watermark: none

…; sale, A.G . de Visser, Amsterdam (F. Muller.), 16 May 1881 sqq., no. 253, as P. Louwenhorn, fl. 31, to Pieter Langerhuizen Lzn (1839-1918), ‘Crailoo’, near Bussum (L. 2095);¹¹Copy RKD. his sale, Amsterdam (F. Muller), 29 April 1919 sqq., no. 816, as Adriaen Pietersz van de Venne, fl. 65, to the museum (L. 2233) with funds from the P. Langerhuizen Bequest, 1919

Object number: RP-T-1919-63

Credit line: Purchased with a contribution from the P. Langerhuizen Bequest

Although active as a glass painter, Pieter Kouwenhorn left several drawings that were not made as designs for windows. The outlines of the Peasant Wedding have been indented, which means that they were transferred to a copperplate or some other support, but there is no known print of the scene. In the album amicorum of Petrus Scriverius (1576-1660), preserved in the Koninklijke Bibliotheek, The Hague (inv. no. 133 M 5),⁵⁵K. Thomassen (ed.), Alba amicorum. Vijf eeuwen vriendschap op papier gezet. Het album amicorum en het poëziealbum in de Nederlanden, exh. cat. The Hague (Rijksmuseum Meermanno-Westreenianum) 1990; V. Freijser (ed.), Soetichheydt des Buyten-Levens. Leven en leren op Hofwijck, Delft 1988, p. 49. there is a signed and dated drawing by Kouwenhorn of Minerva and Mercury in her Study (1635) executed in a very similar style and technique fol. 147 .⁶⁶C. Brown et al., Rembrandt: The Master and his Workshop, exh cat. Berlin (Gemäldegalerie)/Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum)/London (National Gallery) 1991-92, under no. 31, fig. 31c.

On the left, the crowned bride is seated between two women, with a traditional bridal cloth wall hanging behind them. She is being 'gifted' or 'endowed' in a ceremony that was not attended by the bridegroom. In front of her is a dish in which coins were placed. She is also being presented with a strainer spoon and what appears to be a commode. More guests are approaching with a cooking pan and a pair of bellows, while others make music in the background. A similar scene is found in a print by Pieter van der Heyden (1520-1575) after Pieter Bruegel I (1526-1569) from the early 1570s, in which the bride is seated in the background and the foreground is filled with dancing couples. (For an impression in the Rijksmuseum, see inv. no. RP-P-1885-A-9288.)⁷⁷E. de Jongh and G. Luijten, Mirror of Everyday Life: Genreprints in the Netherlands, 1550-1700, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Rijksprentenkabinet) 1997, no. 3.

Although correctly attributed in the 1881 sale of the dealer A.G. de Visser, by 1919 the drawing was given to Adriaen van de Venne (1589-1662) in the Langerhuizen sale catalogue, which is perfectly understandable, considering the comparable subjects depicted in that artist's oeuvre.

Marijn Schapelhouman, 1998

E. Pelinck, ‘Pieter Couwenhorn, glasschrijver te Leiden’, Oud- Holland 68 (1953 ), no. 1, pp. 51-56, fig. 6; M.L. Wurfbain and R.E.O. Ekkart, Geschildert tot Leyden anno 1626, exh. cat. Leiden (Stedelijk Museum De Lakenhal) 1976-77, no. T 15; M. Schapelhouman and P. Schatborn, Dutch Drawings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam: Artists Born between 1580 and 1600, 2 vols., coll. cat. Amsterdam 1998, no. 220

M. Schapelhouman, 1998, 'Pieter Kouwenhorn, _, 1627', in J. Turner (ed.), _Dutch Drawings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200141591