Watermark: Shield with a fleur-de-lis, surmounted by a crown, above the numeral 4 and the letters WR (for Wendelin Riehel); close to Piccard XIII, nos. 1297-1311 (1596-1606)

Vertical crease in the center, thin spots along the edges, various restored areas

…; from D. Dirksen, fl. 70, to the museum (L. 2228), April 1890

Object number: RP-T-1890-A-2343

In June and July of 1650 Saenredam made several drawings of the exterior and interior of the Nieuwe Kerk in Haarlem. This drawing and another one are currently in the Rijksmuseum (inv. no. RP-T-1902-A-4568), and over the next decade Saenredam recorded the church in at least four paintings.¹¹G. Schwartz et al., Pieter Saenredam. De schilder in zijn tijd, Maarssen 1989, pp. 219 (fig. 228), 221 (fig. 232), 224-25 (figs. 237-38); 263-64 (nos. 72, 74, 81 and 81A). It was the first and only time that he depicted an example of contemporary ecclesiastical architecture. The church was designed by his friend Jacob van Campen (1596-1657) and was completed in 1649. The austere, classicist architecture contrasts sharply with the exuberant Renaissance decoration of the tower designed by Lieven de Key (c. 1560-1627). The restraint reflected the wishes of the town council for the greatest possible frugality. The ground plan is in the form of a square enclosing a Greek cross, thus creating a space divided into nine squares of equal size. The central and horizontal axes, the arms of the cross, have wooden barrel vaults that meet in the central square, at the four corners of which stand square piers with Ionic capitals. The four outermost squares each have flat coffered ceilings. Van Campen’s original design envisaged eight Ionic columns supporting the vaults. At first they were simply scrapped on the grounds of economy, but that decision was later reversed and the four piers on the horizontal axis were built after all.²²J. Huisken (ed.), Jacob van Campen. Het klassieke ideaal in de Gouden Eeuw, Amsterdam 1995, pp. 184-87.

Oddly enough, Saenredam made two paintings, one in the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest (inv. no. 311), and the other in the Frans Halsmuseum, Haarlem (inv. no. os i-304), showing the church as it would have looked if the original design had been followed.³³G. Schwartz et al., Pieter Saenredam. De schilder in zijn tijd, Maarssen 1989, pp. 219 (fig. 228), 221 (fig. 232). In the drawings that he actually made on site, however, he invariably depicted the reality. The Amsterdam drawing is the most true to life in that it includes the pews that the artist rigorously excluded from his other drawings of the church.

The inscription at lower left must be taken to mean that Saenredam began the drawing on 16 June and completed it on 18 June. It does not appear to have served as the model for a painting.

Marijn Schapelhouman, 1998

C.H. Peters, De Nederlandsche stedenbouw, 2 vols., Leiden 1909-11, II (1911), p. 117 (fig. 254); M.D. Henkel, Le dessin hollandais des origines au XVIIe siècle, Paris 1931, pp. 62-63; P.T.A. Swillens, Pieter Janszoon Saenredam. Schilder van Haarlem (1597-1665), Amsterdam 1935, pp. 14, 19, no. 579 (fig. 102); Catalogus schilderijen en teekeningen Pieter Jansz. Saenredam (1597-1665), exh. cat. Rotterdam (Museum Boymans)/Amsterdam (Museum Fodor) 1937-38, no. 50a; I.Q. van Regteren Altena et al., Catalogue Raisonné of the Works by Pieter Jansz. Saenredam, Published on the Occasion of the Exhibition Pieter Jansz. Saenredam, 15 September – 3 December 1961, exh. cat. Utrecht (Centraal Museum) 1961, no. 78 (fig. 79); G. Schwartz et al., Pieter Saenredam. De schilder in zijn tijd, Maarssen 1989, pp. 222-23 (fig. 235), 264 (no. 78)

M. Schapelhouman, 1998, 'Pieter Jansz. Saenredam, View of the Nave of the Nieuwe Kerk, Haarlem, Looking West, Haarlem, 1650-06-18', in J. Turner (ed.), Dutch Drawings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200146233