•D2437. Blue and White Chamfered Square Plaque

The foreground, featuring a fisherman in a boat on a canal, gliding past cows in a meadow, on the right a stroller by a tree, walking towards a gate in front of houses, on the left in the background a city emerges with a church and mill, the self-formed frame commences with a blue divider and is adorned with floral motifs.

DIMENSIONS
Square: 27.5 cm. (10.8 in.)

PROVENANCE
Collection Simon Spaapen (1864-±1934), no. 29;
French Private Collection, Paris, 2023 (Provenance+)

NOTE
In the seventeenth century, landscape painting became an independent genre. The landscape was no longer the backdrop for Biblical or mythological scenes. The abundance of waterways in the Netherlands has served as a thriving transport system for centuries. Rivers and canals were the main connections between different cities in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It is therefore no surprise that these waterways were also often depicted by Dutch painters in their landscapes. The print source for this plaque is an etching made by Esaias van de Velde in 1616, from the collection of the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, with inv. no. RP-P- 1885-A-9751. The print was reproduced on tiles in purple made in Rotterdam for Friedenstein Castle in Gotha, Germany, and in blue for the Castle of Rambouillet in France.