By Olivia Dawe, former Rijksprentenkabinet intern
The Research Library and Study Room Prints & Drawings welcome national and international researchers working with the Rijksmuseum’s collections. One of them is Olivia Dawe, who frequently visited us as an intern at the Rijksmuseum Print Room, where she assisted Curator of Prints Joyce Zelen in preparing the 2025 cabinet exhibition on Dutch papercutting from the seventeenth to the early eighteenth century. In this article, she shares the findings of her research on papierknipkunst in the Rijksmuseum collection.
“A papercutting? What is that – origami or like a silhouette?” My internship at the Rijksmuseum Print Room from January to July of 2025 was replete with questions and curiosity, in turn met with a variation of the answer “No no, you see, it varies a lot but it’s kind of like lace but made from paper and cut with a pen knife or small scissors.”
Papercuttings vary enormously, and avoid a one-size-fits-all definition. The crux of my internship was to organize the Rijksmuseum’s collection of papercuttings by standardizing its terminology–a difficult feat for an artform that goes by many names. Their range of forms is remarkable: from doily-like openwork sheets to Hendrik van Irkhoven’s elaborate, quasi-sculptural floral compositions (fig. 1). Many objects were classified as knipsels – just as likely at first glance to be a newspaper clipping as a cut-out portrait of a monarch made by the famed schaarminerve Joanna Koerten (fig. 2). Similarly, knipselkunst, knipwerk and snijwerk were common object names. After much discussion, Curator of Prints Joyce Zelen and I agreed on knipkunst–a term that now unites all objects when typed into the Rijksmuseum catalogue webpage.
Among the many forms that I encountered, one category became the focus of my own research: cut-out wedding placecards (huwelijksknipsels, in Dutch) from the mid 18th-century. This short-lived but highly popular wedding “trend” was popular among members of Amsterdam’s wealthy merchant class, and came in various shapes, typically no larger than 20 x 25 cm. They are replete with motifs of abundance and fertility–swirling flowers, cornucopias, cupids and doves.
Over the course of seven months, I visited museums across the Netherlands to consult their collections of papercuttings with the goal of expanding the known oeuvre of huwelijksknipsels. Broad comparative analyses were key to developing my ability to identify typical recurring stylistic elements, as well as to recognize the hands – or rather ‘cuts’ – of the artists responsible for making the wedding papercuttings.
Most of such papercuttings come in pairs: one for the bride and one for the groom, and some are for guests. The bride and groom are usually identified as such through inscriptions made on banderoles that also frequently feature their names. Some are mounted on once-colourful brocaatpapier, which would have shone by contrast to the white paper and enhanced the beauty of cutting. Many have stylistic features which identify them as being customized for a specific bridal couple, such as the coats of arms of each family, or of their monogrammed initials. All have one thing in common: they are all unsigned. To find out more about these works, I had to rely on what my eyes could tell me.
Two of the most striking examples in the Rijksmuseum’s collection of wedding papercuttings is the pair which marked the union of Catharina Heshuysen and Anthony Bruyning in 1759 (fig. 3). Above the couples’ coats of arms – hers notable for its distinctive blue colour and dark eyes – are two doves whose beaks are joined by a flaming heart, and below, flowers burst from a vase. These symbols of love and abundance reappear frequently in wedding papercuttings. Dolphins frame the corners of the composition by taking dynamic, twisting poses. The whole is topped by a coronet, which confers a sense of authority over the whole object, and the union of the couple.
Figure 3. Unknown artist, Huwelijksknipsel voor bruid Catharina Heshuysen (left, RP-P-2024-1199) and Huwelijksknipsel voor bruidegom Anthony Bruyning (right, RP-P-2024-1200), ca. 1759, height 160 mm x width 175 mm
Bruyning was a wine merchant whose father and uncle co-owned the De Hooijberg brewery–the predecessor of the Heineken brewery. Heshuysen was the eldest child of the silk merchant Andries Heshuysen, whose family also operated the Posterij op Hamburg–a main vein of postal delivery between northern Germany and Amsterdam.
A second example of customization is seen in the placecards of guests Pieter Jut and his wife Catharina Willink (fig. 4), member of a prominent Amsterdam banking family. These were made on the occasion of the wedding of Michiel Laars Anthoniszoon and his bride Anna Hooft. Their initials can be distinguished in the central monogram of the papercutting. It sits once again beneath two doves and an ornate canopy which supports a basket of flowers. Tulips and wildflowers emerging from the latter tumble down the sides of the cutting, picked by two putti. These papercuttings, like their predecessors, are mounted on brocaatpapier that would once have shimmered, making these pieces dynamic, beautiful and personalized testaments to the guests’ wedding attendance.
Figure 4. Unknown artist, Huwelijksknipsel voor gast Pieter Jut (left, RP-P-2024-1276) and Huwelijksknipsel voor gast Catharina Willink-Jut (right, RP-P-2024-1275), ca. 1749, height 180 mm x width 155 mm
The Hooft-Laars wedding papercutting collection is notable for its inclusion of a third, larger papercutting which once again identifies the wedded pair by their monogrammed initials (fig 5). The repetition of the central cipher and other motifs of abundance across the three cuttings for the Laars-Hooft union however suggest that they were made at the same time. The larger papercutting thus likely occupied a decorative function for their wedding.
In comparing these examples in the Rijksmuseum collection with others, it became evident that a bridal couple, or a member of their family, could therefore commission various items, customized to their identities or not, to decorate their wedding. This could include choosing the overall shape of the placecard, and the choice to depict their coats of arms or their monogrammed initials. Furthermore, my research confirmed the findings of papercutting historian Jan Peter Verhave: that only two artists are responsible for nearly all papercuttings made for weddings during the 18th century.
Anonymous 1, active from approximately 1749 to 1759, is identifiable by their use of two recurring motifs: a flower and a vine (figs. 6, 7). I could thus associate these elements to a single hand with certainty. Personalization was this artist’s hallmark, as none of the works by the second, Anonymous 2, include coats of arms or monograms, favouring instead the aforementioned symbols of love and abundance (fig. 8).
These small objects, which survive in various collections across the Netherlands, were likely kept as precious, customized mementos recalling the unions of beloved friends and family members. They represent another insight into the visual culture of Amsterdam weddings during the 18th century, the social lives of those who attended them, and of the creative possibilities that even the most simple material can offer.
Curious to dive deeper into the art of papercutting? Olivia has handpicked a selection of works from the Research Library collection:
Konstig en vermaakelijk tyd-verdryf, der Hollandsche jufferen, of onderricht der papiere sny-konst. Amsterdam: Johannes ten Hoorn, 1686.
Graft, Cornelia van de. “Geknipte Familiewapenen”, Historia 11 (1946): 113-197.
Graft, Cornelia van de. “Papierknip- en snijkunst, vroeger en nu”, Historia 11 (1946) p. 145-155. Graft, Cornelia van de. “Papieren knipwerk”, Historia 13 (1948), 145-149.
Noorman, Judith F.J. Gouden vrouwen van de 17de eeuw. Zwolle: WBOOKS, 2020.
Verhave, Jan Peter and Joke Verhave. Onbekend en ontroerend erfgoed. Nijmegen: Journey Press, 2017.
Verhave, Jan Peter. Het scherp van de snede. Zwolle: Waanders Uitgevers, 2023.
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