by J. van Tatenhove

Little is known about the seventeenth-century Haarlem painter Frans de Jongh. Houbraken, the first author to mention him, notes in passing that he was one of Jan de Groot's teachers. De Groot, he informs us, was apprenticed to Adriaen van Ostade in 1666, and "finally [to] Frans de Jong of Haarlem".[1] Van der Willigen reports in 1870: "I have found in my notes on the [Haarlem] guild of St Luke that he was born in Haarlem, and that he was the son of a sister of A. van Ostade and the latter's pupil. He is mentioned as an excellent history painter. He was buried in the New Church on 15 January 1705. "[2] Wurzbach lists a pair of pendants by De Jongh in Copenhagen, which he describes as being in the style of Salvator Rosa, and notes that one is signed "f.de.Jongh".[3] One depicts Jason and the Dragon (fig. 1), the other Cadmus and the Dragon (fig. 2).[4] In addition, Thieme-Becker refer to a sheet at the printroom in Leiden, which is a drawing by Taco Hajo Jelgersma after a self-portrait by De Jongh (fig. 3).[5] Beneath this portrait in a roundel, which shows De Jongh wearing a bearskin hat, is a tablet with the following inscription:

FRANS DE JONGH Haarlemmer, uit-muntend Historie SCHILDER. Neef en leerling van Adriaan van Ostade. ipse se pinxit. THJdel. 1740.

Frans de Jongh of Haarlem, outstanding history painter. Nephew and pupil of Adriaan van Ostade. Self-portrait. THJ [interlaced] del. 1740.

According to the archive documents of the Haarlem Guild of St Luke published by Miedema, De Jongh was registered as a member of the guild from 1664.[6]

Some of the subjects De Jongh painted and some owners his work, can be identified from the excerpts of auction catalogues at the Netherlands Institute for Art History (RKD) in The Hague. The Haarlem artist Cornelis Dusart had two pieces by him, as "The Archangel Michael and Hagar and Ishmael in the Desert by Frans de Jongh" were among the items auctioned from his estate in 1708.[7] Frans Decker, a Haarlem painter who produced mainly portraits, owned three pictures by De Jongh. His estate, which was sold in 1752, included The Adoration of the Magi, Tobias and the Angel, and a piece described in the auction catalogue as:

Claudius Civilis met de bevelhebber der Romeinen in samenspraak, zeer fraay, door F. de Jongh, daar in zijn eigen Pourtrait.

Claudius Civilis conversing with the commander of the Roman army. Very beautiful. By F. de Jongh, whose own portrait is in the picture.[8]

The Haarlem artist Jan van der Vinne had a painting by De Jongh of Minerva Calling on Envy, which was auctioned in 1754.[9] From the provenance of these six pictures, it seems that De Jongh's work appealed mainly to Haarlem artists.

In 1989, a painting believed to be by Bertholet Flémalle was auctioned in New York. Thanks to one virtually unmistakable detail, however, it is now possible to restore it to Frans de Jongh (fig. 4),[10] for in the middle of the group of three figures on the right is the very portrait that Taco Jelgersma copied (fig. 3), showing De Jongh in his bearskin hat. It must therefore be the piece referred to as De Jongh's painting of Claudius Civilis, with his "own portrait", which belonged to Frans Decker until 1752. Jelgersma, a bachelor, had lodgings in the home of Frans Decker, and the painting was presumably in his collection when Jelgersma copied the self-portrait from it in 1740.[11]


That the painting indeed depicts Claudius Civilis Conversing with the Roman Commander is confirmed by one of 36 etchings by Antonio Tempesta after designs by Otto van Veen. These prints were published in 1612 as Batavorum cum Romanis bellum, and no. 15 (fig. 5) shows Claudius Civilis with the Roman general, who has ventured out of his beleaguered encampment to sue for peace.[12] Civilis, his finger raised to lend emphasis to his words, refuses, as the Romans had killed his brother, while he himself, despite years of loyalty, had been held captive. De Jongh clearly based his painting on Tempesta's print, although he reversed and modified the composition. The figure holding a horse by the reins on the left behind Civilis is a slightly altered version of a figure in another Tempesta etching, no. 11 of the latter's series Alexandri Magni praecipuae res gestae.[13] De Jongh portrayed himself as a Batavian standing between the Roman general and his lieutenant, whom he is eyeing vigilantly from under his bearskin hat. Both the Batavian with De Jongh's features, and the lieutenant were inspired by etchings from Salvator Rosa's famous Figurine series. The Batavian's headgear and the way he is holding his spear over his shoulder have a distinct affinity with the figure in Rosa's etching of a Warrior in a Lionskin Hat (fig. 6).[14] The lieutenant is borrowed from Rosa's etching Warrior with a Staff (fig. 7),[15] who is in a very similar pose, standing with his hand on his hip, the fingers pointing backwards, and is wearing the same costume, even down to details like the rolled-up trousers, the barely visible sword, and the metal breastplate held in place with straps. Rosa's prints, like Tempesta's etching of Civilis, are used in mirror-image. Given that De Jongh based his painting on four different prints, it is not unreasonable to assume that he drew on another one for the most elegant figure of all, the soldier viewed from the back on the far left.


