1637-1712 Dutch Jan Van Der Heyden Gallery Van der Heyden grew up in Gorcum, but the family moved to Amsterdam around 1650. They lived on Dam Square. As a young guy he witnessed the fire in the old townhall which made a deep impression on him. He later would describe or draw 80 fires in almost any neighborhood of Amsterdam. When he married in 1661 the family was living on Herengracht, the most fashionable canal in Amsterdam. In 1668 Cosimo II de' Medici bought one of his paintings, a view of the townhall with a manipulated perspective. Van der Heyden often painted country estates, like Goudestein, owned by Joan Huydecoper II. He was not good in drawing figures and used for his paintings a metal plate for bricks, a sponge or moss for the leaves. Johannes Lingelbach, Adriaen van de Velde und Eglon van der Neer assisted him drawing the figures. Jan van der Heyden also introduced the lamp post and in 1672 impoved the design of the fire engine. He died in wealth as the superintendent of the lighting and director of the (voluntary) firemen's guild at Amsterdam. Van der Heyden was a contemporary of the landscape painters Hobbema and Jacob van Ruisdael, with the advantage, which they lacked, of a certain professional versatility; for, whilst they painted admirable pictures and starved, he varied the practice of art with the study of mechanics. Until 1672 he painted in partnership with Adriaen van de Velde. After Adrian's death, and probably because of the loss which that event entailed upon him, he accepted the offices to which allusion has just been made. At no period of artistic activity had the system of division of labour been more fully or more constantly applied to art than it was in Holland towards the close of the 17th century. Van der Heyden, who was perfect as an architectural draughtsman insofar as he painted the outside of buildings and thoroughly mastered linear perspective, seldom turned his hand to the delineation of anything but brick houses and churches in streets and squares, or rows along canals, or "moated granges," common in his native country. He was a travelled man, had seen The Hague, Ghent and Brussels, and had ascended the Rhine past Xanten to Cologne, where he copied over and over again the tower and crane of the great cathedral. But he cared nothing for hill or vale, or stream or wood. He could reproduce the rows of bricks in a square of Dutch houses sparkling in the sun, or stunted trees and lines of dwellings varied by steeples, all in light or thrown into passing shadow by moving cloud. He had the art of painting microscopically without loss of breadth or keeping. But he could draw neither man nor beast, nor ships nor carts; and this was his disadvantage. His good genius under these circumstances was Adrian van der Velde, who enlivened his compositions with spirited figures; and the joint labour of both is a delicate, minute, transparent work, radiant with glow and atmosphere.  Related Paintings of Jan van der Heyden :. | Forest landscape | View of the Westerkerk,Amsterdam | The Dam with the New Town Hall | Old church landscape | Canal scenery |
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Jacob van der Does
(4 March 1623, Amsterdam - buried 17 November 1673, Sloten) was a Dutch Golden Age landscape painter. Van der Does was the son of the secretary of the Amsterdam city council. He was more attracted to the arts than to note-taking, and went to study drawing with Claes Corneliszoon Moeyaert. He left at 21 to go to France, and from there on foot to Italy. In Rome he joined the Bentvueghels and was dubbed Tamboer, which means drummerboy, since he was somewhat short and had been meant for the military life. He studied with Pieter van Laer (Bamboots). When he eventually returned North, he settled in The Hague where he married Margaretha Boortens and got 4 sons and a daughter. His wife died in 1661. Houbraken liked his natural style of painting, and especially his way of painting sheep was very admirable.His wife's sister was Maria Boortens, and they both were good artists themselves. All three of them made drawings for the album of the wealthy Hague diplomat Cornelis de Glarges in 1659. Through Maria Boortens, Jacob van der Does was connected to Jacob van Campen and Adriaen van Nieulandt the younger. He became involved in the Guild of St. Luke in The Hague. He was one of the founders of the Confrerie Pictura in 1656. His pupils were Theodor Bernoille, Marcus de Bye, Gamaliel Day, Alexander Havelaer, Anthony Schinckels, and his sons Jacob II and Simon van der Does.