FRYTOM, Frederik van

(b. ~1630 ?, d. 1702 Delft)

Dutch painter and draughtsman. It is not known where and precisely when he was born, but he married in Delft in 1652, which would put his age around 20. He never joined the Guild of St Luke, to which all the owners of the Delft faience factories belonged along with many of their employees, and probably worked independently for different faience producers. He occupied the post of ‘guild servant’ for a few years towards the end of his life. A group of plates, dishes and plaques have been attributed to him on the basis of his distinctive technique and ‘handwriting’.

Frytom was the best faience decorator of his time, he raised the craft of faience decoration to new heights. He presumably worked for the pottery De Doppelde Schenkan, which existed from 1661 to 1777, the heyday of Delft earthenware. He painted entire landscapes of his own invention, which was exceptional for faience decorators at that time. He was more than a decorator of earthenware: he made paintings in oil as well.

Dish with a landscape

Frytom used the white ground of this faience dish in a very special way by setting down this broad, hilly landscape in delicate outlines with different shades of blue, and above all with thousands of minuscule dots. He gave the scene a sense of depth by painting the hills on the horizon with a very pale blue which almost fades into the background.

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Two plaques with a landscape

Until 1680 most Delft faience was painted with Chinese representation: Delft-blue earthenware originated as an imitation of Chinese porcelain. Later on, more and more earthenware acquired a Dutch appearance, such as these two plaques with landscape depictions by Frederik van Frytom.

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