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Paul Constantijn la Fargue (1729-1782) The meeting hall of Kunst Wordt door Arbeid Verkregen. Signed and dated P. C. la Fargue pinx 1774. Canvas, 59 × 73.5 cm.

Leiden, Stedelijk Museum De Lakenhal, inv.nr.900a (purchased in 1952 from R. Kneppelhout van Sterkenburg; another painting of the same room by the same artist, dated 1780, was donated in the year of purchase by Mr. Kneppelhout to the Rijksmuseum [inv.nr.A 3834], and has been on loan to the Lakenhal since 1959).

Kunst Wordt door Arbeid Verkregen – Art is Attained through Labour – was the name of a minor society of the arts which met in Leiden from 1766 to 1800. Its two main distinctions are both visible in this painting: the delightful premises where the society gathered until 1780, and, against the back wall, the cabinet of miniature paintings of Dutch poets, the Panpoeticon Batavum.

The meeting hall was a room in the house of the Leiden bookseller Cornelis van Hoogeveen (1740-1792), whose many memberships in literary societies are said to have brought on his ruin. The Panpoeticon contained three hundred and fifty portraits, of which some two hundred were copied from prints by the founder of the collection, Arnoud van Halen (1673-1732). Kunst Wordt door Arbeid Verkregen, after attempting in vain to interest King Louis Napoleon in buying the cabinet and its contents, sold them at auction. In later years they were dispersed. Today the Rijksmuseum owns 78 of the miniatures; the cabinet has disappeared.

Paul Constantijn la Fargue was a member of Kunst Wordt door Arbeid Verkregen. He began work on this painting in 1771 and finished it three years later. In 1780, when van Hoogeveen had to ask the society to leave his house, la Fargue painted his second view of the room, seen from the other side.

For the painting, sec cat. De Lakenhal 1983; for the Panpoeticon Batavum, cat. Rijksmuseum 1976, pp.723-736; for van Hoogeveen, NNBW, vol.5, col.242; for Kunst Wordt door Arbeid Verkregen, Pelinck 1956.