Object data
black chalk
height 86 mm × width 164 mm (arched top)
Rembrandt van Rijn
View of the Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal in Amsterdam
Amsterdam, c. 1647
Inscriptions
Technical notes
Watermark: None
Condition
Light foxing throughout1
Provenance
...; collection Joseph Daniel Böhm (1794-1865), Vienna (L. 271 and L. 1442); his sale, Vienna (A.E. Posonyi), 4 December 1865 sqq., no. 1393 (‘Canalansicht mit Brücke, links hohe Häuser. Br. 6 Z., H. 3 Z. [15.8 x 7.9 cm] Geistvolle Kreideskizze’), 750 Austrian Schillings, to Remigius Adrianus Haanen [van Haanen] (1812-94), Vienna;2 ? his student Hermine Lang-Laris (1842-1913), Munich; from whom purchased, with nine other drawings, by Dr Cornelis Hofstede de Groot (1863-1930), The Hague, 1900;3 by whom donated to the museum, 1906, but kept in usufruct; transferred to the museum (L. 2228), 1930
Object number: RP-T-1930-64
Credit line: Gift of C. Hofstede de Groot, The Hague
Copyright: Public domain
The artist
Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn (Leiden 1606 - Amsterdam 1669)
After attending Latin school in his native Leiden, Rembrandt, the son of a miller, enrolled at Leiden University in 1620, but soon abandoned his studies to become an artist. He first trained (1621-23) under the Leiden painter Jacob Isaacsz van Swanenburg (c. 1571-1638), followed by six months with the Amsterdam history painter Pieter Lastman (c. 1583-1633). Returning to Leiden around 1624, he shared a studio with Jan Lievens, where he aimed to establish himself as a history painter, winning the admiration of the poet and courtier Constantijn Huygens. In 1628 Gerard Dou (1613-75) became his first pupil. In the autumn of 1631 Rembrandt moved to Amsterdam, where his career rapidly took off. Three years later he joined the Guild of St Luke and married Saskia Uylenburgh (1612-42), niece of the art dealer Hendrik Uylenburgh (c. 1587-1661), in whose house he had been living and working. She died shortly after giving birth to their son Titus, by which time Rembrandt was already in financial straits owing to excessive spending on paintings, prints, antiquities and studio props for his history pieces. After Saskia’s death, Rembrandt lived first with Titus's wet nurse, Geertje Dircx (who eventually sued Rembrandt for breach of promise and was later imprisoned for her increasingly unstable behaviour), and then with his later housekeeper, Hendrickje Stoffels (by whom he had a daughter, Cornelia). Mounting debts made him unable to meet the payments of his house on the Jodenbreestraat and forced him to declare bankruptcy in 1656 and to sell his house and art collection. In the last decade of his life, he, Hendrickje and Titus resided in more modest accommodation on the Rozengracht, but Rembrandt continued to be dogged by continuing financial difficulties. His beloved Titus died in 1668. Rembrandt survived him by only a year and was buried in the Westerkerk.
Entry
When Rembrandt sketched this scene, he was standing on the Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal, looking south at the houses on the water, at the Weessluis, a bridge between the St Luciënsteeg and the Rosmarijnsteeg, and on the right at the trees by what was then the Deventer Houtmarkt.4 Despite the absence of distinctive landmarks in this schematic rendering of water and trees, Boudewijn Bakker was able to identify the location.5 Nowadays the Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal has been changed beyond recognition: the canal was filled in in 1883-84 to make way for the wide street that now services cars and a tram line.
The scene was broadly depicted by Rembrandt with a minimal amount of detail. The water was beautifully suggested by its reflection: with a few brief strokes of chalk, Rembrandt conveyed the gentle motion of the canal’s surface. The drawing belongs to a series of scenes done in black chalk in and around Amsterdam. In a related sketch, in the Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum in Aachen (inv. no. BK 483),6 Rembrandt positioned himself further away from the bridge; the houses on the Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal can also be seen on the left side of that drawing.
