The support is an oak panel consisting of three horizontally grained planks. The left side is fully bevelled, and the right side is bevelled slightly. Dendrochronology has shown that the youngest heartwood ring was formed in 1625. The panel could have been ready for use by 1636, but a date in or after 1642 is more likely. The paint layers were applied over a thin ground layer that is white or transparent. The brushwork in the clouds is vigorous and, in some areas, slightly impasted. The paint of the buildings and the foliage has been applied thickly and opaquely with impasted brushmarks, especially in the tiles of the roofs, where as other areas, notably in the water and the sky, were painted in a smooth and transparent manner.

Fair. There are many discoloured retouchings, and there is blistering in the paint of the tree on the left. The level of the panel joins is slightly uneven. The varnish is thick, unevenly applied and discoloured, and there are remnants of older coatings in the lower parts of the paint layer.

…; with an art dealer, Paris;¹¹Bredius 1894b, p. 57.…; donated to the museum by Dr Abraham Bredius (1855-1946), The Hague, 1893²²RANH, ARS, IS, inv. 173, no. 2 (3 January 1893); RANH, ARS, IS, inv. 173, no. 5 (7 January 1893); RANH, ARS, Kop, inv. 290, pp. 45-46, no. 928 (16 January 1893).

Object number: SK-A-1594

Credit line: Gift of A. Bredius, The Hague

Van der Veen is regarded as a follower of Jan van Goyen, but that applies mainly to his early dune landscapes. Parts of the present work are fairly impasted, and as Bredius had already observed it is thus more reminiscent of Meindert Hobbema.³³Bredius 1894b, p. 57. Typical features of Van der Veen’s city views are the rather naive rendering of the architecture and the clumsy figures.⁴⁴Cf. the Ice Scene signed in the same way as the Rijksmuseum painting, present whereabouts unknown; photo RKD. The artist rarely dated his works, and the current location of his only securely dated painting of 1648 is unknown.⁵⁵Beck IV, 1991, p. 412, no. 1182. However, given the affinity with the work of fellow-townsmen like Jacob van Ruisdael and Meindert Hobbema, it can be assumed that the scene in the Rijksmuseum was painted after 1650, making it one of Van der Veen’s late works.

The building does not appear to offer any clues for a more precise dating. The main subject is the Eendjespoort, a gateway in the south of Haarlem at the junction of the Kampersingel and the river Spaarne. Looming over the brownish red roofs are the south transept, choir and spire of the St Bavokerk. To the right of it is the Klokhuis (BellHouse), and in the distance to the right of that the spire of the Bakenesserkerk.⁶⁶Written communication, F. Tames, Noord-Hollands Archief, 11 September 2003. The Eendjespoort, also known as the Leidse Waterpoort, dated from the 16th century and was demolished in 1866.⁷⁷For the topography see Haarlem 1977, p. 70. Van der Veen’s painting is probably not topographically accurate. In Pieter Wils’s map of Haarlem of 1646, and in later depictions, the gate is roofed. The architecture of the tall, narrow building to the right of it, a former watchtower, has been simplified.⁸⁸See the print after a drawing by the 18th-century artist Hendrik Keun, reproduced in Gonnet 1913, unpag., and A.G. Rente Linsen’s view of the Eendjespoort in Haarlem, Teylers Museum; Haarlem 1977, p. 70, no. 31c, fig. 22. Both show the building from the same vantage point.

Gerdien Wuestman, 2007

See Bibliography and Rijksmuseum painting catalogues
See Key to abbreviations and Acknowledgements

This entry was published in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, I: Artists Born between 1570 and 1600, coll. cat. Amsterdam 2007, no. 284.

Bredius 1894b; Bredius 1895b; Beck IV, 1991, p. 412, no. 1179

1897, p. 170, no. 1471a; 1903, p. 272, no. 2431; 1976, p. 555, no. A 1594; 2007, no. 284

G. Wuestman, 2007, 'Balthasar van der Veen, View of Haarlem from across the Spaarne, near the Eendjespoort, c. 1650 - c. 1659', in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/20026815