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Gallery Text

Paintings of their towns and native landscape appealed to Dutch collectors’ pride in the beauty and accomplishments of their country. Jan van der Heyden’s pristine views of orderly urban squares and modern residential districts express admiration for cities that were both the foundation and product of the republic’s prosperity. Here a late afternoon sun casts long shadows on the cobblestones of the Dam. The Damrak, the waterway that linked the Dam to Amsterdam’s harbor, terminates at the far left, near the main fish market. The vantage point is an uncommon one. Most artists preferred the view from the opposite side of the plaza, which encompassed the New Church, the Weigh House, and the magnificent Town Hall. These iconic buildings, as well as the Stock Exchange and commercial banks — Amsterdam’s civic hub and the epicenter of European finance — were out of sight here but only steps away.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1968.65
People
Jan van der Heyden, Dutch (Gorkum 1637 - 1712 Amsterdam)
Figures by Adriaen van de Velde, Dutch (Amsterdam, Netherlands 1636 - 1672 Amsterdam, Netherlands)
Previously attributed to Gerrit Adriaensz Berckheyde, Dutch (Haarlem 1638 - 1698 Haarlem)
Title
The Dam and Damrak, Amsterdam
Classification
Paintings
Work Type
painting
Date
c. 1663
Places
Creation Place: Europe, Netherlands
Culture
Dutch
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/228161

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
61.9 x 71.1 cm (24 3/8 x 28 in.)
frame: 77.5 x 86.4 x 6.4 cm (30 1/2 x 34 x 2 1/2 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • Signed: Signed on a sack to left with initials of A. van de Velde?

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Willem Lormier, 1754, The Hague, sold [through his sale, The Hague, July 4, 1763, lot 137]; to Balden. Collection Etienne François Choiseul-Stainville, Duc de Choiseul et Ambroise (1719-1785), Paris, sold [through J.F. Boileau, Paris, April 6-10, 1772, lot 74 as “Van der Heiden”]; to [J.F. Bolieau], sold (?); to Dubois de Courval, sold [through Folliot, Delalande, Fournier, May 11, 1789, lot. No. 10 as Jean Vander Heyden]. Aleksander Andreyevich, Prince Bezborodko (1747 – 1799), Saint Petersburg 1783 (?), by descent; to his brother, 1800, by descent; to Countess Liubov Il'inichna Kusheleva (née Bezborodko) (1783-1809), the daughter of Prince Bezborodko, by descent; to Grigorii (1801-1855), her son as part of Collection Georg, Count Kushelev-Bezborodko, sold [through Durand-Ruel, Paris, June 5, 1869 lot 4, as by Gérard Berkeyden]. Collection Edwards, sold [through Hôtel Drouot, Paris, May 25, 1905, lot 2, as “Un Quai à Amsterdam” by Gérard Berkheyden (Lugt 63248)], to Féral. [Julius Böehler, Munich, through James Loeb] [1], sold; to Paul Moritz Warburg (1868-1932), New York, NY, October 1909, by descent; to his son, James P. Warburg (1896-1969); to Mr. and Mrs. Samuel B. Grimson (née Bettina Warburg, sister of James P. Warburg), gift; to Fogg Art Musum, 1968.

Notes
[1] James Loeb is a relative of Paul M. Warburg’s wife, Nina J. Loeb.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Samuel B. Grimson
Accession Year
1968
Object Number
1968.65
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
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Publication History

