- Museum number
- 1862,0712.194
- Description
-
View of Delfshaven, seen from the East; in foreground, a tongue of land, protected by an embankment, with boats moored by it, beyond, the entrance to a canal, approached from the river Maas by a small Dutch vessel, two ships anchored at the end of another tongue of land, with a line of houses to right, other shipping in the river at left, and in the distance, the town of Schiedam. 1634
Pen and black ink, with watercolour
- Production date
- 1634
- Dimensions
-
Height: 98 millimetres
-
Width: 270 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- This view was made by Hollar while touring the Netherlands and northern Germany in 1634, a trip possibly made at the instigation of Abraham Hogenberg and/or Matthaeus Merian. Three drawings of Delfshaven survive from this visit, all of them relating to the same composition, of which this is the most finished; another, now in the Hollar sketch-book at the John Rylands Library (Ms 883, fol. 7r; Volrábová I.H/19), clearly served as the model for the central part of this sheet, establishing a focal point which Hollar here expanded laterally. A year after the visit, a modified variant of the central portion of the composition was etched by Hollar as part of his series titled 'Amoenissimae aliquot Locorum ... Effigies' (no. 21; Pennington 715; New Hollstein 133). As it is reversed, the third of the Delfshaven drawings, now in Brunswick (Volrábová I.H/20), was evidently made with this print in mind.
Lit.: A. Griffiths and G. Kesnerová, 'Wenceslaus Hollar: Prints and Drawings from the collections of the National Gallery, Prague, and the British Museum', London, 1983, no. 24; S. Turner, 'Hollar in Holland: Drawings from the artist's visit to the Dutch Republic in 1634', in Master Drawings 48 (2010), pp.74-75, 78, fig. 2
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
1983, BM, 'Wencelaus Hollar', no. 24
1983 Jun-Aug, Prague, National Gallery, 'Wenceslaus Hollar', no. 15
2019-2020 22 Nov-23 Feb, Prague, Narodni Galerie, Wenceslaus Hollar
- Acquisition date
- 1862
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1862,0712.194
