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View of the Westerkerk, Amsterdam
The Westerkerk, Amsterdam
View of the Westerkerk, Amsterdam
Jan van der Heyden (Dutch, 1637–1712)
about 1667-70
Medium/Technique
Oil on panel
Dimensions
53.3 x 64.1 cm (21 x 25 1/4 in.)
Credit Line
Promised gift of Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo, in support of the Center for Netherlandish Art
Accession NumberL-R 70.2018
OUT ON LOAN
CollectionsEurope
ClassificationsPaintings
This sun-dappled scene captures a quiet moment on Amsterdam’s Keizersgracht, or “Emperor’s Canal,” near the enormous Westerkerk. The painting is an essay in color, with its contrast between bright blue sky and warm red brick. But there’s much life hiding in the picture, too. Look for the woman fishing something out of the canal and for the butcher shop that opens to the street. Today, the Westerkerk is best known as Rembrandt’s final resting place—he was buried there in a pauper’s grave in 1669.
ProvenanceColonel de Beringhen, The Hague. Prince Amédée of Savoy, Turin [see note 1]. Comte de Cherisey, Paris; June 16, 1909, Comte de Cherisey sale, Hotel Drouot, Paris, lot 1, sold for 60,000 fr. to Frederic Muller and Co., Amsterdam [see note 2]. By 1912, Marcus Kappel (b. 1839 - d. 1920), Berlin [see note 3]; by inheritance to his son-in-law, Gerhart Noah (b. 1898 - d. about 1945), Berlin; by inheritance to his wife's cousins, Ernst Rathenau (b. 1897 - d. 1986), Berlin and his sister Ellen Rathenau-Ettlinger (b. 1902 - d. 1994), Oxford; the painting was kept in a bank vault in Berlin and in 1939 its ownership entrusted to Franz Joseph Sedlmayr, Munich [see note 4]; 1940, confiscated by the Dienststelle Mühlmann for Adolf Hitler and acquired for the Führermuseum, Linz (Führerbau no. 1435; photo album IV/37) [see note 5]; taken to Alt Aussee (no. 2250) [see note 6]; July 9, 1945, recovered by Allied forces and taken to the Munich Central Collecting Point (MCCP no. 3500) [see note 7]; March 30, 1946, misidentified as coming from the Katz collection, released by the MCCP to Amsterdam, and given to the custody of the Stichting Nederlands Kunstbezit (inv. no. 603) [see note 8]; 1947, ownership restored by the Dutch government to Ernst G. Rathenau, New York and Ellen Rathenau-Ettlinger, Oxford [see note 9]. 2000, sold by Otto Naumann, Ltd., New York, to Eijk and Rose-Marie van Otterloo, Marblehead, MA.
NOTES:
[1] The early provenance is according to Wilhelm von Bode, Die Gemäldesammlung Marcus Kappel in Berlin (Berlin, 1914), cat. 10. The name Amédée de Savoie is written on the back of the painting.
[2] Sold as by Berckheyde and Adriaen van de Velde. The buyer information is according to handwritten notes in the sales catalogue.
[3] According to Cornelis Gerardus ‘t Hooft, Amsterdamsche stadsgezichten van Jan van der Heyden (Amsterdam, 1912), p. 21.
[4] A letter from Richard F. Howard to the Monuments of Fine Arts and Archives Section, Office of the Military Government of the US (November 23, 1946), notes this painting – along with a painting by Jacob van Ruisdael – was entrusted as a "pawn" to F. J. Sedlmayr of Munich, a Christian attorney who had been married to Rathenau's cousin, Dorothea. National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, MD, RG 260, Microfilm Publication M1946, roll 49, Records Concerning the Munich Central Collecting Point, 1945-1951, Restitution Claim Records, compiled 1945-1951.
[5] From the Haupttreuhandstelle Ost (Central Trust Office-East) in Berlin, Kajetan Mühlmann was responsible for inventorying art taken from Poland. He worked closely with Arthur Seyss-Inquart, who held the titles of Reich Govenor of Vienna, Administrative Chief for South Poland, and from May 1940, Reich Commissioner for the Netherlands. From the Netherlands, Mühlmann oversaw the confiscation of art assets from a central post, the Dienstelle (Special Office) Mühlmann. In a letter to the Munich Central Collecting Point, dated July 17, 1947, Sedlmayr states that Mühlmann confiscated the Jan van der Heyden at the Deutsche Bank in Berlin. Eduard Plietzsch, a German art historian working with Mühlmann, mentions this painting in a letter to Arthur Seyss-Inquart stating that "a very small amount" was paid for the painting to the "Aryan joint-owner". National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, MD, RG 260, Records Concerning the Munich Central Collecting Point, 1945-1951: Restitution Claim Records, compiled 1945-1951 (Microfilm Publication M1946, roll 49) and Mühlmann, Kajetan: Detailed Interrogation Report (DIR) No. 1 (Microfilm Publication M1946, roll 145).
[6] Many works of art stored elsewhere by the Nazis were moved to the abandoned salt mines of Alt Aussee in Austria, to be kept safe from wartime bombing.
[7] Allied troops established collecting points where recovered art could be identified for restitution to its rightful owners. This painting came to the Munich Central Collecting Point in 1945 from Alt Aussee (number 2250), and was numbered 3500.
[8] After World War II, the Stichting Nederlandsch Kunstbezit (SNK, Foundation for Netherlandish Art Property) was assigned the task of recuperating looted artworks from abroad and returning them to their rightful owners in the Netherlands. The inventory number is given in Helga Wagner, Jan van der Heyden (Amsterdam, 1971), cat. no. 9.
[9] The painting was not physically returned until between 1948 and 1951. It was included in the exhibition "Paintings Looted from Holland: Returned through the efforts of the United States Armed Forces," December 7, 1946-January 1, 1948, cat. no. 17. From 1951 until 1993, it was on loan from Ernst Rathenau and Ellen Rathenau-Ettlinger to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (NR.L.51.35.1).
NOTES:
[1] The early provenance is according to Wilhelm von Bode, Die Gemäldesammlung Marcus Kappel in Berlin (Berlin, 1914), cat. 10. The name Amédée de Savoie is written on the back of the painting.
[2] Sold as by Berckheyde and Adriaen van de Velde. The buyer information is according to handwritten notes in the sales catalogue.
[3] According to Cornelis Gerardus ‘t Hooft, Amsterdamsche stadsgezichten van Jan van der Heyden (Amsterdam, 1912), p. 21.
[4] A letter from Richard F. Howard to the Monuments of Fine Arts and Archives Section, Office of the Military Government of the US (November 23, 1946), notes this painting – along with a painting by Jacob van Ruisdael – was entrusted as a "pawn" to F. J. Sedlmayr of Munich, a Christian attorney who had been married to Rathenau's cousin, Dorothea. National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, MD, RG 260, Microfilm Publication M1946, roll 49, Records Concerning the Munich Central Collecting Point, 1945-1951, Restitution Claim Records, compiled 1945-1951.
[5] From the Haupttreuhandstelle Ost (Central Trust Office-East) in Berlin, Kajetan Mühlmann was responsible for inventorying art taken from Poland. He worked closely with Arthur Seyss-Inquart, who held the titles of Reich Govenor of Vienna, Administrative Chief for South Poland, and from May 1940, Reich Commissioner for the Netherlands. From the Netherlands, Mühlmann oversaw the confiscation of art assets from a central post, the Dienstelle (Special Office) Mühlmann. In a letter to the Munich Central Collecting Point, dated July 17, 1947, Sedlmayr states that Mühlmann confiscated the Jan van der Heyden at the Deutsche Bank in Berlin. Eduard Plietzsch, a German art historian working with Mühlmann, mentions this painting in a letter to Arthur Seyss-Inquart stating that "a very small amount" was paid for the painting to the "Aryan joint-owner". National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, MD, RG 260, Records Concerning the Munich Central Collecting Point, 1945-1951: Restitution Claim Records, compiled 1945-1951 (Microfilm Publication M1946, roll 49) and Mühlmann, Kajetan: Detailed Interrogation Report (DIR) No. 1 (Microfilm Publication M1946, roll 145).
[6] Many works of art stored elsewhere by the Nazis were moved to the abandoned salt mines of Alt Aussee in Austria, to be kept safe from wartime bombing.
[7] Allied troops established collecting points where recovered art could be identified for restitution to its rightful owners. This painting came to the Munich Central Collecting Point in 1945 from Alt Aussee (number 2250), and was numbered 3500.
[8] After World War II, the Stichting Nederlandsch Kunstbezit (SNK, Foundation for Netherlandish Art Property) was assigned the task of recuperating looted artworks from abroad and returning them to their rightful owners in the Netherlands. The inventory number is given in Helga Wagner, Jan van der Heyden (Amsterdam, 1971), cat. no. 9.
[9] The painting was not physically returned until between 1948 and 1951. It was included in the exhibition "Paintings Looted from Holland: Returned through the efforts of the United States Armed Forces," December 7, 1946-January 1, 1948, cat. no. 17. From 1951 until 1993, it was on loan from Ernst Rathenau and Ellen Rathenau-Ettlinger to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (NR.L.51.35.1).