Lot 1228: Pieter Jan van Liender (Utrecht 1727-1779 Utrecht)

The Stadhuisbrug, Utrecht, with house Lichtenberch and house Hasenberch on the left, the Oudegracht on the right, the vismarkt and the Domtoren in the background signed and dated 'P.V.Liender.f.1756.' (lower centre) oil on panel 28.3 x 37.3 cm. (111/4 x 143/4 in.). PROVENANCE Anonymous sale; Christie's, London, 14 December 1984, lot 178 (to Dreesmann). Dr Anton C.R. Dreesmann (inventory no. A-65). NOTES Another version, signed and dated 1764, on canvas, 60 x 83 cm., is in the Centraal Museum Utrecht (J. de Meyere, Utrecht op schilderijen - zes eeuwen topografische voorstellingen van de stad Utrecht, Utrecht, 1988, p. 159 and p. 164, fig. 13). A watercolour of 1762 of the same subject is in the collection of Her Majesty The Queen of the Netherlands (see I.J. Soer, catalogue of the exhibition, Jacobus van Liender, Pieter Jan van Liender, Paul van Liender en de stad Utrecht, 11 March 27 April 1978, p. 64, no. 41, illustrated). The artist specialised in topographical views and is known to have painted Rotterdam, Delft, Gouda, Rhenen, Emmerich, Amsterdam and his native town Utrecht. His views of the inner city of Utrecht date mainly from the 1750s and 1760s, when he was living on the Oudegracht. After an apprenticeship with his uncle Jacob van Liender and with his brother Paulus van Liender, he travelled through France and he made trips along the Rhine in Germany in 1752, 1753 and 1763. In an extensive decorative cycle that Van Liender painted for the Regentenkamer of the Diaconie-Weeshuis, Breestraat 36, Utrecht (since 1954 in the Centraal Museum Utrecht) he combined elements of the Utrecht cityscape with foreign elements and capriccio views.