Pieter Soutman

While often cited for his relationship to Pieter Paul Rubens’s studio and his work for the courts of Sigismund III of Poland and the Orange court of Frederick Hendrik and Amalia van Solms, Pieter Soutman has never received critical study. Pieter Soutman: Life and œuvre is the first comprehensive consideration of this understudied painter, draftsman, and printmaker. It comprises eight chapters that frame Soutman’s training, his movements through the cities and courts of Antwerp, Warsaw, Haarlem, and The Hague, and his unusual production as a Dutch artist working in a style associated with Flemish art, followed by a fully researched catalogue raisonné of Soutman’s paintings, drawings, and prints. With only six signed paintings known, the catalogue offers an important discussion of the additional 44 pictures associated with Soutman, nine rejected works, and three copies; of the 38 accepted drawings, 42 lost drawings, and 21 rejected works; and concludes with catalogue of Soutman’s 193 prints that includes an inclusive list of states and copies.
Careful research of Soutman’s production additionally sheds new light on artists and patrons associated with his work. Soutman’s connection to Rubens’s workshop and print production results in reattribution of paintings and drawings associated with Rubens and Anthony van Dyck. Recently discovered letters from Soutman to Constantijn Huygens offer a better understanding of Soutman’s work for the Orange court and his potential connection to Rembrandt van Rijn. And by repositioning Soutman within the context of the Haarlem art market and its Catholic collectors, a better understanding of competition, taste, and networks of patronage is gained.