Jan van der Heyden (1637 Gorinchem - 1712 Amsterdam), attributed.
Old Master Drawing, Westerkerk Keizersgracht in Amsterdam, 17th century, Dutch
Westerkerk and Keizersgracht in Amsterdam
Backside: later drawn backside with village church of the 18th century
Chalk and pen on paper
23,5 x 18,5 cm
Preliminary drawing for a painting from the creative period c. 1667 - 1670. This painting has been published a few years ago by Peter C. Sutton in the catalogue raisonné of the artist.
Van der Heyden was initially a pupil of a glass painter, but later turned exclusively to architectural painting and went to Amsterdam, where he painted views of churches, castles, palaces, public squares, streets, canals, etc., most of which are richly decorated with staffage. In addition, van der Heyden was also active as an inventor, for example, he developed a street lighting system for Amsterdam by means of oil street lamps, which was in operation from 1669 to 1840. After a stay in London, he painted the London fire of 1666, which he either witnessed himself or had seen the consequences of. Certainly influenced by this, he did much to further the technical and organisational development of the fire brigade from 1669 onwards. His greatest invention was probably the fire hose, which enabled significant improvements in fire-fighting technology and tactics. He also improved the hand-operated fire engines of the time by making them smaller, more mobile and more powerful, and he developed the series connection of several pumps to increase the pressure in order to achieve a greater range for the water jet. In 1690, together with his son, he was the author and illustrator of the Brandspuiten-boek, the first manual for fire fighting.
Johann Lingelbach, Adriaen van de Velde and Eglon van der Neer...
Category
17th Century Dutch School Cecil Beaton More Art
