The conch has an opening for the nozzle, the right arm contains a deactivated lead water pipe. The string of shells around the mermaid’s chest was cast separately; the shells might be life casts. There are some traces of paint remaining in the deeper areas.

The fingertips of the left hand are somewhat disfigured.

J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 391, with earlier literature; F. Scholten, ‘The Larson Family of Statuary Founders: Seventeenth-Century Reproductive Sculpture for Gardens and Painters’ Studios’, Simiolus 31 (2004-05), pp. 54-89, pp. 75-76 (with erroneous ill.); De Gruyter 2010, p. 291; F. Scholten, ‘Andries Gutsche’s loden tuinsculpturen voor Huis Bergh’, in M. Reintjens and A. Vels Heijn (eds.), De oudste tuin van Nederland: De groene geschiedenis van Huis Bergh, ’s-Heerenberg 2016, pp. 79-93, esp. p. 87

Object number: BK-NM-9720

The little mermaid sits on a base covered with water plants, with one half of her double tail curving to the front, the other to the back. She is blowing on a horn-shaped conch which she holds in her raised right hand; her left arm is stretched back diagonally. A band to which various types of indigenous shells are attached hangs across her left shoulder; a small bunch of water plants is stuck in her hair.

Mythical water creatures like river gods, tritons and mermaids have long been favourite fountain figures. Many examples of fountains adorned with such beings can be found in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Dutch engravings and drawings.¹¹Cf. A.G. Bienfait and M. Kossmann, Oude Hollandsche tuinen, The Hague 1943, pls. 81, 93, 154, 160, 209, 216, 221, 224, 272, 346, 347; E. de Jong, Natuur en kunst: Nederlandse tuin- en landschapsarchitectuur 1650-1740, Amsterdam 1993, fig. 54; Daniël Marot, Design for a Wall Niche with Fountain, 1716 (RP-T-1965-181). Cf. also Rijksmuseum, inv. nos. BK-NM-10558, BK-16430, BK-C-1997-2, and the brightly coloured garden sculpture of a mermaid in Arnhem, Nederlands Openluchtmuseum, inv. no. NOM.11684-50. The strictly geometrical design of the formal French garden which was fashionable at the time was an ideal décor for garden sculptures. They provided a vertical element in the mainly flat garden design, forming the focal point of an intricate parterre de broderie or placed at the intersection of the main and side axes. Personifications (Four Seasons, Five Senses, Four Parts of the Day, etc.) and some figures from classical mythology (Hercules, Triton, Hermes) were not only portrayed as life-size adults, but also often as putti. The modest size of these so-called kinderkens (little children) will undoubtedly have contributed to their popularity, especially in the Netherlands, where gardens were relatively small in general.