  • Catalogus van een groot en uytmuntent cabinet Schilderyen, der voornaamste Italiaansche, Fransche, Engelsche, Hoogduytsche en Nederlandsche Meesters., auct. cat. (The Hague, July 4 1763), p. 17, lot 136
  • Gerard Hoet, Catalogues of naamlyst van schilderyen, met derzelver prysen (The Hague, 1770), p. 322, no. 138
  • Catalogue des Tableaux qui Composent le Cabinet de Monseigneur le Duc de Choiseul, auct. cat. (Paris, April 6 1772), pp. 25 - 26, lot 74
  • Catalogue de Tableaux des Trois Écoles; Miniatures, Gouaches, Estampes encadrées & en Recueils, Marbres, Bronzes, Porcelaines diverses, Armes, Bijoux, & autres Objets curieux, Qui composoient le Cabinet de seu M. Dubois de Courval, auct. cat. (Paris, May 11 1789), p. 7, lot 10
  • Catalogue de 43 Tableaux de Maitres Anciens provenant de la collection de M. le Comte Koucheleff Besborodko, auct. cat. (Paris, June 5 1869), pp. ix + 6-8, lot 4
  • Galerie Georges Petit, Cent Chefs-d'Oeuvre des École Françaises et Étrangéres, exh. cat. (Paris, June 1892), p. 51, cat. no. 47
  • Catalogue de Tableaux Anciens et Modernes: Oeuvres remarquables de Berkheyden, Chardin, L. Cranach...Composant la Collection de M. Edwards, auct. cat., Hôtel Drouot (Paris, May 25, 1905), pp. 4-6, repr. p. 6
  • C. G. 't Hooft, Amsterdamsche Stadsgezichten: van Jan van der Heyden, Ten Brink & De Vries (Amsterdam, 1912), repr.
  • Cornelis Hofstede de Groot, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century, Macmillan and Co. (London, 1927), pp. 340-341, no. 37
  • Peter C. Sutton, A Guide to Dutch Art in America, Netherlands-American Amity Trust and Eerdmans (Washington, D.C., 1986), p. 40, repr., fig. 52
  • Kristin A. Mortimer and William G. Klingelhofer, Harvard University Art Museums: A Guide to the Collections, Harvard University Art Museums and Abbeville Press (Cambridge and New York, 1986), no. 193, p. 169, repr.
  • Edgar Peters Bowron, European Paintings Before 1900 in the Fogg Art Museum: A Summary Catalogue including Paintings in the Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 1990)
  • Ben Broos, Great Dutch Paintings from America, exh. cat., Waanders Publishers and Royal Picture Gallery Mauritshuis (Zwolle, 1990), pp. 273-279, cat. no 30, repr. p. 274.
  • Peter C. Sutton and Yale University Press, Jan van der Heyden (1637-1712), exh. cat. (New Haven and London, 2006), p. 45-46, fig. 30
  • S. Groenveld, H. L. Ph. Leeuwenberg, M.E.H.N. Mout, and W. M. Zappey, De Tachtigjarige Oorlog: Opstand en Consolidatie in de Nederlanden (ca. 1560-1650), Walburg Press (Zutphen, 2008), p. 333, repr.
  • Oliver A. Rink, "Seafarers and Businessmen: The Growth of Dutch Commerce in the Lower Hudson River Valley", Dutch New York: The Roots of Hudson Valley Culture, ed. Roger Panetta, Hudson River Museum (Yonkers, NY, 2009), pp. 7-34, repr. p. 12
  • Linda Stone-Ferrier, The Little Street: The Neighborhood in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Art and Culture, Yale University Press (New Haven, 2022), pp. 40-41, 44-45, repr. p. 40 as fig. 21

Exhibition History

  • Cent Chefs-d'Oeuvre des Écoles Françaises et Étrangères (deuxième exposition), Galerie Georges Petit, 01/01/1892 - 01/01/1892
  • Great Dutch Paintings in America, Royal Picture Gallery Mauritshuis, 09/27/1990 - 01/15/1991; Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 02/17/1991 - 05/05/1991
  • Perceptions of Space, Davis Museum at Wellesley College, Wellesley, 12/01/2011 - 05/19/2013
  • 32Q: 2300 Dutch & Flemish, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 09/08/2017
  • 32Q: 3620 University Study Gallery, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 08/31/2019 - 01/08/2020

Subjects and Contexts

  • Google Art Project

Related Works

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu