RKD STUDIES

Ovens, born in Tönning in Schleswig-Holstein, was the eldest son of the Lutheran Ove Broders (died 1652), a merchant and land owner, who became one of the city’s wealthiest and most distinguished residents.¹ Broders regularly sailed to Holland, where he owned a factory in Amsterdam.² Jürgen might have inherited a certain commercial insight from his father. Furthermore, his brothers Gerrit (died 1662) and Broder (died 1667), and three half brothers Peter (died 1679), Jacob and Hinrich in Friedrichstadt were merchants as well.³

Assuming Ovens spent two years learning the rudiments of art in Tönning, he could have embarked on further training in Amsterdam in the late 1630s. For a young and talented painter from Northern Germany it made sense to settle in Amsterdam, since this city probably was the world’s largest art market in the 1640s.⁴ Given his wealth, Broders might have maintained contacts with artists and art dealers in Amsterdam. Two documents suggest that Ovens was active in the workshop of Hendrick Uylenburgh (c. 1587–1661) in the second half of the 1640s.⁵ From 1625 until 1675, he and his son Gerrit (1625–1679) were among the most eminent Amsterdam art dealers. After his first period in the Republic in the 1640s, Ovens returned to Friedrichstadt in 1651, where he became the privileged painter of Duke Frederick III, and was exempted from paying municipal taxes.

Consulting the so-called Gottorf account books proves that Ovens was an art dealer for the court.⁶ His activities started right after he moved back to Schleswig-Holstein. On 16 November 1652 namely, Ovens received 40 Reichstaler from the Gottorf court for a copper plate that had been engraved in Amsterdam, no doubt a print commissioned by Duke Frederick III.⁷ The next year, Ovens was issued an obligation by the court for 1,100 Reichstaler for ‘delivered paintings and other things’.⁸ Unfortunately, here as in almost all comparable cases, it remains unknown to which artworks these documents refer. In 1654, Ovens received 474 Reichstaler and 20 Schilling for unspecified paintings and marble statues.⁹ It seems likely that Ovens got these works from Amsterdam. It is tempting to suppose that the Uylenburghs acted as intermediaries in at least some of these transactions. Gerrit Uylenburgh himself appeared at the court in Gottorf in 1655 upon invitation, undoubtedly through the intercession of Ovens. This trip to Schleswig is one of the first indications that Gerrit became more involved in the international art trade. On 13 June of that year there is an entry in the account book of the Gottorf court showing that he received 250 Reichstaler for supplied paintings.¹⁰ The Statens Museum for Kunst in Copenhagen owns several 17th-century Dutch paintings with the red Gottorf seal on the back. These works were transferred from Gottorf Castle to Denmark in the middle of the eighteenth century as spoils of war. Some of the paintings, including those by Balthasar van der Ast (1593/1594–1657) [5], Bartholomeus van Bassen (c. 1590–1652) [6], Maerten Boelema de Stomme (1611–1644) [7], Maerten Stoop (1618–1647) [8], Pieter Potter (1597/1600–1652) [9], Jan Coelenbier (c. 1610–1680) [10], and a work by Jan Brueghel I (1568–1625), Hendrick van Balen I (1573–1632) and Hans Rottenhammer I (1564–1625) [11], undoubtedly entered the collection in the time of Frederick III. The River Landscape by Coelenbier, who was one of Hendrick Uylenburgh’s financiers in 1640, might be one of the paintings acquired through Uylenburgh with Ovens acting as an intermediary.

Two weeks later, on 26 June 1655, a ‘Dutch painter by the name of Davidt Uhlenburg’ was paid 74 Reichstaler for prints and ‘engraved pictures’ supplied to the Duchess Mary Elisabeth (1610–1684), Frederick III’s wife.¹¹ The inscription of the name ‘Davidt’ was probably an error, and the recipient would have been Gerrit or one of his brothers.¹² It seems likely that these were not two separate shipments, and that Gerrit Uylenburgh stayed with Ovens in Schleswig-Holstein for this short interval.

As he had done in the 1650s, after his return to Schleswig-Holstein Ovens again supplied works of art to the court in Gottorf. On 5 January 1665 he received 71 Reichstaler ‘on behalf of Gerrit Uylenburgh’ for ‘rare books’ – probably late medieval breviaries – and engravings for the library of Duke Christian Albrecht.¹³ Ovens had apparently acted as an intermediary in the transaction. On the same day he was paid 130 Reichstaler himself for four frames or ‘Contrafaiethramen aus Ambsterdam’.¹⁴

5
Balthasar van der Ast
Still life with a porcelain plate with fruit on a porcelain bowl and two parrots on a branch, dated 1623
Copenhagen, SMK - National Gallery of Denmark, inv./cat.nr. SP 207

6
and Esaias van de Velde Bartholomeus van Bassen
Renaissance interior with a banquet
Copenhagen, SMK - National Gallery of Denmark, inv./cat.nr. KMS1969

7
Maerten Boelema de Stomme
Still life with salt cellar and jug, dishes and glassware, food and knife on a dark cloth with a white napkin, dated 1642
Copenhagen, SMK - National Gallery of Denmark, inv./cat.nr. SMKsp395

As well as selling to the Dukes of Gottorf, Ovens also supplied artworks, chiefly prints, to Mary Elisabeth.¹⁵ On 20 January 1654 Ovens received 78 Reichstaler and 43 Schilling for engravings he had delivered to her, on 16 April of the same year he was paid 52 Reichstaler, as well as an unspecified amount on 6 January 1655 for sold prints by other masters.¹⁶ Ovens’ brother Gerrit collected a small amount of money from the Duchess in the summer of 1660 for several graphic works that Ovens had sent.¹⁷ From Holland, Ovens also shipped Mary Elisabeth Italian stones, slate and glass, for which he was paid 248 Guilders and 3 Stuivers (103 Reichstaler and 19 Schilling) on 15 June 1663.¹⁸ The amounts above will have included a certain commission Ovens calculated; no information about rates and percentages is known.