Sculpted and polished. The piece is set in a black, partly openwork, neogothic wooden frame, which can be propped up with a support.

Good.

Commissioned by Pieter Domien Velleman, Rome, 1825, but acquired by William I, King of the Netherlands (1772-1843), 1827; …; Baroness van Heeckeren van Enghuizen-Hope (1794-1860), Country House Enghuizen, Hummelo;¹¹Note RMA. the dealer A. Nijstad, Lochem;²²Note RMA. collection A. Staring, Country House Wildenborch, Vorden; from whom, fl. 250, to the museum, 1968

Object number: BK-1968-18

The sculptor Louis Royer (1793-1868) was educated at the Academy of Art in his home town Mechelen and went to Amsterdam in 1820. He succeeded, with help from the stockbroker and art collector Albertus Bernardus Roothaan, in obtaining commissions and showing work at the Tentoonstelling van Levende Meesters (Exhibition of Living Masters) in the capital. He wished to follow the example of most of the artists of his acquaintance and travel to Rome to study the famous classical sculpture. He submitted a request to King William I of the Netherlands for a four-year allowance, as granted to other artists, including Mathieu Kessels two years previously.³³SAA archive 681 (Koninklijke Akademie van Beeldende Kunsten), inv. no. 1, minutes of the Board, 7 November 1822, p. 166. Royer was referred to the Grote Prijswedstrijd (Grand Prize competition) of the meanwhile established Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Amsterdam. The first year in which this competition was held for sculpture was 1823. Royer made a model for an image of a young Greek shepherd fleeing from a snake which is trying to bite him. The work won first prize that year.⁴⁴SAA archive 681 (Koninklijke Akademie van Beeldende Kunsten), inv. no. 1, minutes of the Board, 3 September 1823, pp. 214-15. G. van den Hout and E. Langendijk (eds.), Louis Royer 1793-1868: Een Vlaamse beeldhouwer in Amsterdam, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Museum Amstelkring) 1994, pp. 12-14.

Royer’s stay in Rome was productive. He made a number of portraits, a figure of Christ, a Mercury with Bacchus as a child and several reliefs with religious scenes, including the present Virgin and Child with St John the Baptist.⁵⁵E. di Majo (ed.), Bertel Thorvaldsen 1770-1844: Scultore danese a Roma, exh. cat. Rome (Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna) 1989-90, p. 14. The Virgin is seated and holds the standing Child on her lap. John the Baptist stands in front of her. The composition, especially the bowed posture of the sideways-seated Virgin and the way she reaches the children with her gaze and touch, is a variant on the reliefs made by Bertel Thorvaldsen in 1805-07 for the baptismal font for Brahetrolleborg in Denmark (Mary with Jesus and St John and Christ Blessing the Children).⁶⁶E. di Majo (ed.), Bertel Thorvaldsen 1770-1844: Scultore danese a Roma, exh. cat. Rome (Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna) 1989-90, p. 13. At the time when Royer arrived in Rome, Thorvaldsen was the most celebrated sculptor in the city. Royer worked with him in the workshop and the Dane’s influence is also evident in Royer’s monumental work: the lineation is tempered and the figures exhibit less emotion and movement, making them appear to stand more firmly on their feet.

The present Virgin and Child with St John the Baptist was ordered in Rome by the Ghent architect Pieter Domien Velleman in 1825, together with a portrait bust of himself.⁷⁷E. Langendijk, unpublished manuscript on Louis Royer, 2001, p. 27, in Artist File Louis Royer, RMA. Velleman took the herm bust, again in the style of Thorvaldsen, home with him, but left the relief behind in Rome because of a disagreement with Royer about the arranged price. Meanwhile, Royer had been commissioned by Johann Gotthard Reinhold, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, to make a second version, which can now be found in Museum Hof van Busleyden in Mechelen.⁸⁸E. Langendijk, unpublished manuscript on Louis Royer, 2001, p. 28, in Artist File Louis Royer, RMA. That was probably the reason why Velleman refused to pay the original price: admittedly, it was not unusual for a sculptor to make copies, but that reduced the price, unless the sculptor added some variation and so could convince the purchaser of the work’s originality. However, this disappointment did have a positive aftermath: king William I bought the relief, no doubt, again, thanks to Roothaan’s mediation, and Royer was invited to report to the king immediately after his return to the Netherlands. In 1828 the artist settled in The Hague and became the country’s most important sculptor of his day, particularly on account of his many public statues.

Margreet Boomkamp, 2009 (updated by Bieke van der Mark, 2026)
This entry was originally published in G. van der Ham et al., Netherlandish Art in the Rijksmuseum 1800-1900, coll. cat. Amsterdam 2009, no. 25

J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 441, with earlier literature; E. di Majo (ed.), Bertel Thorvaldsen 1770-1844: Scultore danese a Roma, exh. cat. Rome (Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna) 1989-90, p. 13; G. van den Hout and E. Langendijk (eds.), Louis Royer 1793-1868: Een Vlaamse beeldhouwer in Amsterdam, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Museum Amstelkring) 1994, pp. 12-16; Boomkamp in G. van der Ham et al., Netherlandish Art in the Rijksmuseum 1800-1900, coll. cat. Amsterdam 2009, no. 25

M. Boomkamp, 2026, 'Louis Royer, Virgin and Child with St John the Baptist, Rome, 1826', in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/20035877