(New) Amsterdam
Front cover (details):
Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669)
View of Amsterdam from the Northwest , c. 1640
Etching
4 ½ by 6⅛ inches (11.3 by 15.5 cm), cat. no. 1
Ewan Gibbs
From the Empire State Building '124', 2003
Graphite on graph paper
11¾ by 8⅜ inches (29.8 by 21.3 cm.) cat. no. 17
Almost four-hundred years ago, in 1624, on the southern tip of Manhattan, New Amsterdam was a designated provincial extension of the Dutch Republic. The story of the Dutch presence in America began in 1609 when Henry Hudson, in the interest of the Dutch East India Company (VOC), tried to find a shortcut to Asia, discovering the island of Manhattan instead. Hudson’s account of an abundance of furs prompted a Dutch trading post, named New Netherland, near Albany. By 1621, to venture into the Americas, the Dutch West India Company (WIC) was established; building forts and maintaining troops, defying other European powers in their quest for expansion. After acquiring Manhattan Island from the Lenape with goods worth the insignificant sum of sixty guilders, or about $24, the colony’s capital and seat of government, New Amsterdam was founded.
For forty years, the Dutch traded mostly beaver and otter skins presuming Dutch sovereignty under the auspices of the WIC’s monopoly, joined by settlers from England, Germany, France, and Scandinavia. Enslaved Africans, owned by the WIC, made up a significant part of the town’s population.1 They helped build New Amsterdam’s fort and farms, contributing to the colony’s infrastructure, and protecting the early settlements from Native American attacks. The WIC’s expanding interest in the colonization of South America made an exchange of New Amsterdam for Surinam an attractive proposition. In 1664, New Amsterdam was reincorporated under English law and renamed New York. As the original seventeenth century architecture has completely vanished, only street names remind us of the past Dutch presence: Broadway = brede weg; Brooklyn = Breukelen; and my favorite: Coney Island = konijnen (rabbit) eiland. Yet, the spirit of the early years of the cosmopolitan colony of New Amsterdam with its international diversity and tolerance, is believed to be the birthplace of the American Dream: its legacy continues to embody New York City.2
In the middle of this Dutch colonial expansion, in the 1640s, Rembrandt depicted a view of burgeoning Amsterdam, portraying civic success in the prosperous nation. On a copper plate, the most celebrated artist in Holland at the time, eternalized his hometown with a few strokes of the burin. Regardless of Rembrandt’s substantial artistic output in paintings, it is the intimacy of his depiction of Amsterdam that informs us how the master observed his surroundings in precise delineation.
Until the second half of the seventeenth century, city scenes were mainly depicted on etchings and engravings, or as decoration on maps. With the new elite of merchants’ desire to adorn their homes with something other than biblical or historic scenes, the painted cityscape suited an independent genre. After all, the visible wealth of Amsterdam reflected their own shining prosperity perfectly. Rembrandt’s contemporary Jan van Goyen visited the city in 1651, equipped with a pocket-size sketchbook. Back in his studio, quick sketches would provide endless inspiration, combining different motifs of topographical elements into newly compiled compositions. Seven drawings from a now dispersed sketchbook record the old Town Hall and the disaster of the infamous breach of the dike at Houtewael on 5 March 1651, flooding parts of the city. Traveling by boat, the sketchbook drawings follow the panorama in pre-photographic fashion.
1 Andrea C. Mosterman, Slavery in New Amsterdam, Museum of the City of New York, p 28 2 Russell Shorto, The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony That Shaped America, New York 2004Inspired by Rembrandt’s etchings, American’s Gilded Age James McNeill Whistler visited Amsterdam in 1863 to study the master in the Rijksmuseum’s print room, financial means restricting him to visit more often. After marrying the wealthy artist Beatrice Godwin in 1888, Whistler set off on a European honeymoon, pragmatically bringing thirty-four copper plates along. In August 1889, Whistler finally treads in the footsteps of Rembrandt, channeling his predecessor’s hometown in Bridge, Amsterdam, an extinct bridge on the Boltensgrachtje, torn down around 1930.
Using Amsterdam as a stage for his conceptual art, Dutch-born American conceptual artist Bas Jan Ader, plunges on his bicycle into the seventeenth century canal. Four vintage photographs, Study for Fall 2, Amsterdam from 1970, chronicle Ader’s celebrated film, depicting the artist disappearing into the water with a large splash. Equivalent to the serial preliminary drawings by Jan van Goyen, Ader’s black and white gelatin silver prints show a view from a cross the water. While Van Goyen ete rnalizes the threat of the water, Ader’s sad/funny fall foreshadows his final performance, In Search of the Miraculous. Attempting to cross the ocean by sailboat in 1975 from the States to The Netherlands a reversed trip from the seventeenth century settlers was Ader’s ultimate disappearance act . When h is empty boat was discovered ten months later , a cultish fixation focusing on his death overshadowed one of the most brilliant conceptual artists from this West Coast generation.
