The Dutch artist Jan Weissenbruch (1822-1880) excelled both at graphic art and at painting. His chosen genre was architectural painting, mainly townscapes, and in this he stands in a rich tradition: like his famous Dutch 17th-century predecessors Gerrit Berckheyde, Pieter Saenredam and Jan van der Heyden, Weissenbruch was able to combine a great degree of architectural precision with a superb mastery of colour and contrast.
Born in The Hague in 1822, Weissenbruch enrolled at the drawing academy in his home town at the age of 14, where he remained a student until 1840. From 1839 onwards, he participated in various exhibitions in Amsterdam and The Hague. His evident ability as a draughtsman led to his being able to show his work abroad, at international exhibitions in Brussels, Paris and London. It was in fact at the Brussels Salon in 1860 that Prince Albert bought two paintings by Weissenbruch as a present for Queen Victoria. They still today form part of the Royal Collection of HM Queen Elizabeth II. Overall, Weissenbruch was a respected artist who had no difficulty in selling his work.
Our painting shows the old centre of the small town of Leidschendam, situated between Leiden and Rijswijk, not far from The Hague. The spot chosen by Weissenbruch is the Delftsekade, with part of the reformed church showing on the left. As was his habit, Weissenbruch usually returned to a theme in his paintings, and made different versions, each time showing the same architecture from a slightly different angle. A smaller study in oils of our painting exists. The study is quite subdued by Weissenbruch's standards, and lacks the usual play with colour contrasts.
We know from a preliminary drawing for this painting that Weissenbruch was interested in this particular vantage point, showing a bridge in a central position, with the fronts of houses on the right and the bulbous dome of the church on the left. In many of his compositions, Weissenbruch tended to choose a position where a surrounding church, or houses, rise up quite confrontationally before the viewer. Long vistas with endless perspectives are not something that the artist was interested in. The reason for this is almost certainly that this allowed him to experiment more directly with the effects of sunlight, showing both sunlit parts of a street as well as shadows on the opposite side. This is exactly what he has done in our painting.
All leading museum in The Netherlands today own work by Jan Weissenbruch, although he is also represented in collections of international museums like the Hermitage in St. Petersburg.
Born in The Hague in 1822, Weissenbruch enrolled at the drawing academy in his home town at the age of 14, where he remained a student until 1840. From 1839 onwards, he participated in various exhibitions in Amsterdam and The Hague. His evident ability as a draughtsman led to his being able to show his work abroad, at international exhibitions in Brussels, Paris and London. It was in fact at the Brussels Salon in 1860 that Prince Albert bought two paintings by Weissenbruch as a present for Queen Victoria. They still today form part of the Royal Collection of HM Queen Elizabeth II. Overall, Weissenbruch was a respected artist who had no difficulty in selling his work.
Our painting shows the old centre of the small town of Leidschendam, situated between Leiden and Rijswijk, not far from The Hague. The spot chosen by Weissenbruch is the Delftsekade, with part of the reformed church showing on the left. As was his habit, Weissenbruch usually returned to a theme in his paintings, and made different versions, each time showing the same architecture from a slightly different angle. A smaller study in oils of our painting exists. The study is quite subdued by Weissenbruch's standards, and lacks the usual play with colour contrasts.
We know from a preliminary drawing for this painting that Weissenbruch was interested in this particular vantage point, showing a bridge in a central position, with the fronts of houses on the right and the bulbous dome of the church on the left. In many of his compositions, Weissenbruch tended to choose a position where a surrounding church, or houses, rise up quite confrontationally before the viewer. Long vistas with endless perspectives are not something that the artist was interested in. The reason for this is almost certainly that this allowed him to experiment more directly with the effects of sunlight, showing both sunlit parts of a street as well as shadows on the opposite side. This is exactly what he has done in our painting.
All leading museum in The Netherlands today own work by Jan Weissenbruch, although he is also represented in collections of international museums like the Hermitage in St. Petersburg.
View of Leidschendam, c. 1856
Signed below left: "JAN WEISSENBRUCH. f"
Oil on canvas
56 x 80 cm
Provenance
(possibly) with Goupil & Cie, The Hague, by 1862 as Leydshendam;(possibly) acquired from the above by M. le Marquis d'Harcourt (Frc. 640);
The British sculptor Sir George Frampton RA (1860-1928), St John's Wood, by 1922
Thence by descent.
Exhibitions
Probably exhibited at the Brussels Salon (Exposition Générale des Beaux-Arts), 1857, as nr. 1235 as Vue prise de Leidschendam.Jan Weissenbruch, Teylers Museum, Haarlem, 10 September 2016 - 8 January 2017.
