43 - Jan Weissenbruch (1822-1880)

Jan Weissenbruch (1822-1880) View of the Grote of St. Bavokerk at the Grote Markt in Haarlem,signed 'Jan Weissenbruch f' (lower left),oil on canvas, 80x108,5 cm, Exhibited:-Haarlem, Teylers Museum, ‘Jan Weissenbruch’, 10 September 2016-8 January 2017, no. 50.Literature:-W. Laanstra, ‘Jan Weissenbruch, Schilder-graficus 1822-1880', Amsterdam 1986, ill. p. 119, no. O/80-2.-Annemieke Hoogenboom, Terry van Druten, Manon van der Mullen, Jenny Reynaerts and Jeroen Kapelle, ‘Jan Weissenbruch’, Bussum 2016, ill. pp. 66-67, no. 50, where dated circa 1860.Provenance:-Auction, Schloss Reinhartshausen, Berlin, 6 June 1932, lot 160.-Auction, Christie's, Amsterdam, 27 October 1998, lot 254.Please compare to a smaller version by the artist of the Grote Markt, Haarlem, in: Willem Laanstra, 1986, ill. p. 75, no. O/22.5-2.Jan Weissenbruch studied at the Koninklijke Academie van Beeldende Kunsten in The Hague under painters whose artistic ideas were rooted in Romanticism. His early work reveals an idealisation of reality and a preference for historical subjects. The influence of seventeenth-century townscape painters, as well as that of his teacher Salomon Leonardus Verveer (1813-1876), remained evident in his work well into the 1840s. Around 1850, he adopted a somewhat more realistic style, characterised by almost photographic precision.The monumental painting now offered for auction depicts a view of the Grote or St Bavokerk on the Grote Markt in Haarlem, seen from the west. Weissenbruch’s contemporaries would undoubtedly have associated this painting with the many depictions of the church made by Gerrit Adriaensz. Berckheyde (1638-1698) between 1665 and 1696. The closest comparison is a large oil painting on canvas in the collection of the Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed (Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands), inv. no. NK2581. Weissenbruch must certainly have been familiar with this painting, as he incorporated the same location into several of his own works.Weissenbruch’s painting depicts the Grote Markt as it appeared after 1856, as evidenced by the statue of Laurens Janszoon Coster, erected in the square in that year. The monument was created by Louis Royer (1793-1868), a sculptor renowned for his statues of prominent Dutch figures. During the nineteenth century, Coster, a native of Haarlem, was still credited with the invention of printing. The statue stands out sharply against the bright sky, blocking the view towards the Riviervismarkt in the left background. To accommodate it within his composition, Weissenbruch positioned the statue further to the left in the square than it stood in reality and slightly increased its size. As the artist suffered from agoraphobia after 1870, towards the end of his life, this undated painting was most likely executed around 1860, as mentioned in the literature.Compared with Berckheyde’s depiction of the St Bavokerk, differences in the treatment of light and shadow are apparent in Weissenbruch’s composition. Shadow covers most of the roof, as well as the western façade and its buttresses, emphasising the massive, solid form of the largest building in the city and lending it an almost Romanesque appearance. Berckheyde, by contrast, portrayed the church as more slender and soaring.Weissenbruch also included relatively little architectural detail, a choice that corresponds with the church’s appearance at the time. In Berckheyde’s painting, the large window in the western façade is clearly visible, whereas by the eighteenth century it had been bricked up. Other architectural details were added only during an extensive restoration in the late nineteenth century. These included the elegant pinnacles on the buttresses of the clerestory, which were intended to enhance the church’s appearance as a Gothic cathedral. Conversely, Weissenbruch omitted certain details that were still present, such as the circular window openings in the bricked-up western window. He also altered the pointed Gothic shape of the clerestory windows, depicting them with rounded tops instead.Weissenbruch captured the Grote Markt with his celebrated sensitivity to space and light, creating an atmosphere of silence that is uniquely his own. The figures are rendered with precision as they move across the sun-drenched square, reinforcing a sense of timelessness and underscoring the grandeur of the St. Bavokerk.