The two paintings in Copenhagen are known to have been among the works from the Arundel Collection that were auctioned in Amsterdam in 1684.[16] Jason and the Dragon (fig. 1) is a modified copy after a composition by Salvator Rosa, the best-known version of which is the painting at the Museum of Fine Art in Montreal.[17] Rosa's composition is believed to date from the late 1660s.[18] As the earliest provenance of the various versions - two of which are believed to be autograph - is unknown, it is impossible to say where De Jongh saw the model on which his work is based.[19] Cadmus and the Dragon, as has been noted beneath the photograph at the Netherlands Institute for Art History (RKD) in The Hague, was probably also based on a composition by Rosa, although I have failed to trace a Rosa painting that De Jongh might have used as his model.[20]

There are a number of similarities between the Copenhagen paintings and the picture of Civilis. The rendering of hands, feet, arms and legs, as well as the folds of the draperies and the details of the breastplates, leave us in no doubt that the three paintings are by the same hand. (The hero in Rosa's Jason and the Dragon in Montreal, however, is not wearing a close-fitting cuirass.)[21] Another feature that De Jongh's three paintings have in common is the strictly horizontal bands of light cutting across the sky, which are again missing in Rosa's composition in Montreal. The unusual metal band around Jason's upper arm and over the sleeve of his garment in the Rosa is also worn by Jason, Cadmus and Civilis in De Jongh's paintings.

History painting in Haarlem is generally thought to have undergone a gradual decline after about 1660, in terms of both quality and the number of works produced, and to have disappeared almost entirely in the final two decades of the century. Jan de Braij's overmantel depicting The Judgment of Zaleucus might be seen as one of the last highlights of the genre.[22 ] However, much has yet to be learnt about Haarlem history painting during this period. Very recently, for example, two history pieces were added to the small oeuvre of the Haarlem master Reijer Jacobsz. van Blommendael, who was active from around 1660 and who died in 1675.[23 ] His work is entirely in the Haarlem Classicist tradition. In view of their provenance, De Jongh's Copenhagen paintings must have been made before 1684, while his relatively youthful self-portrait in the painting of Civilis suggests a date before the end of the 1670s. Unlike Van Blommendael, De Jongh occupies an exceptional position among late Haarlem history painters, for as far as I can see nothing in his three paintings distinguishes them as work from Haarlem. In fact, they are more reminiscent of the refined, late Classicist works of Gerard de Lairesse, a contemporary of his in Amsterdam.

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COPYRIGHT 1992 Hoogsteder & Hoogsteder, J. van Tatenhove All rights reserved.
No portion of this article nor the accompanying illustrations can or may be reproduced without the express written permission from the copyright holder.

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Translated from the Dutch by Yvette Rosenberg.

