RKD STUDIES

Landscape painters form the vast majority of the group of migrating artists. Their contributions at the London exhibitions, foremost the Royal Academy and British Institution, give an impression of the artistic output of these painters. Looking at the titles of paintings submitted to the London exhibitions, one finds mostly ‘Landscapes’, ‘Cattle’ and ‘Views’, often in Holland.¹ As a genre painter, the aforementioned Pieter Christoffel Wonder is an exception, and so is Solomon Polack (1757-1839), a miniature painter from The Hague who had worked in Dublin for a while, presumably before coming to London.² Polack exhibited as many as 57 miniature portraits at the Royal Academy between 1790 and 1835.³ Yet, for the most part the contribution of Dutch artists at the London exhibitions can be characterised by picturesque rural scenery. The geographical specification ‘in Holland’ is occasionally included in the catalogue descriptions and the visitor would also encounter views in the provinces of Gelderland and Zealand or along the Rhine. However, the Dutch migrants also painted British topographical subjects and adapted their Dutch style of painting in a more local British setting.

Dockyards, cattle, milkmaids and herdsmen: they were recognisable trademarks in the country where artists such as Aelbert Cuyp and Paulus Potter (1625-1654) were so popular. Horst Gerson already spoke of two ‘Cuyp-jünger’ (Cuyp juniors) that came to England: the previously mentioned Hendrik Willem Schweickhardt and Leendert de Koningh (1777-1849). Furthermore, he mentioned Peter le Cave (1765- after 1812), who followed Cuyp’s example.⁴ All three exhibited in London. Schweickhardt was from Hamm (Westphalia), Germany, but had moved to The Hague as a child. The year before he settled in London in 1787, he had already presented two landscapes at the Royal Academy, Winterscene in Holland and Summer view in Holland.⁵ He exhibited in total 24 works at the Royal Academy between 1786 and 1796. The painting Cattle, now in the collection of the National Gallery, was possibly exhibited in 1794, since the painting is dated the same year and corresponds to a work entitled Cattle that was presented at the Royal Academy [8].⁶ Schweickhardt also exhibited six works at the Society of Artists in 1790. His submissions at the London exhibitions displayed mostly summer and winter views, with cattle, horses and figures and without any topographical references. Leendert De Koningh, like Cuyp also from Dordrecht, went to London in 1801, but was forced to leave Britain a year later because of the Napoleonic wars. He returned to London in 1805 to stay until 1813. He requested a passport for London again in 1816.⁷ Between 1809 and 1812, De Koningh exhibited three works at the Royal Academy and five at the British Institution. Gerson described his work as ‘fully in the mood of Cuyp. Next to Cuyp’s cows, the shepherd and shepherdesses dressed in modern clothes look rather strange’.⁸ De Koningh had adapted the style of his fellow townsman in a modern setting, with modern costumes and, occasionally, in an English landscape. For instance, a view of Putney was shown at the British Institution in 1810.⁹ The third, Peter La Cave, was born in Amsterdam and moved to London presumably before 1795. He sent only two works to the Royal Academy in 1801: A mill near Totness, Devonshire and Chudleigh Craggs, Devonshire.¹⁰ Like De Koningh, Le Cave painted local subjects. One of Le Cave’s works, representing Lowestoft Beach, Suffolk, is now in the Lowestoft Museum [9]. The painting presents a contemporary depiction of the Suffolk coast, an anecdotal scene of boat passengers at the shore, loading their luggage from a horse carriage.

8
Hendrik Willem Schweickhardt
Cows and a goat in a meadow, a river in the background, dated 1794
London (England), National Gallery (London), inv./cat.nr. NG 1878

9
Peter La Cave
View of Lowestoft Beach, 1803
Lowestoft (Suffolk), Lowestoft Museum, inv./cat.nr. WP.031

Next to the three mentioned by Gerson, some other names stand out. Hendrik Meijer (1744-1793) exhibited six works at the Royal Academy in 1790, mostly views with references to the province Gelderland. Two years later, in 1792, Meijer exhibited another six paintings, specified genuinely as ‘Landscape’ or ‘Landscape and figures’. Theodor de Bruyn (c. 1737-1804) sent 23 works to the Royal Academy between 1780 and 1803: landscapes ‘with cattle’ or ‘figures’, but also a view ‘in Holland’ (1788) and British views like ‘Buckinghamshire’ (1795), and ‘Donnington Park, Leicestershire’ (1799).¹¹ The two paintings of Benjamin Bond Hopkins’ estate at Painshill, signed and dated 1789 and exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1790, give an impression of his adjusted style for British topographical views, in line with the many British estates depicted in these decades [10-11]. Lastly, Abraham Bruinings van Worrell (1787-after 1849) showed 13 works at the British Institution between 1820 and 1830. He continued to exhibit until 1845 and also sent 21 works to the Society of British Artists, a new exhibition space for ‘living artists of the United Kingdom’, founded in 1824 ‘for all artists of merit in the Empire’.¹² His paintings of cattle were strongly reminiscent of the old masters, Cuyp particularly.¹³ Noteworthy, however, are his exhibits at the British Institution in 1828, when Van Worrell submitted The Giraffe, accompanied by his keeper, which was published in lithograph the year before, dedicated by the artist to ‘the King's most excellent Majesty'.¹⁴ The second submission was his remarkable picture The last shooting excursion of his late royal highness the Duke of York, now part of the Royal Collection Trust [12]. The painting was in memory of the recently deceased Prince Frederick Augustus, Duke of York and Albany.

An adoption to their new British life can be detected in the works of these migrant painters at the London exhibitions. While Schweickhardt and Meijer shifted from Dutch topographical views just shortly after their arrival to unspecified landscapes, others began to use their Dutch style and anecdotal features in an English setting. An exploration of their commercial position in the following section, will make clear whether keeping their Dutch signature would proof lucrative.

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Abraham Bruinings van Worrell
The last shooting party of Frederick, Duke of York, dated 1827
Great Britain, private collection The Royal Collection, inv./cat.nr. RCIN 406892