Literature
Jan Weissenbruch, exh.cat. Teylers Museum, 2016, p. 151 nr. 119 (repr.)Willem Laanstra, Jan Weissenbruch. Schilder-graficus: 1822-1880, Amsterdam, 1986,: p. 65 (for a study of our painting) and p. 30 (for a preliminary drawing of our painting)
Kunstkronijk, 1857, pp. 94 for a lithograph based on this painting (also on p. 206 of Laanstra)
The Dutch artist Jan Weissenbruch (1822-1880) excelled both at graphic art and at painting. His chosen genre was architectural painting, mainly townscapes, and in this he stands in a rich tradition: like his famous Dutch 17th-century predecessors Gerrit Berckheyde, Pieter Saenredam and Jan van der Heyden, Weissenbruch was able to combine a great degree of architectural precision with a superb mastery of colour and contrast.
Born in The Hague in 1822, Weissenbruch enrolled at the drawing academy in his home town at the age of 14, where he remained a student until 1840. From 1839 onwards, he participated in various exhibitions in Amsterdam and The Hague. His evident ability as a draughtsman led to his being able to show his work abroad, at international exhibitions in Brussels, Paris and London. It was in fact at the Brussels Salon in 1860 that Prince Albert bought two paintings by Weissenbruch as a present for Queen Victoria. They still today form part of the Royal Collection of HM Queen Elizabeth II. Overall, Weissenbruch was a respected artist who had no difficulty in selling his work.
Our painting shows the old centre of the small town of Leidschendam, situated between Leiden and Rijswijk, not far from The Hague. The spot chosen by Weissenbruch is the Delftsekade, with part of the reformed church showing on the left. As was his habit, Weissenbruch usually returned to a theme in his paintings, and made different versions, each time showing the same architecture from a slightly different angle. A smaller study in oils of our painting exists. The study is quite subdued by Weissenbruch's standards, and lacks the usual play with colour contrasts.
We know from a preliminary drawing for this painting that Weissenbruch was interested in this particular vantage point, showing a bridge in a central position, with the fronts of houses on the right and the bulbous dome of the church on the left. In many of his compositions, Weissenbruch tended to choose a position where a surrounding church, or houses, rise up quite confrontationally before the viewer. Long vistas with endless perspectives are not something that the artist was interested in. The reason for this is almost certainly that this allowed him to experiment more directly with the effects of sunlight, showing both sunlit parts of a street as well as shadows on the opposite side. This is exactly what he has done in our painting.
All leading museum in The Netherlands today own work by Jan Weissenbruch, although he is also represented in collections of international museums like the Hermitage in St. Petersburg.
Born in The Hague in 1822, Weissenbruch enrolled at the drawing academy in his home town at the age of 14, where he remained a student until 1840. From 1839 onwards, he participated in various exhibitions in Amsterdam and The Hague. His evident ability as a draughtsman led to his being able to show his work abroad, at international exhibitions in Brussels, Paris and London. It was in fact at the Brussels Salon in 1860 that Prince Albert bought two paintings by Weissenbruch as a present for Queen Victoria. They still today form part of the Royal Collection of HM Queen Elizabeth II. Overall, Weissenbruch was a respected artist who had no difficulty in selling his work.
Our painting shows the old centre of the small town of Leidschendam, situated between Leiden and Rijswijk, not far from The Hague. The spot chosen by Weissenbruch is the Delftsekade, with part of the reformed church showing on the left. As was his habit, Weissenbruch usually returned to a theme in his paintings, and made different versions, each time showing the same architecture from a slightly different angle. A smaller study in oils of our painting exists. The study is quite subdued by Weissenbruch's standards, and lacks the usual play with colour contrasts.
We know from a preliminary drawing for this painting that Weissenbruch was interested in this particular vantage point, showing a bridge in a central position, with the fronts of houses on the right and the bulbous dome of the church on the left. In many of his compositions, Weissenbruch tended to choose a position where a surrounding church, or houses, rise up quite confrontationally before the viewer. Long vistas with endless perspectives are not something that the artist was interested in. The reason for this is almost certainly that this allowed him to experiment more directly with the effects of sunlight, showing both sunlit parts of a street as well as shadows on the opposite side. This is exactly what he has done in our painting.
All leading museum in The Netherlands today own work by Jan Weissenbruch, although he is also represented in collections of international museums like the Hermitage in St. Petersburg.
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