Ed van der Elsken’s views of Amsterdam in the 1960s are quintessential to our perception of the era, while his impressions of New York are lesser known. Like Whistler’s desire to create work in Amsterdam, Van der Elsken journeyed Stateside on his quest to discover new horizons. Visiting the just opened Guggenheim Museum in 1961, Van der Elsken in his reportage photography emphasized the importance of cultural institutions in the fabric of the city.
New York’s underground appears in Duane Michals’ The Human Condition (1969), divulging the city’s subway as intricately interwoven as Amsterdam’s canals and waterways. As the subway moves out of the station, the protagonist vanishes in a subterranean galaxy. While Bas Jan Ader disappears in the canal of the city below sea level, Michals dissolves his earthlings in the celestial cosmos below ground.
Karen Kilimnik’s painting the gold statue, Columbus Circle, winter, snowstorm in N.Y., guy wiggins (2009), channels American impressionist Guy Carlton Wiggins’ idea l of New York: a snow -covered Columbus Circle. R evealing Kilimnik’s ingenuity and witty interaction, it is her fictitious fantasy of this pastiche that culminates in her own reality of the Christopher Columbus 1892 statue. In Kilimnik’s world, shiny gold replaces the marble of the statue dedicated to the Italian explorer of European colonization of the Americas.
Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669 ), Self portrait at the age of 34, 1640, oil on canvas, 102 x 80 cm., National Gallery of Art, London, accession no. NG672 (detail)
Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669)
View of Amsterdam from the Northwest , c. 1640
Etching
4 ½ by 6⅛ inches (11.3 by 15.5 cm)
Provenance
Wilhelm Koller (d. 1871), Vienna [Lugt 2632]
Private collection, New Jersey, 1990
David Tunick, Inc., New York
Private collection, New York
References
Hollstein (210)
The New Hollstein: Dutch and Flemish etchings, engravings and woodcuts 1450- 1700, (203)
Hind, A Catalogue of Rembrandt ’s Etchings; chronologically arranged and completely illustrated, 1923 (176.II)
White & Boon, Rembrandt ’s Etchings: An Illustrated Critical Catalogue , 1969 (210)
E. Hinterding, a.o., Rembrandt the Printmaker, 2000 (39)
Rembrandt’s etching shows Amsterdam in reverse as he drew on the copper plate outdoors, seated on the Kadijk, the dike that ran up the northeastern edge of the city. Looking northwest across the city, it depicts to the right the windmills on the walled fortifications, the largest and nearest of which stood on the outermost bulwark on the river IJ, the so-called Rijzenhoofd. The stump of a tower to the right is roughly in the position of the Zuiderkerk, perhaps showing it before the completion of the spire. To the left, on Rapenburg Island, are the warehouses and shipyards of the Dutch East India Company, the Montelbaanstoren, the Oude Kerk, perhaps also the Westerkerk as a stump, and in the far distance the Haringpakkerstoren. Not painstakingly accurate, Rembrandt substitutes the formality of a precise topographical view with an impression of a vibrant city at the center of the world. Ships from Amsterdam to New Amsterdam would set sail right from this location, returning with furs favored in a great many Rembrandt (self)portraits.
Jan van Goyen (1596-1656)
Amsterdam: windmill on a dike on the right river bank (recto)
Seven merchants with wire baskets and a man on the right (verso), 1651 Black chalk, with brush and gray wash on ivory laid paper
3 ¾ x 6⅛ inches (9.5 x 15.6 cm.)
Inscribed ‘144 (recto) & 145 (verso)’ with partial watermark
Provenance
Possibly Andrew Geddes (1738-1844), London, 1845
His sale, Christie's, London, 8-14 April 1845, lot 361
Private collection, England, 1879
Johnson Neale, London, by 1895
Thomas Mark Hovell (1853-1925), London, June 1918
Thomas Dinwiddy
His sale, Sotheby’s, London, 3 July 1918, lot 124 (£610)
With P. and D. Colnaghi & Obach, London (stock no. A1700)
Frederik Muller & Cie, Amsterdam, 15 August 1918 (sold for £800)
With Anton Mensing (1866-1936), Amsterdam
His sale, Frederik Muller & Co., Amsterdam, 27 April 1937, lot 218 (for 7,200 florins to Hirschmann)
With Adolf Mayer, the Hague and New York
With Van Diemen-Lilienfeld Galleries, New York, 19571
C.F. Louis de Wild, New York
N.L.H. Roesler, New York, 1964
His sale, Christie's, New York, 31 May 1990, lot 83
Private collection, New York
Christie’s, London, private sale, 2014
Private collection, New York
Exhibited
The Hague, Mauritshuis, 1895
The Hague, Mauritshuis, 1918
1 German born Karl Lilienfeld (1885-1966), who like Cornelis Hofstede de Groot, director at the Mauritshuis, had studied art history in Leipzig, moved to The Hague in 1911 to become his assistant and was most likely familiar with the sketchbook at the time. In 1926, Lilienfeld became director of the Van Diemen Gallery in New York. By the late 1950s, Lilienfeld sold the drawings separately, sadly disseminating the sketchbook. The provenance, exhibitions, and literature listed under this catalogue are the same for the following sketchbook sheets.
Literature
Verslagen omtrent ‘s Rijks Verzamelingen van Geschiedenis en Kunst , Vol. 18, 1895-1896, pp. 64-66
Campbell Dodgson, ”A Dutch Sketchbook of 1650”, Burlington Magazine, Vol. 32, no. 183 (June 1918), pp. 234-240
Abraham Bredius, in response to Campbell Dodgson, “A Dutch Sketchbook of 1650,” Burlington Magazine, Vol. 33, no. 186, (September 1918), p. 112
Campbell Dodgson, “A Dutch Sketchbook of 1650,” Burlington Magazine, Vol. 66, no. 387 (June 1935), p. 284
Hans-Ulrich Beck, ”Jan van Goyens Handzeichnungen als Vorzeichnungen”, Oud-Holland, Vol. 72, 1957, pp. 241-250
Friedrich Gorissen, Conspectus Cliviae, Cleve, 1964, p. 84-86
Hans-Ulrich Beck, Ein Skizzenbuch von Jan van Goyen, The Hague, 1966, p. 5
H. Dattenberg, Niederrheinansichten holländischer Künstler, Düsseldorf 1967
Hans-Ulrich Beck, Jan van Goyen, 1596-1656: Ein Oeuvreverzeichnis. Katalog der Handzeichnungen, Vol. I, Amsterdam 1972, cat.no. 847/144-145, p. 304
Hans-Ulrich Beck, Jan van Goyen, 1596-1656: Ein Oeuvreverzeichnis. Erganzungen zum Katalog der Handzeichnungen, Vol. III, Doornspijk 1987, cat.no. 847, pp. 124-125b
Edwin Buijsen, ”De schetsboeken van Jan van Goyen”, in: Jan van Goyen, Leiden 1996, pp. 22-37, 80, 130
Ann H. Sievers, Master Drawings from the Smith College Museum of Art , New York 2000, pp. 65-69, nos. 12-13
Van Goyen travelled the length and breadth of the Netherlands recording details of landscape and topography in black chalk. A small sketchbook tucked into his pocket, the draughtsman in search of inspiration could quickly delineate sand dunes and architectural structures in the vicinity of his hometown or on extended journeys to France or Germany . Back in his studio, the sketches would provide endless creativity, combining different motifs into realistic or imaginary landscape compositions. These drawings not only functioned as preliminary studies for motifs in paintings, Van Goyen at times also reworked them into larger, more finished drawings, typically monogrammed and dated, intended for sale. Never attempting to depict accurate views, Van Goyen’s preliminary studies unfold as topographical elements in his scenery.
The following seven drawings originate from a now dispersed sketchbook fifty-four-year-old Jan van Goyen took along on a trip to Kleve, starting on 7 June 1650. After his return to his hometown, The Hague, the remaining pages in the sketchbook were filled with shorter trips, including a visit to Amsterdam. Traveling by boat, the artist recorded the disaster caused by the infamous breach of the Saint Anthony’s dike at Houtewael on 5 March 1651, and the old Town Hall, destroyed by fire the following year. Although the exact location of this windmill is unknown, from the sequence of drawings in the sketchbook it can be concluded that the artist’s is moving around Amsterdam from a low perspective on the water, making stops at bustling markets.
Jan van Goyen (1596-1656)
Amsterdam: windmill on a high dike with barns and a boat, 1651 Black chalk, with brush and gray wash on ivory laid paper
3¾ x 6⅛ inches (9.5 x 15.6 cm.)
Inscribed ‘150’
Provenance (see cat. 2 for full provenance, exhibitions and literature)
With Dr. K. Lilienfeld, New York, 1959
Prof.Dr. Fred P., New York and later Vienna
Galerie Sanct Lucas, Vienna 1987-1988
Christie’s, London, private sale, 2014
Private collection, New York
Exhibited
Leiden, Stedelijk Museum, Jan van Goyen, 4 June - 27 July 1960; Arnhem, Gemeentemuseum, 31 July - 26 September 1960, no. 107
Literature
Hans-Ulrich Beck, “Jan Van Goyen am Deichbruch von Houtewael (1651),” Oud Holland, Vol. 81, 1 (1966), p. 21, fn. 10, as one of the Amsterdam sketches, ‘Mühle am Wall’ (“mill on the wall”)
H.-U. Beck, Vol I, no. 847/150A, p. 305 (ill.)
H.-U. Beck, Vol III, no. 847/150A, p. 125a (not ill.)
Since the previous numbered page in the sketchbook depicts Amsterdam’s Old Town Hall,1 destroyed in a fire on 6/7 July 1652, we can deduce that Van Goyen visited Amsterdam to record architectural pinnacles as well as the periphery. Although impossible to reconstruct the artist’s exact whereabouts when he captured this windmill, following his journey, at least sixteen drawings were executed in this prosperous town. By 1650, Amsterdam was the center of a worldwide trading network and the leading financial center of the world. The harbor provided the most important point for the transfer of goods in Europe, attracting opulent merchants flaunting their wealth with houses and churches.
1 Beck no. 847/149, present whereabout unknown
Jan van Goyen (1596-1656)
Amsterdam: windmill above an Arched Bridge, at left a Quay Wall, 1651 Black chalk, with brush and gray wash on ivory laid paper
3 ⅞ x 6⅛ inches (98 x 15.5 cm.)
