More About Pieter Janszoon Quast

Pieter Jansz. Quast
Self Portrait, c. 1635
oil on panel, 14 x 13 cm
Private Collection,
Münster, Germany

Pieter Janszoon Quast, born in 1605 or 1606, was a painter and engraver who spent most of his life in Amsterdam and The Hague.

According to the marriage banns published on 29 June 1632, Quast was betrothed to Annetje Splinters while he was living in the Molensteeg, a narrow street near the harbor in Amsterdam. 

Today that area of the city is known as the Red Light district to tourists, or De Wallen to the Dutch. Indeed Molensteeg is one of the streets that I reported stumbling upon in an earlier post. 

Since this neighborhood has been the center of prostitution in Amsterdam for about 600 years, and because some art historians claim Quast was born on Molensteeg, there's a strong chance his family was poor and illiterate. This might explain why nothing is known about his early childhood. 

Therefore the first record in the archives about Quast must suffice to fill in the details: the marriage bann in June 1632 and the subsequent wedding with Annetje which took place on 19 December 1632 in Sloten, a nearby village. At some point after the marriage, Pieter and Annetje moved to Den Haag, as he was registered with the artists' guild there in 1634.

The self portrait depicted above runs from that period of Quast's life. The original image is in color, but is held in a private collection. Unfortunately, I have been unsuccessful in locating a color image online. Provenantial records claim the following details about it: Quast depicts himself with "curly wide hair, [a] large beret with notches, [a] string of beads around [his] neck, [a] tube with notches, [his] cloak loosely folded, [and a] chain (?) around [his] shoulders." He looks boldly at the viewer from under a stylish beret. No known portrait of Annetje exists.

The couple had two children, a daughter named Constantia Quast who was born in 1639 and another unnamed child in 1641. Pieter passed away in Amsterdam in 1647. Annetje, his widow, had an eventful life of her own and went on to marry again after Pieter's passing. I will write more about her in another post.

Quast's life was short but momentous.

As part of the Dutch School of artists, Quast's work helped lay the foundation for many of the masters who followed.

His paintings and engravings often feature the daily lives of the poor and elderly, typically with an emphasis on the morality of a situation. This kind of didacticism early in the 17th century developed, by mid-century, into the vanitas images I have written about in previous posts.

Pieter Jansz. Quast
The Foot Operation
n.d., oil on panel
30 x 41 cm
Rijksmuseum

A good example of Quast's work can be found in this image entitled The Foot Operation, c. 1635.

Here the viewer is witness to a surgical procedure of questionable hygienic quality. A splatter of the patient's blood on the floor alludes to the red sash and hat on his body.

In the lower left corner, a skull and open book rest mockingly behind the patient. These items, more than anything else in the room, express the impermanence of vanitas.

The man is aged already; this operation, conducted by a doctor with dirty hands and a filthy towel, tests the patient's life span. His death is foretold, to be read like an open book.

The religious statue on the cabinet above his head looms over him with judgment. The viewer's perspective is level with the subject, suggesting an equal status. We are him; this is our fate too.

Sometimes crude, often satirical, Quast's legacy can be found in the 167 paintings and engravings that are attributed to him. Typically the artist paints from his own life, thus it is quite possible that the scenes of ragged humanity Quast depicts in his work are replicates of the circumstances of his own short existence.

Pieter Jansz. Quast
Quarreling Women
n.d., oil on panel
29.53 x 37.15 cm
Crocker Art Museum

The Crocker displays a Quast in its European collection.

Undated and with a similar color palette as the Rijksmuseum, this image of two women fighting once again presents the viewer with the idea that the artist may have actually been witness to an event like this in his daily life. There is a strength and intimacy to it. One can almost hear the scuffle of the falling chair and the course words of the women as they kick, bite and pull each other's clothes.

In the tussle, a jug of milk has spilled. This would represent a financial loss for those living on the margin, thus making their violence a cautionary tale. Avoid this, avoid loss.

Two men stand behind them, notably not attempting to stop the women. This, too, contains a didactic quality. A person can be known by the company she keeps.

Quast died poor and humble in Amsterdam and was buried at the Nieuwe Kerk there on 29 May 1647.

Skating on Thin Ice ... Or, Other Random Happenings

Yesterday the wind and snow finally stopped long enough for Hope and I to venture out of our warm loft apartment for a day of fun in Amsterdam.

Happily the city did not disappoint.

Prinsengracht, Amsterdam

There were the usual crowds hording the streets and cafes, but added to this was the spectacle of people on the frozen canals.

It's likely that those who were simply standing around with just their shoes on were tourists itching for the experience and a good selfie.

But others, gliding across the ice on skates with the poise of practice, were clearly locals.

Of course there really were more people watching from the banks and brugs than were out on the frozen canals. This may have been prudent since at two different spots the Politie came and warned people to get off the ice.

Indeed water could be seen percolating up from under the ice at the edges of the canal, and on many canals it was simply floating loosely around passing tour boats. We beat a hasty retreat from the canal scene.

At the Rijksmuseum we spent the entire afternoon on Floor 2 which features Dutch art from 1600 - 1700.

The cold -- it was, after all, only about 1℃ outside -- pushed many indoors, hence the museum was quite busy.

people viewing
Hendrick Avercamp
Winter Landscape with Ice Skaters
c. 1608
Oil on panel, 87.5 x 132 cm
Rijksmuseum

The Avercamp mentioned in a previous blog post was crowded around by viewers. In these moments it can appear easier to appreciate art from the armchair than in the exhibit house.

A smaller room on Floor 2 that was much less busy contained a series of etchings and engravings on the theme of winter, including this one by Pieter Jansz. Quast. 

Pieter Jansz. Quast
Skating Peasant, 1634 - 1638
etching on paper
213 x 165 mm
on loan from Museum Boijmans van Beuningen

Quast, an engraver from Amsterdam, often produced works featuring beggars and peasants. Here the viewer is presented with the image of a tired, aging man making his way across the ice. The man's hunched back is enhanced by the perspective from below, as though the viewer is a child looking up at the older man. There is a morality here, suggesting to the viewer the perils of aging and poverty. Don't get old. Don't be poor.

The basket, slung over the man's back with a pole, provides diagonal balance to the composition. In the background two other skaters add a playful contrast to the beggar's work weary posture. Birds hover in care free flight above them, thus producing additional juxtaposition to the man's groundedness on the ice. 

Quast has replicated shadows under the man's curl-toed skates, thereby doubling the depth of his relation to the frozen lake. 

Unlike our retreat from the canals in Amsterdam, this beggar will never extricate himself from these humbling conditions.