The Mill 'De Kat' and the Lime Kiln at the Zuider Buiten Spaarne near Haarlem with Fishermen unloading Shells from their Boats

With the rapid growth of the population of Holland in the early 17th Century the main Dutch cities expanded at great speed. The construction of houses with bricks instead of wood increased, and with that the use of mortar. As shell lime was an essential basis for mortar, its production became an industry of its own. Hundreds of lime kilns were built, mostly near the coast and water for the easy supply and transport of shells and turf. This provided an ideal compositional setting for Van Goyen. As opposed to the Dutch lime, imported lime was produced mostly with chalk instead of shells, and slowly conquered the market. In 1860 still 400 kilns were in use: five now remain, one of which is still in use.
The present drawing very probably shows the kiln at the mill De Kat near Haarlem, not far from Leiden where Van Goyen lived until 1632. Other drawings of kilns include that dated 1627 in the Staatliches Museum, Schwerin (Beck, op. cit., 1973, II, no. 75) and that from the Catchmade Morgan album which Beck dates to circa 1627-9, sold in these Rooms, 21 November 1989, lot 61 (Beck, op. cit., 1987, no. 844A/F). Van Goyen's picture of a kiln of 1629 and that dated to the early 1630s (Beck, op. cit., 1973, II, nos. 1078 and 599 respectively) were probably inspired by these studies. In 1644-6 he painted views of kilns with Haarlem in the distance (Beck, op. cit., 1973, II, nos. 980, 177 and 520 respectively), and he repeated the composition of the latter picture in his finished drawing dated 1653 (Beck, op. cit., 1972, I, no. 451).