Jacob Hogers

These four illustrations of biblical subjects constitute a significant proportion of the surviving oeuvre of this extremely rare and interesting mid-17th century Dutch draughtsman and painter from Deventer. The only significant study of Hogers' work to date is the article written by R.J.A. Renckens in Oud Holland in 1955.¹ At that time, the author was aware of a mere 13 paintings, and the same number of securely identifiable drawings, plus a further 5 drawings, listed, without subjects, in old sale catalogues, which may or may not have been the same as some of the other 13. Only a small handful of others, unknown to Renckens, have subsequently come to light. 

All the known drawings by the artist that are dated were executed between 1643 and 1655, and almost all are in the same distinctive combination of media, on vellum support, that we see here. They are also mostly very similar in size, and unrelated to any of the artist's rare paintings, leading Jane Turner, in her catalogue entry for a comparable drawing in the Pierpont Morgan Library, to raise the possibility that at least some of them were made as some kind of series of finished works.² Another very comparable sheet, like the Morgan drawing dated 1646, is in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, where there is also a further drawing by Hogers, unsigned and drawn on paper rather than vellum, but otherwise also similar in style.³

In terms of figure style and handling, these drawings by Hogers are strongly reminiscent of the work of Pieter Quast, but compositionally the primary influences are entirely different; in this respect, Hogers' drawings strongly reflect the works of Rembrandt, and some of his precursors and contemporaries such as Lastman and Pynas.   

The subjects represented in these four drawings are not entirely straightforward to identify, and do not necessarily correspond precisely, in all cases, with the biblical references inscribed on the reverse of each drawing.  

A) Inscribed: 1.Sam.24

This chapter in the book of Samuel tells the story of how David Spares Saul’s Life, relating how David, with an army of young men, tracks Saul, his father, to a cave in the mountains, but resists the entreaties of his supporters to kill him. The rather poor state of conservation of the drawing makes it hard, however, to know precisely which moment or verse is illustrated.

B) Inscribed: 2.Reg.4

The fourth chapter of the second book of Kings tells the story of Elisha and the Shunammite woman, but it is hard to see how this drawing could be an illustration of that story. It seems more likely that it actually represents the passage in the sixth chapter of the same book, when the enemies of King Jehoram are struck with blindness.  

C) Inscribed: 2.Reg.7 

The drawing illustrates the moment when Elisha hears the news of the Arameans’ departure.

D) Inscribed: Exod 14

The drawing would appear to illustrate the moment in this chapter when Moses instructs the fleeing Israelites to set up camp beside the Red Sea. 

1. B.J.A. Renckens, ‘Jacob Hogers,’ Oud Holland, vol. 70 (1955), pp. 51-66.

2. Jacob Hogers, Parable of Christ, signed and dated 1646, The Morgan Library and Museum, Inv. no. I, 223; J.S. Turner, Dutch Drawings in The Pierpont Morgan Library, Seventeenth to Nineteenth Centuries, New York 2006, vol. I, p. 80, cat. no. 100, reproduced vol. 2, fig. 100; https://www.themorgan.org/drawings/item/128225

3. Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv. no. RP-T-1922-36 and RP-T-1955-36 respectively