View of Geertruidenberg, Noord-Brabant

Entry

In 1672, better known as the ‘disaster year’ (rampjaar), Barend Klotz, Valentijn Klotz (c. 1646-1721) and Josua de Grave (1643-1712) followed the Dutch army under the command of the newly appointed Captain-General Prince Willem III of Orange Nassau (1650-1702) throughout Noord-Brabant. In that year, the army occupied the fortified city of Geertruidenberg in an attempt to fight off the French. Owing to its strategic location, Geertruidenberg was the scene of several battles and sieges throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In 1589, during the Eighty Years’ War (1568–1648), the Spanish bought the city from the English, but they lost it during the Siege of Geertruigenberg (1593) to Maurits, Prince of Orange (1567-1625). After 1672, the fortified city became an important link within the defence works that formed the ‘Zuiderwaterlinie’, designed by Menno van Coehoorn (1641-1704).⁷

In the present sheet, Klotz prominently featured the ramparts and walled enclosure of Geertruidenberg. Behind the ramparts, he depicted several houses centred around the Gothic Geertruidskerk, whose church tower was heavily damaged during the 1593 siege; it remained in this state until 1768, when it was finally rebuilt.⁸ In the Noordbrabants Museum, ’s-Hertogenboash, there are at least two other drawings of Geertruidenberg attributed to Barend Klotz: one of the ‘Korenmarkt’ (inv. no. 12183) and a more close-up view of the Geertruidskerk and its demolished tower (inv. no. 12217).

The present drawing is one of the few signed works by Barend Klotz. A drawing in the Special Collections of the University of Leiden (inv. no. P313_2N027), depicting the castle in Wouw, Noord-Brabant, has a similar signature with the additional words, geteeckent de 9 / 22 1671 in the lower right corner. On a drawing of De Huijbergsestraat, which in the 1970s was in the collection of C.J.F. Sootmans, Bergen op Zoom, Barend spelt out his full name, Barnardus Klotz . fe. 1671.⁹

The present drawing was made three days before a drawing of Nieuwenhoorn attributed to Barend Klotz, also in the Rijksmuseum’s collection (inv. no. RP-T-1899-A-4281). The towns are 66 kilometers apart, which seems quite a distance to cover by foot or horse in three days. Perhaps he traveled by tow barge, as both towns lay along the Haringvliet.

In the present drawing, the name of the site, ‘Geertruidenberg’, was written at upper centre in a very even, regular manner, using a modern ‘e’, possibly suggesting that the name was annotated by a hand other than the author of the view. The Leiden sheet, for instance, also has an inscription in the upper right corner, reading Aan het Casteel te Wouw, but these letters are more calligraphic and, as was customary for Barend Klotz, feature an old-fashioned ‘e’, which looks like an ‘o’ with a loop through its centre. The writing style of the inscription of the Leiden sheet compares well to other sheets assigned to Barend in the Rijksmuseum’s collection, such as inv. nos. RP-T-00-173 and RP-T-1899-A-4281. Therefore, the present signed sheet and the drawing in Leiden – regardless of the discrepancy with the handwriting of the site name here – form the stylistic basis upon which the attributions to Barend of other drawings in the Rijksmuseum’s collection are proposed.

Carolyn Mensing, 2020