Pieter Codde

Pieter Jacobsz. Codde (December 11, 1599 – October 12, 1678), was a Dutch painter of genre works, guardroom scenes and portraits.

Life

Codde was a technically skilled painter. He is said to have studied with Frans Hals, but it is more likely that his training was with a portrait painter, inn-keeper, actor and art-dealer Barent van Someren (1572–1632) or possibly with Cornelis van der Voort (1576–1624). In 1623 he married the 18-year-old Marritje Arents. In the summer of 1625, on a party, organized by Van Someren on his estate, Codde got into a fight with his friend, the artist Cornelis Duyster. It ended with bloodshed as the two hit each other in the face with jars. [In: Amstelodamum 1935, p. 33-34. ] Already in 1631 Codde lived the Sint Antoniesbreestraat, then a fashionable street with many painters. In 1636 the couple divorced after he was accused of raping the maid; because nothing could be proved he was only locked up for one night. His wife went living with Pieter Potter, their neighbor and the father of the painter Paulus Potter. When Pieter Codde died his maid, Barendje Willems, inherited most of his property. [ [http://books.google.nl/books?id=5zXD9ttDtR4C&pg=PA60&lpg=PA60&dq=%22Pieter+Codde%22&source=web&ots=L4UHGGq5_2&sig=ODbPvsWvz7LZQQzKVo0Kak2eCug&hl=nl#PPA60,M1 ] ]

Works

His earliest known work is a piece from 1626, "Portrait of a Young Man", now in the Ashmolean. [ [http://www.artnet.com/library/01/0184/T018403.asp "Codde, Pieter", "Grove Dictionary of Art", www.arnet.com, 2007, ] ] Most of his best remembered works were executed in Amsterdam and are small-scale paintings. They are distinctive in their silvery-gray tonalities, and many are musically themed, such as his first known genre work, "Dancing Lesson" (Louvre) from 1627, "Musical Company" of 1639, "The Lute Player" (Philadelphia Museum of Art) and, "Concert", a piece now in the Uffizi Gallery. [ [http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/c/codde/index.html "CODDE, Pieter", Kren and Marx, "Web Gallery of Art", ] ] The other piece by Codde in the Uffizi is a genre work, "Conversation". Codde also painted historical religious works, such as his "Adoration of the Shepherds", from 1645, in the Rijksmuseum of Amsterdam.

Though it is unknown whether he studied with Hals, his style is undoubtedly similar in some respects. He was commissioned in 1637 to complete an unfinished work of Hals, "Officers of the Company of the Amsterdam Crossbow Civic Guard Under Captain Reynier Reael and Lieutenant Cornelis Michielsz. Blaeuw". While the choice of Codde to complete this work by Hals was not an obvious selection at the time, Codde’s work in the portrait matched the original so well that it is uncertain who painted what, although the Rijksmuseum, which now houses the work, states that Codde’s style is recognizably smoother. [ [http://www.rijksmuseum.nl/aria/aria_artists/00017290?lang=en "Pieter Codde" "Rijksmuseum", 2007, ] ] It is thought that Hals completed only the outline of the composition, with some faces and hands, and one figure on the far left; the rest was executed entirely by Codde. The piece has become known as, "The Meagre Company", from a comment by the critic, Jan van Dijk, who said all the guards were so slim, so it “might rightfully be called the meagre company.” [ [http://www.rijksmuseum.nl/aria/aria_assets/SK-C-374?lang=en The Meagre Company - Rijksmuseum Amsterdam - Museum for Art and History ] ]

It is said that one of Codde’s pupils was Willem Duyster, who was about the same age. As Duyster was a better painter, this is very unlikely. Simon Kick was their brother-in-law. Adriaen Brouwer, Gerard Terborch Pieter Quast and Jacob Duck also belonged to this group of painters that developed the style of genre scene. Codde may have been related to a poet with almost the same name, Pieter Adriaensz. Codde.

References

ource

* C. Bigler Playter (1972) Willem Duyster and Pieter Codde: The 'Duystere Wereldt' of Dutch Genre Painting, c. 1625-1635.

External links

* http://www.virtualuffizi.com/biography/Pieter-Codde.htm
* http://z.about.com/d/arthistory/1/0/0/X/dp_ngl_0707_09.jpg
* http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/jong076totl01_01/jong076totl01_01_0017.htm
* http://www.virtual-history.com/person.php?personid=385