View of the market place, Bois-le-Duc

Anthonie Beerstraten

Summary

A reproduction produced by the Vasari Society of a drawing by Anthonie Beerstraten. The drawing shows a row of buildings on the edge of an empty market place. The closest of the buildings is a large and grand building with a tower. It has tall windows, a clock face and several statues on its façade. In front of this building is a row of cannons. The line of buildings - mostly raised up from the ground on stilts, and several with stepped gables - extends into the distance and curves around the back of the market place. Text from the accompanying booklet produced by the Vasari Society: "13. ANTHONIE BEERSTRATEN (Worked about the middle of the seventeenth century) VIEW OF THE MARKET PLACE, BOIS-LE-DUC Collection of Henry Oppenheimer, Esq. Black chalk. 34 x 44.8 cm. (13 3/8 x 17 9/16 in.). A drawing of considerable topographical interest. The signature (or contemporary inscription) seems to point to Anthonie Beerstraten, about whom nothing is known except from the signatures on his rare pictures and drawings (between 1664-76). A drawing of the Ruins of the Old Townhall, Amsterdam (burnt down in 1652), in the Ryksmuseum, is reproduced by E. W. Moes (Original Drawings in Amsterdam, 1904, I. 5), as by Anthonie Beerstraten. A picture of the same subject in the Ryksmuseum, and studies for the same in the Fodor Museum, Amsterdam, and in the Teyler Museum, Haarlem, are attributed to Jan Abrahamsz Beerstraten (1622-1666). The style of the present drawing is very near the Teyler example. A third master of the name, Joannes Beerstraten, about whom nothing is known outside his paintings and drawings (winter landscapes and southern ports, dated between 1658-68), adds further confusion to a group of artists whose work is by no means easy to distinguish. A. M. H."