Inscribed ‘159’
Provenance (see cat. 2 for full provenance, exhibitions and literature)
Frederick Mont (1894-1994)1, New York, 1964, by descent
Robert Simon Fine Art, New York, 2018
Exhibited
Leiden, Stedelijk Museum, Jan van Goyen, 4 June - 27 July 1960; Arnhem, Gemeentemuseum, 31 July - 26 September 1960, no. 107 (according to an inscription on the reverse; one of five sheets lent by Van-Diemen-Lilienfeld Galleries)
Literature
Hans-Ulrich Beck, “Jan Van Goyen am Deichbruch von Houtewael (1651),” Oud Holland, Vol. 81, 1 (1966), p. 21, fn. 10, as one of the Amsterdam sketches, ‘Mühle am Wall’ (“mill on the wall”).
H.-U. Beck, Vol I, no. 847/159, p. 306 (not ill.)
Following the end of the Eighty Years’ War, the Dutch revolt against the Spanish, the 1648 treaty known as the Peace of Munster recognized the Dutch Republic as an independent country no longer under the control of the Holy Roman Empire. Dutch pride and prosperity certainly contributed to the immense popularity of landscape painting, the most popular genre in the seventeenth century. Jan van Goyen’s panoramic View on The Hague, a five meters wide painting commissioned in 1651, confirms the innate need for portraying the citizen’s urban pride, paving the way for Vermeer’s View of Delft , painted a decade later, the most famous cityscape of the Dutch seventeenth century today.
Jan van Goyen (1596-1656)
Amsterdam, before the Haarlem city gate with a horse carriage on a bridge and a boat on the river, 1651 Black chalk, with brush and gray wash on ivory laid paper
3 ¾ x 6⅛ inches (9.6 x 15.6 cm.)
Inscribed ‘160’
Provenance (see cat. 2 for full provenance, exhibitions and literature)
W. Suhr, New York
Sale, Sotheby’s, New York, 16 January 1985, lot 113, ill.
Christie's, London, private sale, 2014
Private collection, New York
Literature
Hans-Ulrich Beck, “Jan Van Goyen am Deichbruch von Houtewael (1651),” Oud Holland, Vol. 81, 1 (1966), p. 21, fn. 10, as one of the Amsterdam sketches, ‘vor dem Haarlemmer Tor’ (“before the Haarlem city gate”)
H.-U. Beck, Vol I, no. 847/160A, p. 306, ill.
The Haarlemmerpoort, designed by Hendrick de Keyser, in 1615. Located on today’s Haarlemmerplein, on the westside of town, it was the fourth gate of that name due to the ever-expanding city. Construction of waterways would continue over the following decades, allowing Van Goyen to sail through the city. This quick sketch allowed Van Goyen to immortalize this now demolished architectural bravado a few years later in a painting.1
Hendrik Cornelis Vroom (1562-1640)
The Haarlemmerpoort in Amsterdam, 1615
Oil on canvas, 71.5 x 109.5 cm.
Amsterdam Museum, SB5380
1 Jan van Goyen, Riverlandscape with the Haarlemmerpoort, signed & dated 1653, oil on panel 37 x 49.5 cm., present whereabouts unknown. Beck, op.cit., 1973, Vol. 2, no. 713, https://rkd.nl/explore/images/22545
Jan van Goyen (1596-1656)
Houtewael: an estate on a dike with a sandhill on the left and farmhouses beyond, 1651 Black chalk, with brush and gray wash on ivory laid paper
3 ¾ x 6⅛ inches (9.5 x 15.6 cm.)
Inscribed ‘175’ and partial watermark
Provenance (see cat. 2 for full provenance, exhibitions and literature)
Dr. K. Lilienfeld, New York, 1961/62
Prof.Dr. Fred P., New York and later Vienna
Galerie Sanct Lucas, Vienna, 1987-1988
Christie's, New York, 31 May 1990, lot 80
Christie's, London, private sale, 2014
Private collection, New York
Literature
H.-U. Beck, ”Jan van Goyen am Deichbruch von Houtewael (1651)”, Oud-Holland, Vol. 81, No. 1 (1966), fig. 13, p. 28, ill., fn. 11, p. 21, p. 33
H.-U. Beck, Vol I, no. 847/175, p. 309 (not ill.)
H.-U. Beck, Vol III, no. 847/175, p. 125a (not ill.)
In the night of 5 March 1651, the streets of Amsterdam and beyond were flooded, inspiring many artists to memorialize the devastation. A spring tide at full moon caused the Sint Anthonis dike to break through, flooding the Diemermeer which had been drained in 1629, creating major damage in Amsterdam. At least nineteen leaves in Van Goyen’s sketchbook document the catastrophic tragedy, further evidence that the artist travelled to Houtewael immediately following the breach. Such cataclysms provided popular subject matter in the seventeenth century and artists would often fill the demand of the art market by disseminating the news through prints and paintings. Van Goyen would use the sketches to produce slightly larger, finished drawings of the disaster area.
Jan van Goyen (1596-1656)
Houtewael: farmhouse with figures, 1651
Black chalk, with brush and gray wash on ivory laid paper
3 ⅞ x 6⅛ inches (9.7 x 15.6 cm.)
Inscribed ‘178’
Provenance (see cat. 2 for full provenance, exhibitions and literature)
C.F. Louis de Wild, New York
N.L.H. Roesler, New York
His sale, Christie's, New York, 31 May 1990, lot 81
Christie's, London, private sale, 2014
Private collection, New York
Literature
H.-U. Beck, “Jan van Goyen am Deichbruch von Houtewael (1651)”, Oud-Holland, Vol. 81, No. 1 (1966), fig. 16, p. 30, ill., fn. 11, p. 21, fn. 14, p. 33
H.-U. Beck, Vol I, no. 847/178, p. 309
Willem Schellinks (1627-1678)
The breaching of St Antonisdijk at Houtewael, 1651
Oil on canvas, 47 x 68 cm.
Amsterdam Museum, SB5456
Jan van Goyen (1596-1656)
Houtewael: buildings with an Inn, two ladders against the dike, 1651 Black chalk, with brush and gray wash on ivory laid paper
3 ⅞ x 6⅛ inches (9.7 x 15.6 cm.)
Inscribed ‘179’
Provenance (see cat. 2 for full provenance, exhibitions and literature)
C.F. Louis de Wild, New York
N.L.H. Roesler, New York
His sale, Christie’s, New York, 31 May 1990, lot 80
Christie’s, London, private sale, 2014
Private collection, New York
Literature
H.-U. Beck, ”Jan van Goyen am Deichbruch von Houtewael (1651)”, Oud-Holland, Vol. 81, No. 1 (1966), fig. 17, p. 30, ill., fn. 11, p. 21, p. 33
H.-U. Beck, Vol I, no. 847/179, p. 309, ill.
Other drawings from the present sketchbook are now in the collections of The Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam City Archives, Amsterdam, Teylers Museum, Haarlem, Fondation Custodia/Collection Frits Lugt, Paris, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, Art Museum, University of Toronto, The Metropolitan Museum of Art; The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, Art Institute of Chicago, Fogg Museum/Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center at Vassar College, Pougkeepsie, The National Gallery of Art, Washington, and in numerous private collections.
James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834-1903)
Bridge, Amsterda m, 1889
Signed in pencil with the butterfly and inscribed imp.; signed on the verso with the butterfly , and annotated in the artist’s hand first proof pulled
Etching on buff ‘antique’ (pre- 1800) laid paper
6 ½ x 9½ inches (16.5 x 24.1 cm.)
Provenance
H. Wunderlich & Co., New York (stock no. a 33940)
George Washington Vanderbilt III (1914- 1961), New York
The George W. Vanderbilt Collection of Etchings and Lithographs by James A. McNeill Whistler , Sotheby’s, New York, 15 May 1974, lot 282
P. & D. Colnaghi & Co., London
With Agnews, London, 1976
Harris Shrank Fine Prints, New York, by 2009
Exhibited
London, Thos. Agnew & Sons Ltd., Whistler. The Graphic Work: Amsterdam, Liverpool, London, Venice, 6 – 30 July 1976; Liverpool, Walker Art Gallery, 20 August – 26 September 1976; Glasgow, Art Gallery and Museum, 7 October – 11 November 1976.
References
Kennedy 409 first state (of three); Glasgow 447 first state (of five)
Around 1885, the center of the art world had moved away from the coast and countryside and back to the city making Amsterdam a magnet for foreign artists. Not on the same scale as London or Paris, it was certainly worth a visit, if only for its picturesque appearance and the seventeenth-century paintings in the museums. Whistler came to Amsterdam in 1889, where he exhibited his etchings along with the Dutch Etching Club. Treading in the footsteps of Rembrandt, Whistler saw Amsterdam, albeit through a Japanese lens, the trend towards the end of the nineteenth century. Truncated views of slightly arched bridges in Hiroshige and Hokusai, provide poetic and ethereal aspects as they traverse the shimmering surface of the canal channeling Rembrandt via Japonisme. The Amsterdam prints are the grand finale of Whistler’s etching career. His wife reported from Amsterdam that Whistler thought that “these plates will be among the finest he has done as they are very elaborate in character, and as they come from the country of the Knickerbockers they ought to be a great success in New York.”
James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834-1903)
Bridge, Amsterdam, 1889
Signed in pencil with the butterfly and inscribed ‘ imp ’ on the tab; signed with the butterfly on the verso in pencil & numbered 11
Etching printed in brown ink on thin laid paper
6 ½ x 9½ inches (16. 5 x 24.1 cm.)
Provenance
Walter Steuben Carter
Vivian and Meyer P. Potamkin, Philadelphia
Sotheby’s, New York, May 11, 1989, lot 302
Samuel Josefowitz, Pully, Switzerland
References
Kennedy 409; Glasgow 447 fifth (final) state
Only about eleven lifetime impressions in all five states are known, making the side by side viewing of the first and last state of Bridge, Amsterdam a rare event. Although the structure of the composition was established in the first state, Whistler’s reworking of the plate through all five states, with the addition of myriad lines, shading, cross-hatching in both etching and drypoint, results in a radically altered look: the final state is a darker, more dramatic, stormier rendering of what in the first state appeared to be a relatively tranquil scene. Interestingly, Whistler left much of the area in the upper right corner of the composition unfinished so that the bridge remains unattached.
Since Whistler’s visit, the bridge has disappeared: the Boltensgrachtje and the buildings were torn down around 1930. The canal ran roughly parallel to the tunnel under the IJ, near the Jewish quarters of Rembrandt’s old stomping ground. Like his predecessor, Whistler’s habit of carrying around small grounded copper plates, using them to jot down impressions on the spot as if recording them in pencil in a sketchbook, produced these equally virtuoso compositions.
Leo Gestel (1881- 1941)
The Ne w Amstelb ridge , ca. 1905
Signed ‘Leo Gestel’
Pastel on paper
12 x 18½ inches (31 x 47 c m)
Provenance
Jan F. Esser (1877- 1946), Amsterdam
Private collection, The Netherlands
Just after the turn of the century, Leo Gestel together with Piet Mondriaan and Jan Sluijters was one of the most influential modern painters in The Netherlands and an ambassador of Amsterdam Luminism. After visiting Paris in 1904, being exposed to all different forms of painting, Gestel’s art truly transformed. Of equal influence was the recent recognition of Vincent van Gogh, whose first retrospective at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam in 1905 was a true revelation.
The Nieuwe Amstelbrug, or bridge no. 101, designed by H.P. Berlage (1856-1934), opened on 5 July 1903, connecting the south and eastern parts of the city. Made from steel, the bridge allowed for heavy traffic and trams to go through. With its electric lanterns, this structure by one of Holland’s most prominent architects was certainly a worthy design for Gestel’s newfound modernism. The present pastel is a preparatory study for two paintings: a painting of the same size, previously also in Esser’s possession, and a larger painting in the collection of the Stedelijk Museum.1 Gestel’s pastel of a night scene brings Whistler’s Nocturnes to mind. Obscured by the darkness of the night, large barges appear as gh ostly shapes, reduced to shadowy forms, while the only points of brightness come from the subtle reflections of lights, illuminating the water. The scenery serves primarily as a vehicle for Gestel’s interest in the tonal harmonies of dar kness.
Ed van der Elsken (1925-1990)
Guggenheim Museum, New York, 1961
Vintage silver gelatin print on glossy paper
8 x 12 inches (20.3 x 30.4 cm)
Provenance
Annet Gelink Gallery, Amsterdam, 2012
In 1960, Ed van der Elsken sold all his possessions to travel around the world. One of the most influential photographers of daily life in the second half of the twentieth century, Van der Elsken photographed the streets of Amsterdam after World War II, inspired by Weegee’s Naked City. Van der Elsken moved to Paris in 1950 where he worked in the darkroom at the Magnum Photos agency, printing photos for Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert Capa. In Paris he discovered the bohemian life of Saint-Germain-des-Prés and its bitter post-war malaise, and met his first wife, photographer Ata Kando. In 1953, his photographs were selected for two exhibitions by Edward Steichen, curator of photography at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. Steichen encouraged Van der Elsken to create his groundbreaking photo novel, Love on the Left Bank. Van der Elsken would publish more than twenty photography books, the main focus of his artistic practice.
When Van der Elsken arrived in New York, The Guggenheim had just been completed. Frank Lloyd Wright’s (1867-1959) masterpiece, with its uniquely shaped concrete building and central spiral ramp, had just opened six months after the architect’s death. Van der Elsken was a people’s photographer, whether at home or on his journeys, his camera capturing the Zeitgeist. In Guggenheim Museum, New York, neither the figures or architecture are the focus, his reportage style producing an almost esoteric rendering through overexposure. Elsken did not photograph the lines outside the Guggenheim or focus on individual visitors admiring the novel art on display: instead it is his overall impression of the museum’s interior that captured his imagination and was included in Sweet Life, his travelogue of his 1960s world journey through Africa, Asia, Mexico, and the United States.1
1 A gelatin silver print, part of Sweet Life’s dummy, measuring 25.2 x 25.2 cm, is now in the Rijksmuseum: http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.769653
Duane Michals
The Hu man Condition , 1969
Six gelatin silver prints with hand - applied text
4 ⅝ x 6¼ inches (11.8 x 15.8 cm.) each photo
10 ¾ x 48 ⅝ inches (27.3 x 123.5 cm.) framed dimensions
Edition 20 of 25
Provenance
Sotheby's, New York, 18 April 1996, lot 402
Private collection, New York
Exhibited
Worcester, MA, Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Art Gallery, College of the Holy Cross, DEPARTURES: PHOTOGRAPHY 1923- 1990 , 12
September - 10 October 1991, traveling exhibition organized by the Independent Curators Incorporated, New York;
Denver, CO, Denver Art Museum, 25 January - 22 March 1992;
Omaha, NE, Jos lyn Art Museum, 9 April - 31 May 1992;
Pittsburgh, PA, Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, 5 July - 23 August 1992;
Philadelphia, PA, Goldie Paley Gallery at Moore College of Art and Design, 5 September - 11 October 1992;
Savannah, GA, Telfair Academy of Arts and Sciences, 5 January - 23February 1993.
