this horizontal landscape painting. Most of the men wear black hats and suits, some with white collars and hip-length capes. The women all wear ankle- or floor-length skirts, and some are covered with black cloaks that drape over their heads to their feet. Many people wear black but some of the clothing is scarlet red, sage green, celestial blue, beige, or slate gray. A few people draw the eye, like the man standing with his back to us, wearing dark gray and holding a tall pole in the lower left corner. To the right, a man kneels to tie a skate with a brown and black dog nearby. A woman wearing a crimson-red skirt and a couple clad entirely in fur-lined black clothing look toward a man and woman riding a horse-drawn sled on the ice, at the lower center of the painting. Another black-draped form in the sleigh could be a second woman wearing a cloak. A pair of boys play a game like hockey in the lower right corner. People gather and skate in pairs and small groups, or ride in sledges into the deep distance. The buildings and boats lining the horizon, which comes about halfway up the composition, are painted in shimmering grays. The sky above is the same cool white as the ice below. A few birds fly across the scene.
Hendrick Avercamp, A Scene on the Ice, c. 1625, oil on panel, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, 1967.3.1

A Scene on the Ice

Hendrick Avercamp · c. 1625 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  1967.3.1

Hendrick Avercamp, Scene with a Tower to the Left, c. 1620, pen and brown ink with watercolor and black chalk on laid paper, Rosenwald Collection, 1980.45.4

Scene with a Tower to the Left

Hendrick Avercamp · c. 1620 · pen and brown ink with watercolor and black chalk on laid paper ·  Accession ID  1980.45.4

Bibliography

1933

  • Welcker, Clara J. Hendrick Avercamp 1585-1634, bijgenaamd 'de Stomme van Campen' en Barent Avercamp 1612-1679, 'Schilders tot Campen'. Vereeniging tot Beoefening van Overijsselsch Regt en Geschiedenis 27. Zwolle, 1933.

1982

  • Blankert, Albert. "Hendrick Avercamp als schilder van winters." Tableau 4 (Summer 1982): 604-615.

  • Blankert, Albert. Hendrick Avercamp, 1584-1634; Barent Avercamp, 1612-1679; Frozen Silence: Paintings from Museums and Private Collections. Exh. cat. Waterman Gallery, Amstersdam; Provenciaal Overijssels Museum, Zwolle. Amsterdam, 1982.

1985

  • Wiersma, Hans. Hendrik Averkamp, 1585-1634: De Stomme van Kampen. Kampen, 1985.

1987

  • Sutton, Peter C., et al. Masters of Seventeenth-Century Dutch Landscape Painting. Exh. cat. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Philadelphia Museum of Art. Boston, 1987: 254-261.

1991

  • MacLaren, Neil. The Dutch School, 1600-1900. Revised and expanded by Christopher Brown. 2 vols. National Gallery Catalogues. London, 1991: 1:3.

1995

  • Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr. Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1995: 9.

2009

  • Roelofs, Pieter, ed. Hendrick Avercamp: Master of the Ice Scene. Exh. cat. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam; National Gallery of Art, Washington. Amsterdam, 2009: 11-21.