Ludolf de Jongh

Ludolf de Jongh or Ludolf Leendertsz. de Jongh (Overschie, 1616 – Hillegersberg, 1679) was a Dutch painter, known for his genre scenes, hunting scenes, history paintings, landscapes, cityscapes, and portraits. He was further a merchant, an officer in the civil guard of Rotterdam and a schout (sheriff) of Hillegersberg. He was in the 1650s the leading genre painter in Rotterdam whose work influenced artists such as Pieter de Hooch. He was active as a staffage painter and added the figures in the works of artists such as the church interior painter Anthonie de Lorme and the landscape painter Joris van der Haagen.

Life De Jongh was born in Overschie (then a village near Rotterdam, which has now become part of Rotterdam) as the son of Leendert Leendertsz de Jongh and Annetje Leuvens.

The early Dutch biographer Arnold Houbraken who is the main source on De Jongh's life claims that the young artist was a pupil of the versatile genre and landscape painter Cornelis Saftleven. Houbraken also states that he studied under the genre and portrait painter Anthonie Palamedesz. in Delft and subsequently with the Caravaggist painter Jan van Bijlert in Utrecht. Some doubts have been raised about his study with Jan van Bijlert as in his early works the influence of the Utrecht Caravaggisti is not discernible and only appears in his works from the late 1640s onwards.

Houbraken claims that De Jongh travelled in 1635 at the age of 19 to France in the company of a certain Frans Bacon. He stayed in France for seven years and only returned to the Dutch Republic in 1642 upon learning that his mother had fallen ill. Examples of paintings of De Jongh broadly falling into this genre are the Tavern scene (1650, National Gallery Prague) and the Soldiers at reveille (1653, North Carolina Museum of Art).

Portraits

While now known mainly for his genre work, De Jongh's principal area of activity was portraiture. He started out painting portraits in the more traditional Dutch style characterised by its formal depiction of the sitters. He likely trained in this style with his teacher Anthonie Palamedesz. who had studied it himself under his presumed master Michiel Jansz. van Mierevelt.

De Jongh's later works reflect a development in the mid-17th-century Dutch Republic towards a more opulent style and a greater plasticity of handling of which the Amsterdam painter Bartholomeus van der Helst was the principal proponent. He experimented with various innovations in portraiture in this period, both in his use of space and light effects as well as by paying more attention to the psychological expression of his sitters. This approach in his works had a significant influence on the young Pieter de Hooch. An example of a portrait from his later period is the Portrait of a boy, full-length, with a dog of 1648 (At Christie's (London) on 2 December 2008, lot 3) depicting a boy wearing a rich silken doublet and skirt. The modelling of the brushwork in this work is fluid and confident. The portrait shows three typical elements of his portraiture: the restricted palette used for the sitter, the careful delineation and representation of the features and the inclusion of a dog. In the latter he shows a knowledge of van Dyck’s portraits.

He painted a schuttersstuk (a group portrait of officers of the civil guard) of Rotterdam. Houbraken saw the work in the target practice hall of the schutterij in the 18th century. The current location of the work is unknown.