Haerlempjes refer to a specific genre of landscape painting that includes a view of Haarlem (formerly spelled Haerlem). It is used most often to refer to Jacob van Ruisdael's panoramic views of the city, but the term is derived from mentions in Haarlem archives as a type of painting included in household inventories. [1] The diminutive suffix "pje" would denote a small, cabinet-sized painting, but even the largest landscapes may be referred to as Haerlempjes today.
In his biography of Albert van Ouwater, Karel van Mander claimed that It is said from the mouths of the oldest painters, that landscape painting originated in Haarlem. [2] Van Mander was writing in 1604 for his Haarlem-sponsored Schilder-boeck, and his was one of many initiatives to rebuild the city and glorify its history. After his book was published, the city attracted several landscape painters in the 1620s, including Esaias van de Velde, Jan van Goyen and the Ruisdael brothers Salomon and Isaack.
Haarlem is a bustling city today that makes up part of the Randstad area of the Netherlands, so it helps when looking at these old paintings to orient oneself according to old maps.
Hobbyists love to look at older Haarlem cityscapes and pick out features such as steeples and boats. [3] For paintings traditionally called Haerlempjes, such features have been proven to be based more on historical accuracy rather than artist fantasy. [4] Though fantasy cityscapes were popular in the Netherlands throughout the 17th-century, these seem to be more often pastiches of southern harbours or italianate landscapes, rather than places that artists had conceivably visited. Today, for example, it is assumed that Jacob van Ruisdael worked in Bentheim because he painted many accurate views of the castle there. However, he often painted such castle views situated in a fantasy landscape on a mountain top, though the castle is in fact situated in low rolling countryside. In Haarlem, though he painted many dunescapes of the Kennemerland area, he never turned those dunes into mountains.
Most travellers visiting Haarlem in the middle of the 17th-century were on their way from The Hague to Amsterdam and saw the city from the Spaarne river, as most intercity travel was by trekschuit or sailing ship. Thus many early cityscapes are taken from the point of view of the river traveller.
The popularity of such river-based cityscapes were offset by another type of landscape with dunes or windmills that included a Haarlem cityscape on the horizon.
It wasn't until the 1650s that the production of the panoramic views began that were later copied by others. Perhaps the most famous is Ruisdael's view of Haarlem bleaching fields from the north-east, which is why many assumed that all Haerlempjes were painted from the same perspective, not realizing that the entire area is relatively flat and so they were painted from an imaginary point somewhere up in the air, and not from a mountaintop. There is a high dune in Bloemendaal called Het Kopje and there used to be a ridge of high dunes in Heemstede that were later slowly removed by sand-barges for use in building foundations for the mansions in the Amsterdam expansion known today as the Canals of Amsterdam. On older maps, the Sant-vaert is clearly marked where such barges once travelled. That canal still exists today and forms the modern border between Haarlem and Heemstede, and is called the Crayenestervaart.
In 1997 Pieter Biesboer wrote a short article explaining the viewpoints of some of these paintings based on old maps, most notably the Bleaching Fields to the North-Northeast of Haarlem in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. [4] This painting, despite its title, does not show Haarlem from the north at all, but shows Haarlem from the south, from an imaginary point somewhere above the old dune ridge near the street known as the Blekersvaart in Heemstede, probably close to the Dorstige Kuil, an inn favored by artists in the 17th century. The church in the painting clearly shows the curved side of the choir on the right rather than the left. [4] Biesboer noticed also that this painting displays many more trees, which is logical because the park Haarlemmerhout is situated there. [4]
In the same article a few other paintings are mentioned, including a Ruisdael view of Haarlem bleaching fields in the collection of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, which shows the ruins of Huis ter Kleef, also shown from the same perspective in a painting in the musée Jacquemart-André. [4] He was able to trace the bleachery Clercq and Beeck situated on the Kleverlaan shown in the right foreground in this painting to one owned by Lucas de Clercq, whose portrait was painted by Frans Hals. [4] This scene of Clercq and Beeck was painted again by Ruisdael with some more detail in the version located in the Mauritshuis. [4]
The painting from the Mauritshuis is the same view of Beeck and Clercq as the painting in the Rijksmuseum, while the one in the Gemäldegalerie of the same general view seems between those and the one in Montreal:
The painting from the Philadelphia Museum is the same view from Heemstede as the painting in the Timken Museum of Art:
Though not all of these panoramic paintings show bleachfields, these bleacheries were often also mentioned on maps, and served as easy points of orientation for those looking down on the landscape from high dunes. Possibly some of these paintings were commissioned by the bleacheries themselves for use in Haarlem shops where goods were sold and exchanged. Lucas de Clercq lived in Haarlem during the winter and on his Clercq and Beeck estate in the summer months. Even Rembrandt made a sketch of bleaching fields, though these were only identified as such a few centuries after the fact.