Literature
Edmund Yankov (introduction) & Andy Grundberg (essay), Departures: photography 1923- 1990 , New York 1991
Bas Jan Ader (1942-1975)
Study for Fall 2, Amsterdam , 1970
Unique b lack & white vintage silver gelatin photographs (4)
3 ½ x 5 inches (8.9 x 12.7 cm.) image size (each)
Provenance
The Estate of Bas Jan Ader
Bas Jan Ader didn ’ t care much talk ing about his work: when asked to explain the significance behind the frequent inclus ion of falls in his work, he simply replied “because gravity overpowers me .” Whereas Ader’s f alls in Westkapelle reference Modriaan and Neo Plasticism , other falls films and a series of photographic pieces encapsulate the vulnerability at the heart of his finite oeuvre .
The s ense of departure is a recurrent theme, culminating in Ader’ s last epic work, In Search of the Miraculous , in which the artist disappeared at sea while attempting a solo trans - Atlantic crossing only his sailboat w as recovered ten mont hs later . The artist’s small body of work stresses the sense that it really had to mean something for it to be worth while . Fall 2, Amsterdam , filmed across the Reguliersgracht, shows the artist bicycling carefully down the seventeenth century Amsterdam str eet , flower bouquet in hand, suddenly losing balance before disappearing into the water with a large splash in all of thirteen seconds , ending the film quite abruptly. 1 Fall 2, Amsterdam foreshadows the artist’s mysterious vanishing: closure to an oeuvre t hat revolved around the risk of death and the myth of machismo.
Ader, born in Winschoten during the tumult of World War II to idealistic ministers of the Dutch Reformed Church, hitchhiked at age 19 to Morocco, where he signed on as a deckhand on a yacht headed for America. Continuing his art education in his adopted California, Ader desired to be considered an American artist in the groundbreaking exhibition Sonsbeek buiten de perken in Arnhem in 1972 where Fall 2, Amsterdam was first shown. The following four unique silver gelatin photographs, Study for Fall 2, Amsterdam herald the artist’s intention of unequivocal disappearance. 1 Bas Jan Ader, Fall 2, Amsterdam, 1970, 16mm film, 19 seconds, ed. of 3 https://www.facebook.com/artisimperative/videos/bas-jan-ader-fall-2/352024765511959/
Hendrik Goltzius (1558-1617), Tantalus, from “The Four Disgracers” , 1588, after Cornelis van Haarlem (1562-1638), engraving, 33.6 x 33.6 cm. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, accession no. 53.601.338(3) (detail)
Cindy Sherman
Untitled (Under the WTC) , 1980/2001
Signed, dated & titled in pencil on verso “Cindy Sherman 1980/2001 Untitled (Under the WTC)”
Silver gelatin print
7 ½ x 5½ inches (19.1 x 14 cm.)
Edition of 100
Provenance
Metro Pictures, New York
Private collection, New York
In the summer of 1977, Cindy Sherman moved to New York, where she began to conceive her seminal series, Untitled Film Stills. In seventy photographs, Sherman mimics actresses of a bygone era, inhabiting familiar scenes from imaginary movies never produced. Sherman developed these black and white photographs in a darkroom in her apartment, deliberately processing the photos to be reticulated and grainy, resembling insignificant film stills. With New York City as a background for the outdoor scenography, Film Still #59, shows the protagonist from the back under the arches of the World Trade Center in horizontal format. Also conceived in 1980, Sherman only editioned the present vertical Untitled (Under the WTC ) until after the events of 9/11 in order to raise funds to benefit victims of the horrific attack.
Untitled Fi lm Still #59 , 1980
Gelatin silver print , 17.2 x 24.1 cm.
Edition of 10
Museum of Modern Art , New York, object no. 869.1995
John Pilson
Above the Grid (city and fog), 2000
Gelatin silver print
9 ⅜ x 11¾ inches (23.8 x 29.7 cm.)
Edition of 6 plus 1 AP
Provenance
Private collection, New York, acquired directly from the artist, 2000
Ever since Japanese American architect Minoru Yamasaki’s World Trade Center opened in 1972, art has played an important part in the building. From 1997 to 2001 a residency program in the North Tower, provided artists 24-hour access to empty office space on the 91st and 92nd floors. The extraordinary setting inspired participants to create work, among them Yale School of Art graduate John Pilson in 2000, the last year before the residency program came to an abrupt halt when hijacked Flight 11 crashed into the North Tower.
Pilson’s photographs pre-residency, taken while working night shifts for a Manhattan investment bank from 1994 to 2000, made the WTC a logical environment to explore the office further. During his residency, Pilson produced a two-channel video Above the Grid, a meditation on the hidden unconscious of the workplace. Using the corporate backdrop as a set for suited businessmen to behave absurdly, Pilson reveals an imaginary after-hours existence in the skyscraper. Above the Grid was included in the Venice Biennale and P.S. 1’s Greater New York the following year. Together with the black and white photo series, Above the Grid memorializes the lost life in these majestic office towers.
