Notes

Cornelis Springer was a 19th-century Dutch artist and one of the most important Dutch cityscape painters; he has been called the “greatest painter among the architects, and the greatest architect among the painters”. Working within the tradition of 17th-century Dutch Golden Age painters such as Jan van der Heyden and Gerrit Berckheyde, Springer emphasized form and receding perspectival space through the play of light as it cuts across buildings. Born on May 25, 1817 in Amsterdam, Netherlands, he went on to study at the Amsterdam Academy of Art, and then as a private pupil of Kasparus Karsen. He became a member of the Amsterdam painters collective Felix Meritis and won a gold medal for a painting of a church interior in 1847. He is known for watercolors, etchings, and drawings, especially of city views and town scenes that he sketched while traveling around the country. He was awarded the Leopold order of Belgium in 1865, and in 1878 he was invited with Jozef Israëls to advise the Dutch Ministry of Public Affairs on the plans for the Rijksmuseum. Together with B.C. Koekkoek and A. Schelfhout, he belongs to the leading painters of Dutch Romanticism.

The artist died on February 20, 1891 in Hilversum, Netherlands. Today, his works are in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Cheltenham Art Gallery & Museum, and the Teylers Museum in Haarlem, among others.

In this present painting Cornelis Springer shows us the beautiful Singel in Summer with the Mennonite church Het Lam which was a hidden church. You can still visit this church on the Singel and you can recognize it by the gable stone Springer also painted in this painting. Springer really captured the atmosphere of a summer’s afternoon inviting you to take a stroll along the canals. Furthermore, Springer has depicted the figures in this painting in 17^th century clothing. This was done regularly by Springer.

This view of 1852 could possibly be the Vijgendam in Amsterdam. Since the 17^th century the south side of the Dam square was named Vijgendam until 1957; the present building of the Industriële Club occupies a part of this address. Furthermore, in the background we see  a building that looks like the old Amsterdam town hall, once painted by Saenredam and destroyed in a fire of 1648, is clearly visible. Perhaps Springer used these two real places and buildings as inspiration in this painting.