Artist: Andries Everhard Franck (1716 – after 1768)
Date: ca. 1763
Origin: The Netherlands
Height: David: 39 cm, putti: 37,5 and 37 cm
The Biblical King David with his traditional attributes of the crown and harp, flanked by a pair of putti, the left holding a violin and the right playing the flute, the plinth of David is signed ‘A.E. FRANCK 1763’.
In this case king David crowns the central tower of the organ. We often see King David depicted on organs, not just on the central tower but also on other places of the organ. David composed several psalms and is seen as the patron of poets and musicians. This is the reason why king David is often depicted in this place of honor. The two music making putti’s alongside David were popular and often requested as well. Not just as decoration for organs, but also as garden sculptures, for interiors and on facades.
Around 1760, for the interior of Pieter de Swart’s newly-built Lutheran Church on the Burgwal in The Hague, a monumental church organ was made by Johann Heinrich Hartmann Bätz. It was decorated with carved giltwood sculptures and ornaments by the sculptor Andries Everhard Franck in 1763. This lot constitutes the three models sculpted by Franck in preparation for the definitive, larger-sized group that was placed on top of the organ. This group can still be seen here today.
He was born in The Hague, and in his younger years also lived in the county of Bentheim in the Holy Roman Empire (Germany). He completed his exam in The Hague in 1755, and the commission for the Lutheran Church would be one of his first big projects. He would eventually receive ƒ1604.11.0 for his sculptural work in the church. Not only did he supply all of the organ’s sculptural decorations, he also executed the decorations for the ‘Hertogenbank’ and the pulpit. Both are placed opposite to one another, and, like the organ, are characterized by finely carved scrolls and foliate ornaments. The dynamic character of Franck’s sculpture for the church demonstrates a thorough understanding and mastery of the rococo aesthetic, which makes Franck’s contributions to the interior of the Lutheran Church among the finest examples of Dutch rococo sculpture from the 18th century. This is affirmed by Katie Heyning in her chapter ‘Decoratief beeldhouwwerk in Den Haag tijdens het rococo’ (in: Baarsen ed., Rococo in Nederland (Rococo in the Netherlands), 2001). The carved giltwood console at the underside of the organ, Heyning writes, ‘is of an un-Dutch exuberance’. A similar dynamism can be found in the three sculptures in our collection.
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