Ruins of the Old Town Hall, Amsterdam, after the Fire of 1652

Roelant Roghman (Amsterdam 1627 - Amsterdam 1692)

He was the son of Hendrick Lambertsz Roghman (1602-1647/57) and Maria Saverij and was baptized on 25 March 1627 in Amsterdam’s Nieuwe Kerk. His father worked as an engraver,¹¹F.W.H. Hollstein et al., Dutch and Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts, c. 1450-1700, 72 vols., Amsterdam and elsewhere 1947-2010, XX (1978), pp. 61-64, nos. 1-3. as did two of his five siblings: his sisters Geertruyt (1625-c. 1651/57) and Magdalena (1632²²Amsterdam, Stadsarchief, DTB 41, p. 174 (13 January 1632); erroneously given as 13 January 1637 in W. Kloek and J.W. Niemeijer, De kasteeltekeningen van Roelant Roghman II, Alphen aan den Rijn 1990, p. 9 and subsequent literature.-after 1669).³³F.W.H. Hollstein et al., Dutch and Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts, c. 1450-1700, 72 vols., Amsterdam and elsewhere 1947-2010, XX (1978), pp. 53-60, nos. 1-23; pp. 65-66, nos. 1-2; E. Kloek et al. (eds.), Vrouwen en kunst in de Republiek: Een overzicht, Hilversum 1998 (Utrechtse historische cahiers, vol. 19), pp. 160-61. Through his mother, Roelant was a grandson of Jacob Savery I (1566-1603) and a great-nephew of Roelant Savery (1576-1639), after whom he was named. It is not known under whom he trained, but it is likely that he was influenced by the example of his grandfather and great-uncle. Although sometimes grouped with the pupils of Rembrandt (1606-1669), Roghman never actually studied with him. They were friends, however, and according to Houbraken, Rembrandt refused to accept Jan Griffier (1645/52-1718) as an apprentice because he was already studying with his friend Roghman.

Roghman was a prolific draughtsman, whose earliest dated works are two drawn views of tollhouses on the River IJ, both dated 1645, in the Van Eeghen collection, Stadsarchief, Amsterdam (inv. nos. 10055/28) and 10055/29).⁴⁴B. Bakker (ed.), De verzameling Van Eeghen: Amsterdamse tekeningen, 1600-1950, Zwolle 1988 (Publikaties van het Gemeentearchief Amsterdam uitgegeven door de Stichting H.J. Duyvisfonds, vol. 16), 1988, nos. 28-29. Among the works possibly made even earlier is a pen-and-wash drawing in the Kupferstich-Kabinett, Dresden (inv. nos. C 1798), clearly influenced by Roelant Savery.⁵⁵W. Kloek and J.W. Niemeijer, De kasteeltekeningen van Roelant Roghman II, Alphen aan den Rijn 1990, figs. 15-16.

