The Heiligewegspoort (Holy Way Gate), Amsterdam, in Winter
previously catalogued as attributed to Jan Abrahamsz Beerstraten (Amsterdam 1622 – Amsterdam 1666)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
circa 1660 - circa 1670
Materials
Oil on oak panel
Measurements
730 x 1006 mm (28 3/4 x 41 3/4 in)
Place of origin
Amsterdam
Order this imageCollection
Dyrham, Gloucestershire
NT 453763
Caption
The city gate known as the Heiligewegspoort (holy way gate) was a popular motif in cityscapes of Amsterdam. It was designed by the Dutch architect Jacob van Campen (1595–1657) and built in 1636 to replace an earlier gate. It was destroyed only a few decades later. It was named the ‘Heilige Wegs’ gate because it was on the pilgrimage route, or ‘holy road’ out of Amsterdam. In this painting by Beerstraten, figures are gathered together in the foreground, skating on the ice by the city gate.
Summary
Oil painting on oak panel, The Heiligewegspoort (Holy Way Gate), Amsterdam, in Winter, attributed to Abraham Beerstraten (b.1644) or Anthonie Beerstraten (active c.1635-ca. 1665), circa 1660-1670. Figures congregate in the foreground, some of them skating on the frozen canal by a classical gatehouse. A drawbridge crosses the frozen canal from the bank on the left, where there can be seen houses in the distance, to the gatehouse at the centre-right of the composition, situated at the border of the town.
Provenance
20/21 November 1765, lot 12 or 29/30 respectively as 'Vangowan'; purchased by Colnaghi for the National Trust from the sale of paintings from Dyrham Park at Sotheby's, 29 February 1956, lot 14
Credit line
Dyrham Park, The Blathwayt Collection (National Trust)
Makers and roles
previously catalogued as attributed to Jan Abrahamsz Beerstraten (Amsterdam 1622 – Amsterdam 1666), artist previously catalogued as style of Jan Abrahamsz Beerstraten (Amsterdam 1622 – Amsterdam 1666), artist previously catalogued as attributed to Jan van de Cappelle (Amstedam 1624 - Amsterdam 1679), artist previously catalogued as by Jan van Goyen (Leyden 1596 - The Hague 1656), artist attributed to Abraham Beerstraten (Amsterdam 1643 - 1666), artist attributed to Anthonie Beerstraten (Amsterdam 1646 - c.1665), artist
References
A Catalogue Of the Valuable Collection of Pictures of William Blathwayte, Esq. Which will be sold by Auction at Derham, in the County of Gloucester, on Monday the 18th of November Inst. and the three following Days [...] Thomas Joye, Auctioneer [1765], Possibly lot 12, third day's sale, 20 November: "A Winter Piece by Vangowen" or either of lots 29 or 30, fourth days' sale, 21 November: "A Frost Piece by Vangowan" [with "£6.6." handwritten in the margin] (29) or "Ditto, ditto" [with "£10.10" handwritten in the margin (30). Potterton, 1986: Homan Potterton, Dutch seventeenth and eighteenth century paintings in the National Gallery of Ireland: A complete catalogue, Dublin, 1986