There was no artist more accomplished at depicting Amsterdam at the end of the 19th- and beginning of the 20th century than Willem Witsen (1860-1923). Born to a well-to-do patrician family in Amsterdam, Witsen was a gifted painter and watercolourist. But his main interest lay in graphic art, and it is in his aquatint etchings that he probably found the greatest satisfaction.
The present etching shows (in mirror image) the house at Amstel 54, where it intersects with the corner of Halvemaansteeg (literally: crescent alley), a small street which runs just off the Amstel, the man river coursing through Amsterdam. Houses are built right along the waterfront of the Amstel, and the river is clearly visible in the foreground of the etching, with a small boat moored along the drifting ice covering the surface of the water. Witsen has chosen to depict an overcast, wintery day, and has added a few touches of city life, such as a stationary, horse-drawn Hackney carriage and some indistinguishable passers-by. But these details are really only there to reinforce a muffled sense of stillness amidst the snowy streets and rooftops.
What strikes the observer is how the artist has presented the streets and houses as almost autonomous, geometric, lowering blocks. And it was indeed the sense of the city as an anonymous, domineeringly sullen presence that fascinated Witsen and what differentiates him from those of his contemporaries who also made townscapes or paintings featuring aspects of city life. notably the Dutch artists George Hendrik Breitner (1857-1923), Isaac Israels (1865-1934), and Willem de Zwart (1862-1931). But whereas they chose to emphasise the presence of human activity, Witsen presents us with towns that are almost devoid of human life. He had acquired much of his inspiration for this during his stay in London between 1888-91. Before he went to England, he had been primarily influenced (like so many of his generation) by the prevailing realism best encapsulated in the art of Millet and Bastien-Lepage. At that stage, townscapes hardly featured in his oeuvre. But the morose and foggy atmosphere he encountered in London caused him to look at "modern" big towns in a new, almost proto-abstract way. Or put another way: he discovered a new artistic language by observing the amorphous mass represented by the architecture of the big city. Somewhere in this whole there was a lost sense of mood and melancholy. It was, in many ways, almost a form of symbolism. From the early 1890s onwards, this was to form the mainstay of his work.
Willem Witsen was born in Amsterdam in 1860 and attended the Royal Academy of Arts there from 1876-1884. In the mid-to-late 1880s he bonded with a number of kindred artists who looked to develop a new type of visual language, in which every work of art would have to exude an identifiable mood that surpassed simple, plain realism.For a while these artists, like Witsen, Breitner and Israels, grouped together in a self-styled movement known generally as "De Tachtigers", or "The Movement of 80", referring to the decade in which their ideas had been formed. Although their association loosened over time, the ideology that had initially brought them together remained a driving force in Witsen's work.
The artist achieved great success with his etchings throughout his life. He was a hard worker who travelled incessantly in his quest to create and exhibit new art, not only in the Netherlands, but also abroad (London, Venice and San Francisco, for example). He was awarded a gold medal at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1900 and a gold medal at the World Exhibition at St. Louis in 1904. He died in Amsterdam in 1923.
A study in black chalk for the present etching can be found in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam [1}.
_____________________________
1. Inv. nr. RP-T-1964-279)
The present etching shows (in mirror image) the house at Amstel 54, where it intersects with the corner of Halvemaansteeg (literally: crescent alley), a small street which runs just off the Amstel, the man river coursing through Amsterdam. Houses are built right along the waterfront of the Amstel, and the river is clearly visible in the foreground of the etching, with a small boat moored along the drifting ice covering the surface of the water. Witsen has chosen to depict an overcast, wintery day, and has added a few touches of city life, such as a stationary, horse-drawn Hackney carriage and some indistinguishable passers-by. But these details are really only there to reinforce a muffled sense of stillness amidst the snowy streets and rooftops.
