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Lot Essay
The recto of this sheet shows the Sint Janspoort in Arnhem seen from the west with the town canal and fortifications to the right. The fortification of the city was undertaken in 1537 at the command of Emporer Charles V. The gate’s picturesque quality clearly captured Waterloo’s attention as he made several drawings of it. A drawing which shows the gate from further away and from a slightly higher viewpoint, and the hills surrounding Arnhem, is in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (inv. RP-T-1879-A-74) and another is in Musée des Beaux-Arts et d’Archéologie de Besançon. A third drawing of what appears to be the same gate shown from opposite direction was sold at Christie’s, Amsterdam, 13 November 1995, lot 120, as Simon de Vlieger.
The quickly sketched landscape on the verso, surely made on the spot, is unusually free for Waterloo (similarly free drawings can be found in the Klassik Stiftung Weimar (inv. 915) and Städel Museum, Frankfurt (inv. 867). It appears to depict the outskirts of Arnhem with to the far left the drawbridge which connected these with the Rijnpoort. The same bridge, shown with the Rijnpoort to the left, can be found in a drawing by Waterloo in the Gelders Archief, Arnhem (C.P. van Eeghen, ‘Simon de Vlieger as a Drafstman, III: His chalk landscapes and their connections with works by Anthonie Waterloo and others’, Master Drawings, LIII, 2015, no. 3, fig. 26) and another, showing the bridge and the Rijnpoort from close by, is in the Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin (KdZ 14438). The houses shown in the centre of the landscape could be situated along the Rhine, near the harbour of Arnhem, and the church could be that of Huissen.
We are grateful to Laurens Schoemaker of the Rijksbureau voor Kunst-historische Documentatie for his assistance in preparing this catalogue entry.
The quickly sketched landscape on the verso, surely made on the spot, is unusually free for Waterloo (similarly free drawings can be found in the Klassik Stiftung Weimar (inv. 915) and Städel Museum, Frankfurt (inv. 867). It appears to depict the outskirts of Arnhem with to the far left the drawbridge which connected these with the Rijnpoort. The same bridge, shown with the Rijnpoort to the left, can be found in a drawing by Waterloo in the Gelders Archief, Arnhem (C.P. van Eeghen, ‘Simon de Vlieger as a Drafstman, III: His chalk landscapes and their connections with works by Anthonie Waterloo and others’, Master Drawings, LIII, 2015, no. 3, fig. 26) and another, showing the bridge and the Rijnpoort from close by, is in the Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin (KdZ 14438). The houses shown in the centre of the landscape could be situated along the Rhine, near the harbour of Arnhem, and the church could be that of Huissen.
We are grateful to Laurens Schoemaker of the Rijksbureau voor Kunst-historische Documentatie for his assistance in preparing this catalogue entry.