Lot 22: Jan van der Heyden , Gorinchem 1637 - 1712 Amsterdam Delft, a view of the Oude Delft and the Gemeenlandshuis oil on oak panel

oil on oak panel

measurements note 41.3 by 49.7 cm.; 16 1/4 by 19 1/2 in.

Paris, Sedelmeyer Gallery, 300 Paintings by Old Masters, 1898, no. 57, reproduced.

Th. von Frimmel, Blätter fürGemäldekunde 2, 1908, p. 69;
C, Hofstede de Groot, A catalogue raisonné..., vol. VIII, London 1927, p. 346, no. 56 (the figures as by Adriaen van de Velde);
H. Wagner, Jan van der Heyden, Amsterdam 1971, p. 74, no. 34, reproduced p. 134;
P. Sutton, Dutch and Flemish Seventeenth-century paintings. The Harold Samuel Collection, Cambridge 1992, pp. 83-4.

ENGRAVED
By Boulard Fils.

Baron E. de Beurnonville, Paris;
His sale, Paris, Pillet, 9 May 1881, lot 316, for FF14,100;
With Charles Sedelmeyer, 1898, no. 57;
M. Martin Rikoff, Paris;
His sale, Paris, Lair-Dubreuil, 4 December 1907, lot 9, for FF30,000 to Fred. Muller & Co., Amsterdam;
With Mark Ascher, London, before 1970.

PROPERTY FROM THE ESTATE OF THE LATE LADY SAMUEL OF WYCH CROSS
The view is taken from the Oude Delft looking from the Oude Kerk towards the Gemeenlandshuis. Built in circa 1505 for Jan de Huyter, chairman of the polder board, the Gemeenlandshuis had started life as a private residence and was the richest building in Delft. The house was forfeited in 1572 by de Huyter's grandchild and it was then used by the Hof of Holland for five years. In 1645 the Huyterhuis was bought by the Hoogheemraadschap of Delfland (the water board) in whose possession it was when this picture was painted.

As Helga Wagner has pointed out, Van der Heyden has removed both the balastrade above the upper storey as well as several lower windows from the facade. He has, furthermore, done away with the street lights that would have lined the Oude Delft, and all other features of modernity, opting instead for a more romanticised view of the old town of Delft, dousing it in a light more befitting a Mediterranean view than a Dutch cityscape. With the exception of his depiction of the Westerkerk in Amsterdam (London, Wallace Collection),υ1 all of Van der Heyden's townscapes are, like this one, only loosely based on actual views, eschewing topographical accuracy in favour of the picturesque. Given that Van der Heyden designed and implemented the first comprehensive street-lighting scheme in Amsterdam in 1669 (lasting until 1840), his rebuttal of modernity with his paintings seems all the more surprising, although his architectural background is very evident in the painstakingly detailed brick and stonework of the buildings. Van der Heyden painted only four other views of Delft; two of these, in the Detroit Institute of Arts and the Oslo National Gallery, look back at the Oude Kerk from in front of the Gemeenlandshuis; another looks along the Boterbrug towards the Stadhuis (New York, Metropolitan Museum), and another from the east port towards the Nieuwe Kerk (formerly Holzhuizen collection).υ2 The majority of his townscapes are of the churches, squares, waterways and gates of Amsterdam, although he also painted some twenty-one views of Cologne. 1. See H. Wagner, under literature, p. 68, no. 7, reproduced p. 127.
2. Ibid, pp. 74-5, nos. 32, 33, 35 & 36 respectively.