Jan van der Heyden

Probably no. 19 of the estate inventory of the artist's widow on 18 May 1712, assigned to their son Jan;

Collection Pieter de Klok;

His sale after death, Amsterdam, 22 April 1744, lot 111;

Collection Jacob de Bruijn;

His sale after death, Land de Leth, Amsterdam, 17 April 1754, lot 16 or 17;

Collection Baron E. de Beurnonville;

His sale, M^e Pillet, Paris, 9-16 May 1881, lot 319 (as Jan van der Heyden, and figures by Adrien van de Velde);

Collection M. Lehmann;

His sale, M^es Lair-Dubreuil, Paris, Galerie Georges Petit, 12-13 June 1925, lot 254;

Where acquired by Mrs Berche, Paris;

To whom acquired by Raoul Dastrac, in 1933;

Thence by descent to the present owner.

A. Bredius, P. Padthuijsen, J. Aems, ‘De Nalatenschap Van Jan Van Der Heyden’s Weduwe’ dans Oud Holland, vol. 30, p. 134, possibly no. 19;

C. Hofstede de Groote, A catalogue raisonné of the works of the most eminent Dutch painters of the seventeenth century, based on the works of John Smith, London 1923, vol. VIII, p. 386, no. 190 (as Jan van der Heyden with figures by A. van de Velde, and as a pendant of no. 269).

Jan van der Heyden, a painter, draughtsman and engraver active in Amsterdam from the mid-seventeenth century, left many of his works to his widow. She survived him by only a month, and a post-mortem inventory was drawn up on 18 May 1712 to organize the distribution of his assets. This probably lists the present painting as by their son Jan, who was also his father’s pupil.

The present View of a Town then appeared in several collections ocer subsequent centuries, including those of Jacob de Bruijn, who was also the owner of Vermeer’s Milkmaid. Later it came into Lehmann’s hands, before being acquired by Raoul Dastrac, like many other works from his collection.

A typical subject in Jan van der Heyden’s oeuvre, the urban landscape is very often marked by omnipresent architecture. Our composition is no different, with imposing caryatids on in the lower register of the main building. While he had many followers, Jan van der Heyden stands out from them for the accuracy of his detail, the attention paid to the balance of his compositions and the respect for perspective that is particularly noticeable here. Although imaginary, the town depicted here by is inspired by the buildings in the towns of the artist’s region.

In his catalogue raisonné of Flemish painters, Hofstede de Groot mentions a pendant to our composition representing a large Dutch mansion; the two works seems to have been separated at the time of the sale of the Beurnonville collection, where they appeared under different numbers. Hofstede de Groot also explains that for these two compositions, as was sometimes the case in Jan van der Heyden’s works, the figures would have been painted by Adriaen van de Velde.