Danica Phelps
John Pilson “Above the Grid (City & Fog)” $1,800 Nicole Klagsbrun purchased on September 6, 2001 , 2001
Signed & dated verso ‘Danica Phelps 2001’
Pencil on paper mounted on board
11 x 14 ⅞ inches (28.1 x 37.9 cm.)
Provenance
LFL Gallery, New York, 2002
Exhibited
New York, LFL Gallery, Artist, Collector, Curator, Spy, 2 April - 4 May 2002
Danica Phelps “purchased” John Pilson’s Above the Grid (City & Fog ) from his gallerist Nicole Klagsbrun at the New York’s Armory S how on September 6, five days before the horrible attacks. Phelps visited more than 600 exhibitions since she started collecting that day in September, her acquisitive challenge ending on June 15th the following year. Taking pictures of all the work Phelps desired to own, she recreates her make-believe collection by drawing a copy after the original as accurately as possible, adding the purchase price and all other relevant information, not only paying homage to Pilson’s original creation, but also reminding us of the extensive death and destruction that took place the previous year.
Ewan Gibbs
From the Empire State Building ‘ 124’, 2003
Pencil on graph paper
11 ¾ x 8⅜ inches (29.8 x 21.3 cm.)
Provenance
Paul Morris Gallery, New York, 2003
Private collection, New York
Exhibited
New York, The Drawing Center, Drawn from Photography, 18 February - 31 March 2011
Literature
Claire Gilman, Drawn from Photography, New York 2011, pl. 47, p .82
British artist Ewan Gibbs makes painstaking drawings in pencil or ink, composed of thousands of single marks, either circles or lines, one per square of the graph paper support. For his series From the Empire State Building, the artist visited the Empire State Building’s observation deck to photograph surrounding buildings that then were used as source material in the studio. The resulting drawings are built square-by-square with the artist’s focus on one small section at a time, rather than on the image as a whole. With each drawing sharing the same title, Gibbs hopes to erase a narrative and focus on how we perceive the image instead. While the meticulous nature of Gibb’s work draws us in, each subject is recognized more distinctly when observed from a distance.
The iconic Flatiron Building near Madison Square, a triangular steel-framed skyscraper, was the tallest structure north of the financial district when it was completed in 1902. Because of its unusual shape, it immediately attracted the attention of artists and photographers such as Edward Steichen and Alfred Stieglitz, not surprising that Gibbs selected the landmark as well.
From the Empire State Building , 2004
Pencil on graph paper
11 ⅝ x 8¼ inches (29.5 x 21 cm.)
Provenance
lora reynolds gallery, Austin, TX, 2005
Private collection, New York
The former Verizon Building at 375 Pearl Street has long been considered one of New York City’s ugliest buildings. The oppressive structure was erected in 1975 and climbs 32 stories into the sky. While the height is almost negligible compared to some of the supertalls today, the tower’s prime skyline position amongst some of the world’s most celebrated architectural creations has done nothing to help shroud its banal facade. When the telephone switching center opened its doors, New York Times architecture critic Paul Goldberger described it as the “most disturbing” addition to the city. The building’s fortress-like facade has changed, as has the entire city’s skyline, since Gibbs explored it twenty years ago.
From the Empire State Building, 2003 -04
Ink on graph paper
29.8 x 21 cm.
Museum of Modern Art, New York, object no. 1727.2005 (detail)
Marc Brandenbu rg
Untitled, 2006
Pencil on paper
8 ½ x 12 ⅝ inches (21.5 x 32 cm.)
Provenance
Crone Galerie, Berlin, 2007
Private collection, New York
Karen Kilimnik
the gold statue, Columbus Circle, winter, snowstorm in N.Y., guy wiggins , 2009
Signed, dated & titled verso
Water soluble oil color on canvas
11 ⅛ x 14 ⅛ inches (28.3 x 35.9 cm.)
There is no contiguity in Karen Kilimnik’s encounter with old masters: her fictitious fantasy jumps the narrative and makes us believe you can be in any existence of your own choosing. While appropriating Wiggins, Kilimnik’s title, however, adds another layer to this magical snow world rather than paying abject homage to her American precursor. The marble statue of Christopher Columbus is replaced by gold, making it a focal viewpoint like an inconspicuous beacon rather than an effigy for the Italian colonizer.
The circle named after the monument of Christopher Columbus erected in 1892, was designed as part of Frederick Law Olmsted’s vision for Central Park, commemoration of the 400th anniversary of the explorer’s landing in the Americas. While Wiggins staged his composition carefully around the monument, in Kilimnik’s narrative, the circle resembles a carousel. Happy colors with dapper brushstrokes present a true American impressionist: the snow blanketing the canvas in opacity and light, Kilimnik’s chromatic vibrancy and wit outshines Wiggins exemplar.
Guy C. Wiggins (1883-1962)
Columbus Circle , ca. 1920
Signed ‘Guy C. Wiggins’
Oil on canvas , 30.5 x 40.6 cm.
Present whereabouts unknown
Mireille Mosler, Ltd.