Sijctghen (*1627- † 23/10-1650)
(portrait 1647)
(portrait 1647)
From Paulus
Potters’ etchings of cows (before posting) to his colleague Albert Cuyp (1620-1722)
isn’t a big leap. They were contemporaries, both renowned Dutch landscape and
animal painters. Both famous in their lifetime. Doing my best giving at least the impression of a
logic and coherent build-up of my Blogging endeavours, here goes.
Cows
etchings and drawings by Albert Cuyp. Compared with similar works by contemporaries like Paulus Potter, Karel Dujardin and Nicolaes Berchem they appear very "modern".
You’ll find his sketches and prints used and worked
into his and others' paintings: National Museum stuff. His Dutch landscape paintings are as famous
as the 17th century Dutch landscape are itself. Carefully arranged cows and other cattle. Bucolic and panoramic river
views of cities and arcadisch landscapes stretching endlessly beneath famous and dramatic “Dutch skies”. The Golden Age of Landscape painting.
She tells
us also she survived and healed from broken
legs. Probably describing “the treatment” undergone in her youth preventing
her ever to fly (away). The fact she never mated is maybe giving another clue because
these production ducks were kept in the pen and no sooner they've laid their eggs in the morning they were fed and freed keeping them more or less farm bound. All over Europe, ownership tagged in the bill or flippers. Eggs were sold to bakers, sometimes even as far away as London. These ducks often wandered about and are known to have mated with
wild ducks. Today their tame genes are spread in
every begging bread-fed duck in the park all over Europe.
No males around
meaning she maybe was kept in a closed aviary just with other nuns. Sijctghen asks the poem to be finished after her death. It was. She came into this world the year the population of nearby city of Delft was decimated by the Plaque and she met her maker on the
27th day of October 1650, aged 23. Using chickens for mass egg production came into fashion centuries later after the discovery of the causes of salmonella and paratyphoid spreading.
This sentimental
and moving portrait is all the more remarkable if you see what Cuyp was
otherwise world famous for. Like this View on Dordrecht, his native city. Abraham van Calreat
(1642-1722), probably a pupil of Cuyp, and the 17th century specialist in painting horses, whom’s
paintings sometimes were mistaken for Cuyp’s because he used the monogram A.C., is winking at us even after 400 years. He was born and lived in the same city of Dordrecht. He shows Syctghen, the subject of his teachers unique painting, in this horse painting. Maybe it was commissioned
by the same no doubt wealthy owner.
But now the
good news. Sijctghen is alive! I’ve found her, her family, her genes and even her reincarnation.
Believe it
or not she's reappeared and German painter Alexander Koester (1865-1932) is my witness. All he ever did was painting ducks. And more ducks. Probably the same flock of ducks over and over again. He became so
good at it he earned a gold medal in America. In St. Louis' World Fair of 1904..... and was nicknamed “Enten Koester” (Duck Koestner). He’s truly the Renoir of duck painting. In the end
all he needed was a few brush strokes of paint to create a life duck. A true
impressionist magician. And I have one, a genuine Duck Koester. Syctghen probably afterall did lose her virginity. Somewhere between 1647 and 1650 because here, her likeness, her great-great-great-granddaughter is swimming, lower right.
Oh, I love it - the Renoir of duck painting...
ReplyDeleteHi Neil, I'm glad you've enjoyed.
ReplyDelete