Several of Rembrandt’s landscape sketches can be precisely dated because of topographical details, to either after 1640, before 1650 or in 1652.7 It was previously thought that both views of the Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal could also be specifically dated, in their case to 1657 or after, the year that a wooden bridge over the canal was replaced by one of arched stone.8 However, as Bakker clarified in 1998, we now know that the earlier wooden bridge had the same arched form – so its replacement is of no help in dating the two views, which must be assessed on stylistic grounds alone.9 Most of Rembrandt’s landscape drawings in pen and ink date from the 1640s and 1650s; his dated landscape etchings were made in roughly the same period, between 1641 and 1652. The black chalk landscape drawings are rather similar in style and character to these two landscape categories, though a precise dating remains difficult. A dating of circa 1647 now seems most likely – around the same time that Rembrandt used black chalk as a favoured medium for figure studies (e.g. inv. no. RP-T-1930-55).
The views of the Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal seem to have inspired Rembrandt to make a brown wash drawing with a near identical canal view, but without the bridge, now in the Louvre in Paris (inv. no. RF 4709),10 which must date from the mid-1650s. It was probably not made on the spot, but in the studio, since it was drawn on the back of a recipe in Rembrandt’s hand for stopping out varnish used in etching.
Peter Schatborn, 2017
Literature
C. Hofstede de Groot, Die Handzeichnungen Rembrandts, Haarlem 1906, no. 1310; M.D. Henkel, Catalogus van de Nederlandsche teekeningen in het Rijksmuseum te Amsterdam, I: Teekeningen van Rembrandt en zijn school, coll. cat. The Hague 1942, no. 72 (1635-40); O. Benesch, The Drawings of Rembrandt (rev. edn. by E. Benesch), 6 vols., London 1973 (orig. edn. 1954-57), no. 819 (c. 1645-47); P. Schatborn, Catalogus van de Nederlandse tekeningen in het Rijksprentenkabinet, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, IV: Tekeningen van Rembrandt, zijn onbekende leerlingen en navolgers/Drawings by Rembrandt, his Anonymous Pupils and Followers, coll. cat. The Hague 1985, no. 50 (c. 1657), with earlier literature; C.P. Schneider et al., Rembrandt’s Landscapes: Drawings and Prints, exh. cat. Washington (DC) (National Gallery of Art) 1990, no. 48; B. Bakker et al., Landscapes of Rembrandt: His Favourite Walks, exh. cat. Amsterdam (Gemeentearchief Amsterdam)/Paris (Institut Néerlandais) 1998-99, pp. 104, repr., and 175, fig. 5; B. Dokter, Rembrandt aan de Amstel: Wandelen en fietsen in het spoor van de meester, Amsterdam 1998, pp. 17-18, repr.; M. Schapelhouman, Rembrandt and the Art of Drawing, Amsterdam 2006, p. 66, fig. 59; C. Vogelaar et al., Rembrandts Landschappen, exh. cat. Kassel (Staatliche Museen)/Leiden (Stedelijk Museum De Lakenhal) 2006-07, fig. 152; P. Schatborn, C. van Tuyll van Serooskerken and H. Grollemund, Rembrandt dessinateur: Chefs-d’oeuvres des collections en France, exh. cat. Paris (Musée du Louvre) 2006-07, p. 160, under no. 56; G. Schwartz, Ontmoet Rembrandt: Leven en werk van de meesterschilder, Amsterdam 2009, p. 72, fig. 56; P. Schatborn, E. Starcky and P. Curie (eds.), Rembrandt intime, exh. cat. Paris (Musée Jacquemart-André) 2016-17, p. 157, under no. 41
Citation
P. Schatborn, 2017, 'Rembrandt van Rijn, View of the Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal in Amsterdam, Amsterdam, c. 1647', in J. Turner (ed.), Drawings by Rembrandt and his School in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.28569
(accessed 25 December 2024 20:00:17).