A child with a cat

Cornelis Bloemaert II (1603–1692), was a Dutch Golden Age painter and engraver. Born in Utrecht, though he originally trained as a painter under Gerard van Honthorst, Bloemaert went on to devote himself primarily to printmaking, which he learned from Crispijn van de Passe (1589-1637), the founder of the Van de Passe family dynasty of engravers. He went to Paris in 1630, where he lived and worked before moving to Rome three years later.

The early Dutch art biographer Arnold Houbraken noted that Bloemaert made reproductive prints of many Italian paintings; these included the complete engravings of Pietro da Cortona frescoes in the Palazzo Pitti (1664-1677). Earlier, in 1659 and again in 1667, Bloemaert made reproduction engravings for Daniello Bartoli's <em>Istoria della Compagnia di Gesu</em>, 10,000-page epic which outlines the history of the Jesuits in Italy between 1540 and 1640, and a classic of Italian literature. Bloemaert was so successful that he stayed in Rome until receiving word that his father, the equally celebrated painter and printmaker Abraham Bloemaert (1566-1651), wished to see him once more before he died. Sadly, Cornelis delayed his return too long and remained in Rome until his own death. He was a member of the Bentvueghels, a Dutch and Flemish artists' colony, with the nickname ‘Winter’.

This appealing engraving of a slightly smiling young boy wearing a nightshirt and affectionately holding a stern and forbidding cat close to his body is surprisingly poorly documented. It is after a design by Hendrick Bloemaert, Cornelis's elder brother, and dates from c. 1625, making it an early work. Another, better documented print (an example of which is in the Royal Collection Trust, UK), is Cornelis's engraving of an original work by Abraham Bloemaert, <em>The rommelpot player</em>; the model is clearly identical, but he is better dressed and holds a rommelpot or small drum, not a cat. The Dutch caption below the image of our print, in warns against cats as predators and in turn against human deception. The boy is evidently telling us: "The birds are enough for you, I stick with the cats, but fellows, watch out lest the cats grab the birds from you." (I am grateful to Anna Rigg for locating this translation).

The engraving is mounted in the so-called King George IV album of Old Master engravings, acquired by the Dominion Museum in 1910. 

Sources:

Rijksmuseum, https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/RP-P-BI-1431

Royal Collection Trust, 'Cornelius Bloemaert...The rommelpot player', https://www.rct.uk/collection/807549/the-rommelpot-player

Dennis P. Weller, <em>Seventeenth-century Dutch and Flemish Paintings </em>(North Caroline Museum of Art, 2009), p. 88.

Wikipedia, 'Cornelis Bloemaert', https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornelis_Bloemaert

Dr Mark Stocker   Curator, Historical International Art   May 2019