Lot 13: ISAAK OUWATER AMSTERDAM 1750 - 1793

AMSTERDAM, A VIEW ON THE KEIZERSGRACHT FROM THE WESTERMARKT, WITH THE WESTERHAL ON THE RIGHT, ELEGANT FIGURES CONVERSING IN THE FOREGROUND, WITH OTHER FIGURES AND A HORSE-DRAWN CARRIAGE CROSSING A BRIDGE BEYOND

measurements note
61.9 by 77.4 cm.; 24 3/8 by 30 1/2 in.

signed and dated lower right: I. Ouwater 1787
and bears signature on the building lower right: Van der Heyden

oil on canvas, in an English carved and gilt wood frame

PROVENANCE

With Edward Speelman, London;
From whom acquired by the late father of the present owners in 1964.

NOTE

This view of the Keizersgracht in Amsterdam is taken from the Westermarkt. The building in the right foreground is the so-called 'Vleeshal' or Westerhal, which was a civic guard house built in 1619 and demolished in 1857. The houses on the other side of the canal were also demolished, at the end of the 19th century, to give way to the Raadhuisstraat.

The first fully visible house on the left of the composition (with a maidservant on the stairs) later became known as Keizersgracht 187. When Ouwater painted this view (during the 1780s) it was lived in by the bookmerchant, lottery-owner and art collector Jan de Groot (1733-1801), who had lived there since 1777 and owned it since 1781. The sale of his estate in 1804 included a large number of topographical views by contemporary artists, including 15 paintings by Ouwater (sold in 13 lots); one of these paintings (part of a pair) depicted the same view as the present scene, however is listed as of lesser dimensions ('hoog 21 duim breed 30 duim' - a duim being an inch).

A view by Ouwater (signed and dated 1779) from the other side of the river, looking towards the Westerhal and the Westermarkt, with the Westerkerk in the background, was sold London, Sotheby's, 3 December 1997, lot 77, for £160,000.

We are grateful to Drs. Charles Dumas and Drs. Richard Harmanni for endorsing the attribution to Isaac Ouwater, on the basis of a photograph, and for their kind assistance with the preparation of this catalogue entry (written communications 17 & 19 January 2006).