The Haerlempjes seemed to become popular not only in Haarlem, but were sold everywhere, and even various books were produced containing prints of such views of Haarlem by the Roghman family and others.
Frans Hals the Elder was a Dutch Golden Age painter, chiefly of individual and group portraits and of genre works, who lived and worked in Haarlem.
Salomon van Ruysdael was a Dutch Golden Age landscape painter. He was the uncle of Jacob van Ruisdael.
Meindert Hobbema was a Dutch Golden Age painter of landscapes, specializing in views of woodland, although his most famous painting, The Avenue at Middelharnis, shows a different type of scene.
Jacob Isaackszoon van Ruisdael was a Dutch painter, draughtsman, and etcher. He is generally considered the pre-eminent landscape painter of the Dutch Golden Age, a period of great wealth and cultural achievement when Dutch painting became highly popular.
Karel van Mander (I) or Carel van Mander I was a Flemish painter, poet, art historian and art theoretician, who established himself in the Dutch Republic in the latter part of his life. He is mainly remembered as a biographer of Early Netherlandish painters and Northern Renaissance artists in his Schilder-boeck. As an artist and art theoretician he played a significant role in the spread and development of Northern Mannerism in the Dutch Republic.
The Frans Hals Museum is a museum located in Haarlem, the Netherlands.
Geertgen tot Sint Jans, also known as Geertgen van Haarlem, Gerrit van Haarlem, Gerrit Gerritsz, Gheertgen, Geerrit, Gheerrit, or any other diminutive form of Gerald, was an Early Netherlandish painter from the northern Low Countries in the Holy Roman Empire. No contemporary documentation of his life has been traced, and the earliest published account of his life and work is from 1604, in Karel van Mander's Schilder-boeck.
Jan Mostaert was a Dutch Renaissance painter who is known mainly for his religious subjects and portraits. One of his most famous creations was the Landscape with an Episode from the Conquest of America.
Judith Jans Leyster was a Dutch Golden Age painter. She painted genre works, portraits and still lifes. Although her work was highly regarded by her contemporaries, Leyster and her work became almost forgotten after her death. Her entire oeuvre was attributed to Frans Hals or to her husband, Jan Miense Molenaer, until 1893. It wasn't until the late 19th century that she was recognized for her artistic abilities.
Albert van Ouwater was one of the earliest artists of Early Netherlandish painting working in the Northern Netherlands, as opposed to Flanders in the South of the region.
Floris van Dyck, also called Floris van Dijck or Floris Claesz. van Dyck was a Dutch Golden Age still life painter.
Jan Hendrik Weissenbruch, also known as Hendrik Johannes Weissenbruch was a Dutch painter of the Hague School. He is noted especially for his watercolours.
Pieter Cornelisz van Rijck, was a Dutch Golden Age painter.
Joseph Coymans, was a Dutch businessman in Haarlem, known best today for his portrait painted by Frans Hals, and its pendant, Portrait of Dorothea Berck. The former resides at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, the latter at the Baltimore Museum of Art. A portrait of the couple's son Willem is held by the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
Lucas de Clercq, was a Dutch cloth merchant known today for his and his wife's pendant marriage portraits painted by Frans Hals.
View of Haarlem with Bleaching Fields is an oil on canvas painting by Dutch painter Jacob van Ruisdael. It is an example of Dutch Golden Age painting and is now in the collection of the Kunsthaus Zürich.
View of Bentheim Castle is an oil on canvas painting of Burg Bentheim by the Dutch landscape painter Jacob van Ruisdael. It is an example of Dutch Golden Age painting and is now in the collection of the Rijksmuseum.
Dune Landscape near Haarlem, also known as The Bush and The Thicket near Haarlem, is an oil on canvas painting by the Dutch Golden Age painter Jacob van Ruisdael. It is in the collection of the Louvre in Paris.
View of Haarlem from the Northwest, with the Bleaching Fields in the Foreground is an oil on canvas painting by the Dutch landscape painter Jacob van Ruisdael. It is an example of Dutch Golden Age painting and is now in the collection of the Rijksmuseum.
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