(Terheijden 1806–1870 Brussels) An evening market with vegetable sellers in a capriccio view of The Hague, signed, dated P. van Schendel 1851, oil on panel, 77 x 60.5 cm, framed, (GG)

Provenance: Private Collection, Italy.

We are grateful to Dr. Jan de Meere for his kind assistance in the preparation of this catalogue entry.

After his studies at the Antwerp Academy of Fine Arts in 1828, where Petrus van Schendel was educated as a history painter, he discovered rather suddenly, by looking in a convex mirror, the potential of candlelit sceneries as his ‘niche’. Since then he decided to paint almost exclusively candlelight paintings often combined with other artificial light sources like fire, lamp- and torchlight. In the last years of his life he even added Bengal fire and electricity to his repertory. The combination of candle- and lamplight together with the light of the silvery moon in his market scenes was considered by Van Schendel as his ‘unique’ specialism. In a letter of December 1860 Van Schendel wrote to the writer of the Dutch and Flemish artists lexicon, Christiaan Kramm (1797-1875), about the nature of his artistry: ‘I mainly practice an art which I myself have created, namely candlelight etc. combined with moonlight’. This was somewhat presumptuous, because in the past there were other artists like for instance Godfried Schalcken (1643-1706) who also combined different light sources, but not so frequently as Van Schendel did and certainly not in market scenes. At first Van Schendel did try to get a position as a teacher at the Amsterdam Academy of Fine Arts and moved to Amsterdam. The application procedure did take too much time for the ambitious artist and in 1832 he decided to move to Rotterdam. In the meantime Van Schendel did get married in Amsterdam with Elisabeth Grasveld. She gave birth to 13 children; 10 of them were still alive when she died on the 21st March 1851. Van Schendel in the early years of his career did try to experiment with a large amount and variety of subjects like portraits, religious themes, interiors, historical scenes, themes from literature, music, fairs, market scenes and even occasionally a still life. In Rotterdam he got a job as a teacher at a local Academy. He stayed there till 1838, the year he moved to The Hague where he expected to find more clients for his paintings and to focus on his market scenes who become more and more successful, not only in The Netherlands both also slowly but progressively abroad.
In the early forties of the 19th century many royal families in Europe did acquire a market scene for their collection. King Willem II (1792-1849) was the first who bought in 1840 a ‘Fish market in The Hague’. Not directly from the artist, but through the international art dealer Chrétien Jean Nieuwenhuys (1799-1880). This dealer was also the person who sold to Queen Victoria (1819-1901) in 1845 a market painting of Van Schendel, also representing a street sight of The Hague, who gave it as a birthday present to her husband prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1819-1861). In the meantime the king of Hanover, Württemberg and the imperial family of Russia did buy market scenes of Van Schendel. Not much later followed by the king of Belgium, Leopold I (1790-1865), more or less a welcome present for Van Schendel when he moved to Schaarbeek (Brussels) in 1845. In the market scenes made in his Brussels period (1845-1870) the locations in The Hague like the fish market at the corner of the ‘Schoolstraat’ and the ‘Groenmarkt’ appear frequently in his compositions as much as the ‘Groenmarkt’ itself with the characteristic buildings of the old town hall and the St. Jacobs church. Another location in The Hague shows up for the first time in 1846, i.e. the so-called ‘Ridderzaal’ (The Knight’s Hall) at the ‘Binnenhof’ (Inner Court). This location is the political center of The Netherlands where the Parliament assembles.
Van Schendel didn’t paint this location during his stay in The Hague (1838-1845), as far as we know, but a year after his move to Schaarbeek he painted a market scene at the Binnenhof with the right part of the Ridderzaal with one of the typical towers and chimneys in the background. In the foreground a poultry and vegetable seller is discussing by candlelight the price of the apples with a young maid. In between stands a typical woman from Scheveningen wearing a big straw hat over her white cap. Behind them visitors looking at other market stalls with merchandise. Moonlight is coming from behind the tower of the Ridderzaal. (Illustration 1)
In 1851 the Ridderzaal is used again in another market scene. The houses in the back are different from the version of 1846 and do depict more or less the situation at the east side of the Groenmarkt. The core of the painting concerns also three people around a table, where two are bargaining over the price and quantity of the fruit and another person is watching or passing by. This time a paper protected candle is the main light source, called in Dutch a ‘slons’ and the moonlight is coming from the right. The Woman from Scheveningen with her characteristic straw hat is wearing a basket with goods on her head. This basket is called in Dutch, a ‘Ben’. (Illustration 2) At the time of Petrus van Schendel´s stay in The Hague the Ridderzaal looked like the building relastically painted by Antonius Wijnantz (1795–1851) in 1830. (Illustration 3)
If we look carefully at the right part of the in the auction offered painting, then we don’t see the right side of the Binnenhof, but the façade of the old town hall and thereafter a part of the St. Jacobs church at a completely different location as this realistic water colour of 1837 makes clear, made by the cityscape painter of The Hague C.J. Behr (1812-1895). (Illustration 4) At the right we see the fish banks at the corner of the Schoolstraat. To the left a part of the St. Jacobs church and the building thereafter with the tower is the town hall, seen towards the east side of the Groenmarkt.

It is clear, that Van Schendel did put here the two different locations, with the buildings of the Groenmarkt at the right side of the composition and the Ridderzaal of the Binnenhof at the left side of the painting in an overall impression of the residence. For the spectator not familiar with the city of The Hague the painting is a convincing impression of a market scene by night in a Dutch city. That is probably the reason why Van Schendel didn’t paint these compositions when he still was living and working in The Hague. According to the principles of the Dutch landscape painter and contemporary B.C. Koekkoek (1803-1862) every artist should paint objects that had to be true as such. A tree, a building etc. should be in accordance with reality, but…. It was allowed to make the truth even more convincing by combining elements of reality into one composition in such a way that it was for the spectator after all a ‘pleasing lie’. The Painting of Petrus van Schendel is based on the same principle that even goes back to famous predecessors and painters of cityscapes , like for instance Jan van der Heyden (1637-1712), who also did put buildings from different locations in a city (Amsterdam) together in one composition to create an almost a supernatural impression of the Dutch capital: the ‘pleasing lie’.
Dr. Jan M.M. de Meere

Literature: B.C. Koekkoek, Herinneringen van en mededeelingen van eenen landschapschilder. Amsterdam 1841, pp. 231,232
Jan M.M. de Meere, Petrus van Schendel (1806-1870). Een leven tussen licht en donker. Leiden 2012
Jan M.M. de Meere, Petrus van Schendel (1806-1870). Maler und Erfinder zur Zeit der Romantik. (Ill. 101-106). Speech at the occasion of the opening of the exhibition Die Farben der Nacht. Der Maler Petrus van Schendel (1806-1870), 9 March till 16 June 2013 at the Villa Vauban. Kunstmuseum der Stadt Luxemburg.
Lyckle de Vries, Jan van der Heyden. Amsterdam 1984, pp. 15-42

Comparison Photos available on reques