Since most garden sculptures were lost when the formal garden went out of fashion, it is remarkable that various examples of this type of mermaid survived. In some cases they still function as fountain figures, like the two trumpet-blowing mermaids crowning the fountain at the Vismarkt in Leiden,²²The fountain was made by the Hague sculptor Johannes Hannaert (active 1683-1709) and dates from 1692, see I. Blok, ‘De fontein op de Vischmark te Leiden’, Oud-Holland 30 (1918), pp. 247-55; M. Stokroos, Fonteinen in Nederland: Historische watervoerende monumenten, Zutphen 2005, pp. 54-56. and the lead mermaid in the park of De Wiersse, a country estate in the province of Gelderland. Two lead mermaids on socles which were in a garden in Landsmeer in 1973,³³Photos in Object File, RMA. and a third, almost identical example that was sold in Amsterdam in 1962, bear so many similarities with the figure in the Rijksmuseum that we can assume that all four derive from the same model.⁴⁴The present whereabouts of these three statues is unknown, nor is it known if they were originally fountain figures. In the depiction of the sold piece, it does look as if the snake’s mouth contains a nozzle, see sale Amsterdam (Mak van Waay), 16 October 1962, no. 1341 (ill.). Moreover, these four little mermaids have a great deal in common with a Boy Triton in gilt lead in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York,⁵⁵New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, inv. no. 1987.435.1. and with a variant of that piece which was previously in the Albert Lehmann collection in Paris.⁶⁶F. Scholten, ‘The Larson Family of Statuary Founders: Seventeenth-Century Reproductive Sculpture for Gardens and Painters’ Studios’, Simiolus 31 (2004-05), pp. 54-89, esp. p. 75 (ill. erroneously identified as the Rijksmuseum mermaid). The Boy Triton from the Albert Lehmann collection (lead, h. 67 cm) was sold in Paris (Georges Petit), 4-5 June 1925, no. 33. The version in New York is signed by Silesia-born silversmith Jonas Gutsche (1624-c. 1677) who was working in The Hague in the third quarter of the seventeenth century. The silver-gilt goblet Gutsche made in 1670 for the artists’ guild Confrerie Pictura of The Hague gives a good impression of his skills as a modeller.⁷⁷F. Scholten, ‘The Larson Family of Statuary Founders: Seventeenth-Century Reproductive Sculpture for Gardens and Painters’ Studios’, Simiolus 31 (2004-05), pp. 54-89, esp. p. 74, ill. In addition to his activities as a silversmith Gutsche provided a large clientele with lead and plaster statues; after his death his son Andries continued his father’s workshop including the foundry work. Orders came from far and wide: in 1671 Jonas supplied twenty, almost life-size lead statues to the count of Oldenburg, while in 1689 his son Andries signed a contract with the secretary to the Swedish king, Von Friesendorff, for eight plaster and two lead statues.⁸⁸F. Scholten, ‘The Larson Family of Statuary Founders: Seventeenth-Century Reproductive Sculpture for Gardens and Painters’ Studios’, Simiolus 31 (2004-05), pp. 54-89, esp. pp. 74-76. In 1695 Andries was contracted for the supply of a lead triton and eight smaller fountain figures to Count Oswald III van den Bergh for the gardens of Huis Bergh in ’s-Heerenbergh (BK-NM-10558).This could conceivably refer to an earlier version of the triton in New York, though it is also possible that the Gutsches had various designs available for popular fountain figures.

The use of lead for garden statuary became fashionable in the Netherlands in the middle of the seventeenth century.⁹⁹On the subject of reproductive lead sculpture in the Netherlands, see F. Scholten, ‘The Larson Family of Statuary Founders: Seventeenth-Century Reproductive Sculpture for Gardens and Painters’ Studios’, Simiolus 31 (2004-05), pp. 54-89. Lead is perfectly suited to that purpose: it resists environmental influences well, is cheaper than marble, bronze or sandstone, but is easy to paint and thus be given the appearance of such materials. White or gold-coloured paint was often used to imitate marble or gilded bronze, respectively. The present mermaid has also been painted, judging by the traces of paint in the deeper parts of the surface. Another important advantage of lead, especially in view of the great demand for garden statues in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, is that it lends itself well to serial production. Several copies of the same sculpture can be made using the same casting mould, and when worn out, a new mould can be made from the original master model. Accordingly, a successful design could last for years. Moreover, elaborate details can be cast from existing objects (life casting), either separately or integrated in the mould, as may well have been the case with the indigenous shells in this piece.

There are several conceivable explanations for the fact that the triton in New York bears Jonas’ signature, while at the same time a date of more than thirty years after his death. For instance, Andries may have used a workshop model made by his father which he post-dated, or else designed and modelled the master model himself (possibly inspired by a design by Jonas), but signed it with his father’s name because Jonas’s work was still sought after. All this indicates that designs for garden statuary were hardly subject to fashion whims, meaning that popular models could be reused for years.

Titia de Haseth Möller, 2025

J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 391, with earlier literature; F. Scholten, ‘The Larson Family of Statuary Founders: Seventeenth-Century Reproductive Sculpture for Gardens and Painters’ Studios’, Simiolus 31 (2004-05), pp. 54-89, pp. 75-76 (with erroneous ill.); De Gruyter 2010, p. 291; F. Scholten, ‘Andries Gutsche’s loden tuinsculpturen voor Huis Bergh’, in M. Reintjens and A. Vels Heijn (eds.), De oudste tuin van Nederland: De groene geschiedenis van Huis Bergh, ’s-Heerenberg 2016, pp. 79-93, esp. p. 87

T. de Haseth-Möller, 2025, 'possibly Jonas Gutsche and possibly Andries Gutsche, Young Mermaid, Fountain Figure, The Hague, 1700 - 1750', in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/20035827