What strikes the observer is how the artist has presented the streets and houses as almost autonomous, geometric, lowering blocks. And it was indeed the sense of the city as an anonymous, domineeringly sullen presence that fascinated Witsen and what differentiates him from those of his contemporaries who also made townscapes or paintings featuring aspects of city life. notably the Dutch artists George Hendrik Breitner (1857-1923), Isaac Israels (1865-1934), and Willem de Zwart (1862-1931). But whereas they chose to emphasise the presence of human activity, Witsen presents us with towns that are almost devoid of human life. He had acquired much of his inspiration for this during his stay in London between 1888-91. Before he went to England, he had been primarily influenced (like so many of his generation) by the prevailing realism best encapsulated in the art of Millet and Bastien-Lepage. At that stage, townscapes hardly featured in his oeuvre. But the morose and foggy atmosphere he encountered in London caused him to look at "modern" big towns in a new, almost proto-abstract way. Or put another way: he discovered a new artistic language by observing the amorphous mass represented by the architecture of the big city. Somewhere in this whole there was a lost sense of mood and melancholy. It was, in many ways, almost a form of symbolism. From the early 1890s onwards, this was to form the mainstay of his work.
Willem Witsen was born in Amsterdam in 1860 and attended the Royal Academy of Arts there from 1876-1884. In the mid-to-late 1880s he bonded with a number of kindred artists who looked to develop a new type of visual language, in which every work of art would have to exude an identifiable mood that surpassed simple, plain realism.For a while these artists, like Witsen, Breitner and Israels, grouped together in a self-styled movement known generally as "De Tachtigers", or "The Movement of 80", referring to the decade in which their ideas had been formed. Although their association loosened over time, the ideology that had initially brought them together remained a driving force in Witsen's work.
The artist achieved great success with his etchings throughout his life. He was a hard worker who travelled incessantly in his quest to create and exhibit new art, not only in the Netherlands, but also abroad (London, Venice and San Francisco, for example). He was awarded a gold medal at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1900 and a gold medal at the World Exhibition at St. Louis in 1904. He died in Amsterdam in 1923.
A study in black chalk for the present etching can be found in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam [1}.
_____________________________
1. Inv. nr. RP-T-1964-279)
The Halvemaansteeg in Amsterdam, 1907/09
Signed lower right in pencil: Witsen
Etching and aquatint on paper
(Nr 73/100)
39,8 x 29,9 cm
Provenance
Private collection, Netherlands
Literature
E.J. van Wisselingh & Co (ed), Het etswerk van Willem Witsen, Amsterdam undated, nr. 453, p. 10.Willem Witsen. 1860-1923. Schilderijen, tekeningen, prenten, foto's, Bussum 2003, nr. 127, p. 220.
There was no artist more accomplished at depicting Amsterdam at the end of the 19th- and beginning of the 20th century than Willem Witsen (1860-1923). Born to a well-to-do patrician family in Amsterdam, Witsen was a gifted painter and watercolourist. But his main interest lay in graphic art, and it is in his aquatint etchings that he probably found the greatest satisfaction.
The present etching shows (in mirror image) the house at Amstel 54, where it intersects with the corner of Halvemaansteeg (literally: crescent alley), a small street which runs just off the Amstel, the man river coursing through Amsterdam. Houses are built right along the waterfront of the Amstel, and the river is clearly visible in the foreground of the etching, with a small boat moored along the drifting ice covering the surface of the water. Witsen has chosen to depict an overcast, wintery day, and has added a few touches of city life, such as a stationary, horse-drawn Hackney carriage and some indistinguishable passers-by. But these details are really only there to reinforce a muffled sense of stillness amidst the snowy streets and rooftops.
What strikes the observer is how the artist has presented the streets and houses as almost autonomous, geometric, lowering blocks. And it was indeed the sense of the city as an anonymous, domineeringly sullen presence that fascinated Witsen and what differentiates him from those of his contemporaries who also made townscapes or paintings featuring aspects of city life. notably the Dutch artists George Hendrik Breitner (1857-1923), Isaac Israels (1865-1934), and Willem de Zwart (1862-1931). But whereas they chose to emphasise the presence of human activity, Witsen presents us with towns that are almost devoid of human life. He had acquired much of his inspiration for this during his stay in London between 1888-91. Before he went to England, he had been primarily influenced (like so many of his generation) by the prevailing realism best encapsulated in the art of Millet and Bastien-Lepage. At that stage, townscapes hardly featured in his oeuvre. But the morose and foggy atmosphere he encountered in London caused him to look at "modern" big towns in a new, almost proto-abstract way. Or put another way: he discovered a new artistic language by observing the amorphous mass represented by the architecture of the big city. Somewhere in this whole there was a lost sense of mood and melancholy. It was, in many ways, almost a form of symbolism. From the early 1890s onwards, this was to form the mainstay of his work.
