The ruins at the Steenschuur, Leiden, after the gunpowder disaster of 12 January 1807

The destruction shown in this sheet was caused by the explosion of a ship, loaded with almost 18 tons of gun powder, on 12 January 1807. A large number of houses were destroyed and 151 people were killed. King Louis visited the site right after the disaster and made available the enormous sum of 30,000 guilders (from his own fortune) to rebuild the area. The so-called 'small ruin', seen here at right, gave way for a park, and at the site of the 'large ruin' seen at left, the Kamerling Onnes Laboratory (now the Law faculty of Leiden University), was built. There seems to have been a strong market for works of art depicting the disaster; Numan made replicas of his two drawings of the site, see Gemeentearchief Leiden (inv. PV46167 and PV46182) and Rijksmuseum (inv. RP-T-00-3822 and RP-T-00-3823), and to reach an even greater audience the present composition was also engraved by Reinier Vinkeles.