View of Two Watermills

Watermark: Lower part of an Arms of Amsterdam

Minor damage to the upper left corner; a red stain near centre right edge, now covered with white bodycolour

...; collection Jacob de Vos Jbzn (1803-78), Amsterdam (L. 1450); his widow, Abrahamina Henrietta de Vos-Wurfbain (1808-83), Amsterdam; sale, Jacob de Vos Jbzn, Amsterdam (C.F. Roos et al.), 22 May 1883 sqq., no. 464, as Jacob van Ruisdael, fl. 130, to the Vereniging Rembrandt;¹¹Copy RKD. from whom acquired, with 53 other drawings, by the museum (L. 2228), 1887²²For security reasons, the drawing was transferred from the Ministerie van Binnenlandse Zaken to the museum in 1887.

ObjectNumber: RP-T-1887-A-1391

Credit line: Purchased with the support of the Vereniging Rembrandt

The structure at the right resembles the Noordmolen, Azelo, a mill of early fourteenth-century origins in Ambt Delden, in the province of Overijssel, which is still in use as an oil mill.³³H. Hagens and B. Olde Meierink (eds.), Twente te pronk. Drie eeuwen verbeeld in prenten, tekeningen en aquarellen, 1600-1900, exh. cat. Enschede (Rijksmuseum Twenthe) 1986, p. 78, under no. 43. For the current situation and the recent restoration history (in 1976-78, 1989, 2006 and 2015), see https://www.noordmolen-twickel.nl/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/De-Noordmolen-in-vele-facetten.pdf. Situated opposite it until circa 1825 or 1831 was a gristmill. Although the identification remains only conjectural, there are compelling similarities with the Noordmolen, and this drawing is today considered to be the most accurate record of the historical appearance of the site.

The old attribution to Ruisdael or to his pupil Meindert Hobbema (1638-1709) cannot be sustained, though the subject-matter and style of the drawing suggest that it was executed by a follower of Ruisdael.

Ingrid Oud, 2000/Jane Shoaf Turner, 2019

H. Hagens, Molens, mulders, meesters. Negen eeuwen watermolens in de Gelderse Achterhoek, Salland en Twente, s.l.e.a. [Hengelo 1979], pp. 85-86 (as Jacob van Ruisdael); H. Hagens and B. Olde Meierink (eds.), Twente te pronk. Drie eeuwen verbeeld in prenten, tekeningen en aquarellen, 1600-1900, exh. cat. Enschede (Rijksmuseum Twenthe) 1986, no. 43 (as attributed to Jacob van Ruisdael); www.waterradmolens.nl/Overijssel/Noordmolen.html (as Jacob van Ruisdael or Meindert Hobbema)

I. Oud, 2000/J. Shoaf Turner, 2019, 'school of Jacob Isaacksz van Ruisdael, View of Two Watermills, c. 1650 - c. 1700', in J. Turner (ed.), Dutch Drawings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.59773