Cornelis van der Meulen

Cornelis van der Meulen or Cornelis Vermeulen (1642, Dordrecht – 1691, Stockholm), was a Dutch painter who after training in the Dutch Republic had a career in Sweden where he became a court painter. He is known for still lifes of flowers and game, trompe-l'œil and vanitas still lifes, topographical views and portraits.

Life He was born in Dortrecht where he was baptized on 5 September 1642. In the late 1650s, he was a pupil of Samuel van Hoogstraten in his hometown. Van Hoogstraten set van der Meulen in the direction of the painting of trompe-l'œil still lifes.

It is possible that he traveled to Italy and spent time in Rome since his Vanitas still life (Sotheby's sale of 10 May 2019, London, lot 287) includes a statuette of Saint Susanna, which is based on a sculpture by the Flemish sculptor François Duquesnoy. As this sculpture was located on the altar of Santa Maria di Loreto, Rome and was little known until the 18th century, it seems probable that van der Meulen can only have known the statuette if he had seen it personally in Rome.

Cornelis van der Meulen further developed quod-libet still‐lifes in Sweden. The Trompe-l'œil still life of a letter rack (Stockholm, Royal Collections Sweden) may be identical with the work referred to as The little letter, which is mentioned in the Royal Stockholm Paintings Office's minutes from 1679. Cornelis van der Meulen's earliest completed painting in Sweden is likely the painting referred to as The Little Letter, which is mentioned in the Stockholm Paintings Office's minutes in the year 1679. It is a quod-libet composition of a traditional kind in which a collection of letters, drawings and cutlery is scattered over a board wall. The painting can be regarded as an intellectual self‐portrait, as it shows letters addressed to the artist together with implements from the artist's trade such as a quill pen, a print, a burin etc. While most of these symbols reference the transience of life and death (soap bubbles, candles, skulls) and human pursuits (scientific instruments, music, books, etc.), some carry a dual meaning: a rose refers as much to the brevity of living things as it is a symbol of the resurrection of Christ and thus eternal life.

A typical vanitas still life by van der Meulen is the Vanitas still life with a skull, a guttering candle, a tortoiseshell mirror, a book, a statuette of saint Susanna, and a pack of cards (Sotheby's sale of 10 May 2019, London, lot 287). It contains many of the typical symbols of vanitas paintings. The statue of Saint Susanna, a Christian martyr, symbolises the Christian conviction that it is possible to find salvation in death through the force of a steadfast faith in Christ's.

Two extraordinary vanitas still lifes are the portraits of Ulrik and Gustav both princes of Sweden and sons of King Karl XI, who had died as toddlers. The portraits of the two princes are in the form of bust sculptures, which were derived from the posthumous marble portrait busts of the princes made by the Flemish sculptor Nicolaes Millich. Millich had made the busts for the princes' grandmother, the queen dowager Hedwig Eleonora of Holstein-Gottorp. The queen dowager appreciated these sculpted portrait busts of her deceased grandsons Gustav and Ulrik. Van der Meulen incorporated them using a trompe-l'œil effect into the two vanitas still life paintings which were then hung in their grandmother's prayer room. Van der Meulen has added vanitas symbols to the bust portraits (books, a skull with laurel leaves, a seashell, a broken rose and a soap bubble). The busts of the princes also resemble Roman busts of child emperors and thus refer back to the royal lineage and authority of the children. This is further emphasized in the portrait of Gustav which has a Swedish flag with the royal crowns as its backdrop.

The contemporary fame of van der Meulen as a vanitas painter seems to be confirmed by the fact that the Delft painter Johannes Vermeer is believed to have used a vanitas still life with a violin by van der Meulen's hand in the background of his A Lady Writing a Letter.

View of Stockholm An outlier in van der Meulen's oeuvre is the panoramic view of Stockholm (c. 1690, Stockholm City Museum). It is likely that he used a camera obscura in the production of the painting.