Willem Witsen was born in Amsterdam in 1860 and attended the Royal Academy of Arts there from 1876-1884. In the mid-to-late 1880s he bonded with a number of kindred artists who looked to develop a new type of visual language, in which every work of art would have to exude an identifiable mood that surpassed simple, plain realism.For a while these artists, like Witsen, Breitner and Israels, grouped together in a self-styled movement known generally as "De Tachtigers", or "The Movement of 80", referring to the decade in which their ideas had been formed. Although their association loosened over time, the ideology that had initially brought them together remained a driving force in Witsen's work.
The artist achieved great success with his etchings throughout his life. He was a hard worker who travelled incessantly in his quest to create and exhibit new art, not only in the Netherlands, but also abroad (London, Venice and San Francisco, for example). He was awarded a gold medal at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1900 and a gold medal at the World Exhibition at St. Louis in 1904. He died in Amsterdam in 1923.
A study in black chalk for the present etching can be found in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam [1}.
_____________________________
1. Inv. nr. RP-T-1964-279)
The present etching shows (in mirror image) the house at Amstel 54, where it intersects with the corner of Halvemaansteeg (literally: crescent alley), a small street which runs just off the Amstel, the man river coursing through Amsterdam. Houses are built right along the waterfront of the Amstel, and the river is clearly visible in the foreground of the etching, with a small boat moored along the drifting ice covering the surface of the water. Witsen has chosen to depict an overcast, wintery day, and has added a few touches of city life, such as a stationary, horse-drawn Hackney carriage and some indistinguishable passers-by. But these details are really only there to reinforce a muffled sense of stillness amidst the snowy streets and rooftops.
What strikes the observer is how the artist has presented the streets and houses as almost autonomous, geometric, lowering blocks. And it was indeed the sense of the city as an anonymous, domineeringly sullen presence that fascinated Witsen and what differentiates him from those of his contemporaries who also made townscapes or paintings featuring aspects of city life. notably the Dutch artists George Hendrik Breitner (1857-1923), Isaac Israels (1865-1934), and Willem de Zwart (1862-1931). But whereas they chose to emphasise the presence of human activity, Witsen presents us with towns that are almost devoid of human life. He had acquired much of his inspiration for this during his stay in London between 1888-91. Before he went to England, he had been primarily influenced (like so many of his generation) by the prevailing realism best encapsulated in the art of Millet and Bastien-Lepage. At that stage, townscapes hardly featured in his oeuvre. But the morose and foggy atmosphere he encountered in London caused him to look at "modern" big towns in a new, almost proto-abstract way. Or put another way: he discovered a new artistic language by observing the amorphous mass represented by the architecture of the big city. Somewhere in this whole there was a lost sense of mood and melancholy. It was, in many ways, almost a form of symbolism. From the early 1890s onwards, this was to form the mainstay of his work.
Willem Witsen was born in Amsterdam in 1860 and attended the Royal Academy of Arts there from 1876-1884. In the mid-to-late 1880s he bonded with a number of kindred artists who looked to develop a new type of visual language, in which every work of art would have to exude an identifiable mood that surpassed simple, plain realism.For a while these artists, like Witsen, Breitner and Israels, grouped together in a self-styled movement known generally as "De Tachtigers", or "The Movement of 80", referring to the decade in which their ideas had been formed. Although their association loosened over time, the ideology that had initially brought them together remained a driving force in Witsen's work.
The artist achieved great success with his etchings throughout his life. He was a hard worker who travelled incessantly in his quest to create and exhibit new art, not only in the Netherlands, but also abroad (London, Venice and San Francisco, for example). He was awarded a gold medal at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1900 and a gold medal at the World Exhibition at St. Louis in 1904. He died in Amsterdam in 1923.
A study in black chalk for the present etching can be found in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam [1}.
_____________________________
1. Inv. nr. RP-T-1964-279)
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