aspergillum in his cap
signed ‘CDS’
pen and black ink, watercolour on vellum, graphite framing lines
5.7 x 5.3 cm

Provenance:
Possibly S. de Visser, The Hague, 11 January 1875, lot 45 (to F.A.C. Prestel).
With Gebr. Douwes, Amsterdam, 1968, from whom acquired by
Dr. Hans-Ulrich Beck (1930-2010), Augsburg, his mark verso, not in Lugt, and by descent.
Literature:
C. Dumas and R-J. te Rijdt, Tekeningen uit de Unicorno collectie - Kleur en Raffinement, exhib. cat., Museum het Rembrandthuis, Amsterdam and elsewhere, 1994-1995, under no. 22, note 6.

Like his master, Adriaen van Ostade (1610-1685), [1] Cornelis Dusart specialised in scenes of peasant life which he depicted in his large œuvre consisting of paintings, etchings and mezzotints, quick sketches and highly finished drawings. After Van Ostade’s death in 1685, Dusart inherited his master’s studio estate which he exploited through working up drawings by his master as well as by using it as an inexhaustible source of inspiration. As observed by Bernard Schnackenburg, Dusart’s well-documented œuvre and his relation to his master and his estate represent one of the most remarkable chapters in the history of Dutch draughtsmanship. [2]

From the 1680s onwards, Dusart produced finished watercolours on parchment with merry-making peasants which echo those by Van Ostade. Besides these, Dusart also produced a large number of smaller and highly detailed and worked up drawings of heads of peasants and clergymen on vellum. A group consisting of four, larger satirical heads of peasants was previously in the Unicorno collection and was subsequently sold at auction and broken up. [3] A further group of twelve such drawings, showing satirical portraits of Catholic clergymen, is in the Prentenkabinet, Leiden. [4] Those drawings served as the models for two publications; Le Renversement de la morale Chretienne [...] Omstooting der Christelyke Zeden door de wan-schik en ongeregeltheden der Moniken, published in circa 1690, which includes fifty mezzotints by Jacob Gole after Dusart’s designs, and Les Heros de la Ligue ou la Processsion Monacale conduite par Louis XIV. Par la conversion de Protestants de son Royaume, published in 1691. The latter publication also includes mezzotints by Jacob Gole, showing satirical portraits of noblemen and clergymen which were involved in the Edict of Fontainebleau, which revoked the Edict of Nantes and ended freedom of religion for French protestants.

The present composition, too, was included in that publication; it served as
the model for the portrait of Nicolas Lamoignon de Bâville (1648-1724) (Fig. 1), a magistrate and administrator under king Louis XIV who displayed ardent zeal against the Protestants during the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. In this drawing, and the print after it, Lamoignon de Bâville is shown wearing a monastic habit with a holy water aspergillum (a tool to sprinkle holy water) tucked in his cap and a French lily on his chest. The print leaves no doubt about who is portrayed and what the (anonymous) author’s views on the sitter are. It is titled ‘Baville/ Fils du premier president de Paris.’ and carries the following verse:

Je scay du goupillon faire un fort bon usage,
Je chasse les demons, et ie fais bien ma cour;
Je m’avance par la, et ie passe pour sage,
Et de plus il m’en vient de l’Argent de retour

I know how to make good use of the aspergillum,
I chase away demons, and I am a good courtesan;
I advance through there, and I pass for wise,
and on top of that, there comes money in return.

Published in 1691, the series of prints gives a rather precise terminus ante quem for the present sheet and while the drawing is small indeed, it is of particular historical significance, for it sheds some light on the Dutch Protestant views on the Edict of Fontainebleau and the Catholic church at large.

Fig, 1. Jacob Gole, A satirical portrait of Nicolas Lamoignon de Bâville, mezzotint, 14.6 x 10.7 cm, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, inv. RP-P-BI-7340.


[1] E. Trautscholdt, ‘Beiträge zu Cornelis Dusart’, Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek, no. 17, 1966, pp. 171-200.
[2] B. Schnackenburg, Adriaen van Ostade. Isack van Ostade. Zeuchnungen und Aquarelle, Hamburg, 1981, vol. I, p. 60.
[3] See C. Dumas and R.-J. te Rijdt, op. cit., no. 22a-d, ill. and Sotheby’s, Amsterdam, 19 May 2004, lot 77-80.
[4] Inv. PK-T-223-232; E. Kolfin, in Leiden viert feest Hoogtepunten uit een academische collectie, exhib. cat., Amsterdam, Museum Het Rembrandthuis, 2014, no. 71, ill.