1. A. Houbraken, De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen, 3 vols., Amsterdam 1718-1721, vol. 2, p. 58.
2. A. van der Willigen Pz., Les artistes de Harlem, Haarlem & The Hague 1870, p. 189: "J'ai trouvé dans mes notes sur la Gilde de St. Luc qu'il naquit à Harlem et qu'il était fils d'une soeur et le disciple de A. van Ostade. Il est mentionné comme excellent peintre d'histoire. Il fut enterré le 15 Janvier 1705 à la Nouvelle Église."
3. A. von Wurzbach, Niederländisches Künstler-Lexikon, Vienna & Leipzig 1906-1911, vol. 1, p. 761.
4. See Royal Museum of Fine Ans. Catalogue of Old Foreign Paintings, Copenhagen 1951, nos. 348 and 349.
5. U. Thieme and F. Becker (eds.), Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler, vol. 19, Leipzig 1926, p. 129. This sheet is at Leiden, Prentenkabinet der Rijksuniversiteit (inv. no. PK 832); H. van Hall, Portretten van Nederlandse beeidende kunstenaars, Amsterdam 1963, p. 159, no. 1060.
6. H. Miedema, De archiefbescheiden van het St. Lucasgilde te Haarlem 1497-1798, Alphen aan den Rijn 1980, vol. 2, pp. 932 and 1034. The list of names on p. 932 was compiled by Vincent Laurensz. van der Vinne, who died in 1702. His son Laurens noted that artists whose names were followed by the letter "d" had died before his father. As De Jongh's name is among them, we should be able to conclude that he died in or before 1702. In fact, however, this would conflict with the information given by Van der Willigen (see note 2). - Mrs Irene van Thiel-Stroman, who researches the Haarlem archives for data on painters, kindly tells us that she has sofar come across no new information on de Jongh.
7. Sale Cornelis Dusart, Haarlem (Van der Vinne), 21 August 1708, nos. 152 ("Den Engel Michaël, van Fr. de Jong") and 214 ("daar den Engel aan Agar voor haar soon water wyst door Frans de Jong").
8. Sale Frans Decker, Haarlem (Enschede, Bosch), 29 August 1752, nos. 6 ("Claudius Civilis [...] "), 9 ("Der drie koningen Offerhande, door F. de Jongh") and 67 ("Thobias met den Engel, door F. de Jongh").
9. Sale Jan van der Vinne, Haarlem (Jelgersma, Van der Vinne), 13 May 1754, no. 165 ("Pallas aan 't hol van de Nyt, door Frans de Jong"). De Jongh is mentioned only once in later notes at the RKD: sale Dr Koennecke et al., Cologne (Kölner Kunst und Auktions-Haus), 3 December 1919, no. 532, with ill., Frans de Jong, Die Engelsvision des Tobias, signed "Jong". Ms M. de Kinkelder and Ms C. Wansink have kindly pointed out that this painting is indisputably by Jacob de Wet the Younger, under whose name it is now filed at the RKD.
10. Sale New York (Christie's), 12 October 1989, no. 120, with ill., ascribed to Bertholet Flémalle, "a scene from Roman history," oil on canvas, 73.5 x 115 cm. A. Blankert informs me that the piece is at present (1991) at the Jacques Leegenhoek Gallery in Paris.
11. In De graaven van Holland (1745), Pieter Langendijk notes that by 1743 Jelgersma had been living in Decker's home "for many years," see A. W. Weisman, "De portretten der Graven van Holland te Haarlem," Oud Holland 35 (1917), pp. 61-70, esp. p. 63. On the unnumbered page with fig. 6, B. Sliggers, Wat in Staats staat en stond. Kunst en kunstnijverheid in het Hofje van Staats te Haarlem, Haarlem 1987, reports that Jelgersma continued to live in the house on Bakenessersgracht with Decker's widow after her husband's death in 1751.
12. The series of prints is discussed in detail in H. van de Waal, Drie eeuwen vaderlandsche geschied-uitbeelding 1500-1800: een iconologische studie, vol. 1, The Hague 1952, p. 210ff. The prints have captions in Dutch and Latin, and are accompanied by relevant passages from Tacitus's Histories.
13. The Illustrated Bartsch, vol. 35 (edited by S. Buffa), New York 1984, p. 283, Alexander Hunting Lions.
14. R.W. Wallace, The Etchings of Salvator Rosa, Princeton 1979, p. 161, no. 30. The series of 62 etchings dates from 1656 and 1657.
15. Ibid., p. 144, no. 14.
16. See the catalogue referred to in note 4; the source is G. Hoet, Catalogus of naamlijst van schilderijen met derzelver prijzen, vol. 1, The Hague 1752, p. 2, nos. 30 and 31, which identifies the artist as "Ferdinandus de jong."
17. L. Salerno, Salvator Rosa, Florence 1963, p. 136, no. 89, with ill.; canvas, 77 x 65 cm.
18. H. Langdon, "Salvator Rosa: Paintings," in exhib. cat. Salvator Rosa, London (Hayward Gallery) 1973, no. 43; Wallace, op. cit. (note 14), p. 105.
19. The different versions are listed by Salerno, op. cit. (note 17), p. 136, no. 89.
20. Rosa's painting in Copenhagen, which shows Cadmus just as armed men are springing up where he had sowed the dragon's teeth, is in any event evidence of the artist's interest in the tale of Cadmus; see ibid., p. 126, no. 51, with ill.
21. I have not seen illustrations of the other versions.
22. Exhib. cat. Gods, Saints & Heroes: Dutch Painting in the Age of Rembrandt, Washington (National Gallery of Art), Detroit (The Detroit Institute of Arts) & Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 1980-81, no. 63, with ill., text by A. Blankert.
23. Chaucer Fine Arts Gallery, London, cat. Paintings and Sculpture, 1988, no. 7; Hoogsteder Fine Arts Gallery, The Hague, cat. 28 Old Master Paintings at Surinamestraat 28, 1989, no. 4.