watermark: none

…; donated by Jonkvrouwe Agnes Henriette Beels van Heemstede-van Loon (1829-1902), Amsterdam, with 273 other drawings, to the museum (L. 2228), 1898

Object number: RP-T-1898-A-3514

Credit line: Donated by Jonkvrouwe Agnes Henriette Beels van Heemstede-van Loon, Amsterdam

The present drawing and inv. no. RP-T-1898-A-3513, picturing the Amsterdam naval docks from different viewpoints, were both done on 26 July 1666. De Bray still lived in Haarlem at this time. While in Amsterdam, he was attracted to the man-made island of Kattenburg, north-east of central Amsterdam. Kattenburg was part of an initiative in 1650 to create facilities for the growing industry of seafaring, both commercial and military. The island, given to the navy, was dominated by ’s Lands Zeemagazijn (‘The National Sea Arsenal’), sketched from the north in inv. no. RP-T-1898-A-3513.

After sketching the admiralty’s dockyards, De Bray turned to the right to capture the present drawing’s subject. The artist must have been fascinated by the impressive sight of a docked ship. Behind a pile of planks, its large stern is visible, bearing the Arms of Amsterdam. In the background, two men carry a long piece of timber. The two ships in dry-dock to the left might be identical to those sketched in the right background in inv. no. RP-T-1898-A-3513, as was suggested by Giltaij.¹¹J. Giltaij, Jan de Bray (1626/1627-1697). Schilder en architect, Zwolle 2017, p. 299.

Immediately after finishing the sketch in graphite, pen and ink, De Bray dated the drawing with brown ink. He seems to have added the signature in graphite at a later moment, using a different type of graphite than that of the preliminary sketch. The reflective pigments of the signature clearly overlay the matte brown ink.

A third sketch of the docks by De Bray was part of the Atlas Wurfbain, but its present whereabouts are unknown.²²Sale, Atlas Wurfbain, Amsterdam (F. Muller), 20 November 1899 sqq., no. 186 (‘Gezicht in het dok waarin eenige afgetakelde oorlogschepen liggen. Met de pen en met spijkerinkt. Gemerkt en 1666 gedateerd. Een soortgelijke teekeing bevindt zich in het Prenten-Cabinet. 8 ½ = 15’), fl. 5 ½, to Gebr. Hamburger (copy RKD); see also J.W. von Moltke, ‘Jan de Bray’, Marburger Jahrbuch für Kunstwissenschaft 11/12 (1938-39), pp. 421-523, no. Z 184. J. Giltaij, Jan de Bray (1626/1627-1697). Schilder en architect, Zwolle 2017, p. 301 erroneously associated this provenance with inv. no. RP-T-1898-A-3513, even though it had entered the collection already in 1898 as a gift of jonkvrouwe Agnes Henriette Beels van Heemstede-van Loon.

Annemarie Stefes, 2019

J.W. von Moltke, ‘Jan de Bray’, Marburger Jahrbuch für Kunstwissenschaft 11/12 (1938-39), pp. 421-523, no. 186; J. Giltaij, Jan de Bray (1626/1627-1697). Schilder en architect, Zwolle 2017, pp. 46, 299-300, no. T72

A. Stefes, 2019, 'Jan de Bray, View of a Shipyard in Amsterdam, Amsterdam, 1666-07-26', in J. Turner (ed.), Dutch Drawings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200119030