In 1646/47, Roghman embarked on his most ambitious project, the series of some 250 castle drawings, of which the Rijksmuseum owns 49 individual sheets. Besides travelling through the Dutch provinces to make castle drawings and topographical views, he also visited Brussels and the region around Cleves.⁶⁶Cf. drawings such as The Pond at Boschvoorde near Brussels, Brussels, Koninklijke Musea voor Schone Kunsten van België (inv. no. 4060/3065; S. Hautekeete, Tekeningen van Rembrandt en zijn leerlingen in de verzameling van Jean de Grez, exh. cat. Brussels (Koninklijke Musea voor Schone Kunsten van België) 2005, no. 32.); and a View of Cleves, which appeared in the Valkema Blouw sale, Amsterdam (F. Muller), 2 March 1954, no. 389. A number of alpine landscapes – including one in Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam (inv. no. MB 221), dated 1654⁷⁷W. Kloek and J.W. Niemeijer, De kasteeltekeningen van Roelant Roghman II, Alphen aan den Rijn 1990, p. 29 (fig. 41). For more drawings with identifiable locations in the Swiss Alps, cf. W. Sumowski, Drawings of the Rembrandt School, 10 vols., New York 1979-92, X (1992), p. 5066. – suggest that he must have travelled to the Alps that year,⁸⁸Cf. different views of the natural passageway in the Pierre Pertuis near Tavannes in the Jura (e.g. Dresden, Kupferstich-Kabinett, inv. no. C 1770; W. Sumowski, Drawings of the Rembrandt School, 10 vols., New York 1979-92, X (1992), no. 2243, with further examples). presumably passing through France. A trip further south may be documented by a View of San Giacomo a Rialto in the Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin (KdZ 2617), traditionally attributed to the artist,⁹⁹W. Kloek and J.W. Niemeijer, De kasteeltekeningen van Roelant Roghman II, Alphen aan den Rijn 1990, fig. 7. That drawing has alternatively associated with Willem Schellinks (1623-1678; by Frits Lugt, cf. W. Schulz, Die holländische Landschaftszeichnung, 1600-1740: Hauptwerke aus dem Berliner Kupferstichkabinett, exh. cat. Berlin (Kupferstichkabinett) 1974, p. 72) and Jan Baptist Weenix (1621-1659; by Stijn Alsteens, cf. note on that drawing’s mount). Stylistically, however, its broad style relates with drawings by Roghman of circa 1650, for instance, inv. no. RP-T-1887-A-1385, whereas Weenix and Schellinks both worked with more delicate lines. and a signed drawing in the Klassik Stiftung Weimar, Sailing Boat at a Moorage, could have well been made in Venice.¹⁰¹⁰Inv. no. KK 5329; B. van den Boogert, Goethe & Rembrandt. Tekeningen uit Weimar uit de grafische bestanden van de Kunstsammlungen zu Weimar, aangevuld met werken uit het Goethe-Nationalmuseum, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Museum Het Rembrandthuis) 1999, pp. 94-95. In 1657, Roghman stayed in Augsburg, where he had a set of six etched alpine landscapes published by Melchior Küsel (1626-1684)¹¹¹¹F.W.H. Hollstein et al., Dutch and Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts, c. 1450-1700, 72 vols., Amsterdam and elsewhere 1947-2010, XX (1978), pp. 78-81, nos. 25-32; cf. W. Kloek and J.W. Niemeijer, De kasteeltekeningen van Roelant Roghman II, Alphen aan den Rijn 1990, p. 4, n. 18. and contributed a drawing to an album amicorum (inv. no. RP-T-1898-A-3991). No later than 1658, he was back in Amsterdam, where he is documented during the 1660s. In 1672, his opinion was sought on the authenticity of a group of Italian paintings in a legal dispute between Gerrit Uylenburgh (c. 1625-1679) and Friedrich Wilhelm, Elector of Brandenburg (1620-1688).

Roghman’s rare paintings feature mostly mountain scenes and were probably done after his trip to the Alps. Of his circa fifty etchings, mostly landscapes, one depicts the Breach of the St Anthony’s Dike,¹²¹²F.W.H. Hollstein et al., Dutch and Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts, c. 1450-1700, 72 vols., Amsterdam and elsewhere 1947-2010, XX (1978), p. 90, no. 39. a famous incident in 1651 that was also recorded by Jan Asselijn (c. 1610-1652), for example in his painting in the Rijksmuseum (inv. no. SK-A-5030), Willem Schellinks (1627-1678) and Jacob Esselens (1626-1687).

Roghman apparently never married and from 1686 lived in Amsterdam’s Oudemannenhuis (Old Men’s Home). His last dated drawing is from 1657, but according to Houbraken, he continued to produce art well into his old age. He died on 3 January 1692 and was buried in the St Anthonis Kerkhof, Amsterdam.

Annemarie Stefes, 2018

References
A. Houbraken, De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen, 3 vols., Amsterdam 1718-21, I (1718), pp. 173-74; III (1721), p. 358; A. von Wurzbach, Niederländisches Künstlerlexikon, 3 vols., Vienna/Leipzig 1906-11, II (1910), p. 464; R. Juynboll, ‘Roelant Roghman’, in U. Thieme and F. Becker, Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler: Von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, 37 vols., Leipzig 1907-50, XXVIII (1934), p. 518, with earlier literature; W.T. Kloek, ‘Een berglandschap door Roelant Roghman’, Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 23 (1975), no. 2, pp. 100-01; F.W.H. Hollstein et al., Dutch and Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts, c. 1450-1700, 72 vols., Amsterdam and elsewhere 1947-2010, XX (1978), pp. 67-93; H. Gerson and B.W. Meijer (eds.), Ausbreitung und Nachwirkung der Holländischen Malerei des 17. Jahrhunderts, Amsterdam 1983 (rev. ed.; orig. ed. 1942), pp. 27, 49, 130, 186, 293, 307, 356, 403; W. Kloek and J.W. Niemeijer, De kasteeltekeningen van Roelant Roghman II, Alphen aan den Rijn 1990, pp. 1-14; W. Sumowski, Drawings of the Rembrandt School, 10 vols., New York 1979-92, X (1992), pp. 4989-5174; P. Groenendijk, Beknopt biografisch lexicon van Zuid- en Noord-Nederlandse schilders, graveurs, glasschilders, tapijtwevers et cetera van ca. 1350 tot ca. 1720, Utrecht 2008, p. 642