Object data
oil on panel
support: height 75.3 cm × width 109.2 cm
depth 6.3 cm
Balthasar van der Veen
View of Haarlem from across the Spaarne, near the Eendjespoort
c. 1650 - c. 1659
Inscriptions
- signature, lower centre (BVD ligated): BVD Veen
Technical notes
The support is an oak panel consisting of three horizontally grained planks. The left side is fully bevelled, and the right side is bevelled slightly. Dendrochronology has shown that the youngest heartwood ring was formed in 1625. The panel could have been ready for use by 1636, but a date in or after 1642 is more likely. The paint layers were applied over a thin ground layer that is white or transparent. The brushwork in the clouds is vigorous and, in some areas, slightly impasted. The paint of the buildings and the foliage has been applied thickly and opaquely with impasted brushmarks, especially in the tiles of the roofs, where as other areas, notably in the water and the sky, were painted in a smooth and transparent manner.
Scientific examination and reports
- dendrochronology: P. Klein, RMA, 29 April 2005
- technical report: I. Verslype, RMA, 22 May 2005
Condition
Fair. There are many discoloured retouchings, and there is blistering in the paint of the tree on the left. The level of the panel joins is slightly uneven. The varnish is thick, unevenly applied and discoloured, and there are remnants of older coatings in the lower parts of the paint layer.
Provenance
...; with an art dealer, Paris;1...; donated to the museum by Dr Abraham Bredius (1855-1946), The Hague, 18932
Object number: SK-A-1594
Credit line: Gift of A. Bredius, The Hague
Copyright: Public domain
The artist
Balthasar van der Veen (Amsterdam c. 1596/97 - Haarlem c. 1657/59)
The place and date of birth of Balthasar van der Veen are not securely documented, but as he was stated to be 42 on his marriage to Margareta Schaaps in Amsterdam on 8 May 1639, he must have been born in 1596 or 1597. Nothing is known of his training. It is thought that he travelled to France and Italy, for his journeys there are mentioned in a poem in praise of Van der Veen, written by his cousin Jan van der Veen on the occasion of his marriage. According to the writer of the poem, the artist was successful with ‘Vorsten en Graven’ (monarchs and counts). There are quite a few archival documents relating to Balthasar van der Veen. However, as there were several contemporaries with the same name, the artist’s biography remains vague. The painter Balthasar van der Veen is recorded in Amsterdam in 1643 and in Naarden in 1650. He died in or before 1659, since his widow Margareta Schaaps and the Leiden painter Godard Kamper took out a marriage licence on 20 September of that year in Amsterdam. He is probably identical with the Baltus van der Veen who appears in the Haarlem guild records. It is tempting to believe that he is also identical with Balthasar van der Veen the Younger from Gorinchem, who was involved in legal difficulties with Salomon van Ruysdael concerning a mill in Gorinchem in 1657, but this is as yet unproven. Van der Veen’s few surviving works are all landscapes and city views.
Gerdien Wuestman, 2007
References
Bredius 1894b; Bredius 1895b; Thieme/Becker XXXIV, 1940, p. 175; Miedema 1980, II, p. 1033; Beck IV, 1991, p. 411; RKD, Bredius notes
Entry
Van der Veen is regarded as a follower of Jan van Goyen, but that applies mainly to his early dune landscapes. Parts of the present work are fairly impasted, and as Bredius had already observed it is thus more reminiscent of Meindert Hobbema.3 Typical features of Van der Veen’s city views are the rather naive rendering of the architecture and the clumsy figures.4 The artist rarely dated his works, and the current location of his only securely dated painting of 1648 is unknown.5 However, given the affinity with the work of fellow-townsmen like Jacob van Ruisdael and Meindert Hobbema, it can be assumed that the scene in the Rijksmuseum was painted after 1650, making it one of Van der Veen’s late works.
The building does not appear to offer any clues for a more precise dating. The main subject is the Eendjespoort, a gateway in the south of Haarlem at the junction of the Kampersingel and the river Spaarne. Looming over the brownish red roofs are the south transept, choir and spire of the St Bavokerk. To the right of it is the Klokhuis (BellHouse), and in the distance to the right of that the spire of the Bakenesserkerk.6 The Eendjespoort, also known as the Leidse Waterpoort, dated from the 16th century and was demolished in 1866.7 Van der Veen’s painting is probably not topographically accurate. In Pieter Wils’s map of Haarlem of 1646, and in later depictions, the gate is roofed. The architecture of the tall, narrow building to the right of it, a former watchtower, has been simplified.8
Gerdien Wuestman, 2007
See Bibliography and Rijksmuseum painting catalogues
See Key to abbreviations and Acknowledgements
This entry was published in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, I: Artists Born between 1570 and 1600, coll. cat. Amsterdam 2007, no. 284.
Literature
Bredius 1894b; Bredius 1895b; Beck IV, 1991, p. 412, no. 1179
Collection catalogues
1897, p. 170, no. 1471a; 1903, p. 272, no. 2431; 1976, p. 555, no. A 1594; 2007, no. 284
Citation
G. Wuestman, 2007, 'Balthasar van der Veen, View of Haarlem from across the Spaarne, near the Eendjespoort, c. 1650 - c. 1659', in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.6350
(accessed 30 April 2024 15:19:18).