Country House On The Vliet by Jan van der Heyden - Tranquility and Beauty

A Country House on the Vliet near Delft

A Country House on the Vliet near Delft c1660 by Dutch Painter Jan van der Heyden (1637 – 1712); a Baroque era painter, draughtsman, printmaker and glass painter that specialized in townscapes, during the Dutch Golden Age.

This is a fashionable depiction of a part of Holland in the 17th century with a navigable canal or river passage with a well kept traveling path; and as can be seen a considerable amount of freight traffic along the waterway.

On the right bank of the canal are houses and plots of land that extend into the low lying reclaimed fertile lands, with elegant farmhouses that are similar to the one most closest to the viewer; with its ionic pilasters and dormer windows with scrolls.

On the bank by a small pier there is a large boat with people as a woman receives goods from the merchant of the boat; and farther down the path we see man walking, a dog and off the path to the right a lady and young girl are sitting on the grass near the main house working.

Lining the bank of the river are plenty of short trees, grass and plants; while many larger trees surround the houses in the area.

A Country House on the Vliet near Delft is a retouched digital art old masters reproduction of a public domain image.

Info Below Derived From Wikipedia.org

Jan van der Heyden was the third of eight children born to Jan Goriszoon who was an oil mill owner, grain merchant, a broker, a Mennonite (members of certain Christian groups belonging to the church communities of Anabaptist denominations named after Menno Simons (1496–1561) of Friesland) and his wife Neeltje Jans Munster; in Gorinchem, Netherlands in 1637.

It is believed that Jan may have received his first artistic training in the studio of his eldest brother Goris van der Heyden who made and sold mirrors; as he had joined his brother in mirror producing and selling business.

It is also thought that he may have learned drawing from a glass painter; possibly Jacob van der Ulft (1621 – 1689), who was not only a glass painter, but a print artist, architect and mayor; and is regarded to be one of the most admired glass painters of that time (he was also from Jan home town).

Though Jan was an accomplished painter, this part of his career was not the source of his income. His main source of income was as an engineer, inventor and municipal official; and he had a special interest with the problem of fighting fires, most like because of the fire of the old town hall in Amsterdam and later other fires throughout Amsterdams neighborhoods.

From 1668 to 1671 Jan and his brother Nicolaes devoted much time and effort into developing a highly successful water pumping mechanism to address this problem.

He also devised a street lighting system for Amsterdam and in 1669 was appointed as the director of street lighting; then in 1673 Jan and Nicolaes received official appointments to manage the city’s fire-fighting equipment and organisation.

These two appointments were enough to ensure the long term prosperity of Jan; and 7 years later he moved with his family from Amsterdam to Koestraat near the St. Anthonismarkt, where he built a family home and factory for producing fire equipment.

In 1690 in collaboration with his eldest son Jan published an illustrated book on fire fighting; entitled “Beschrijving der nieuwlijks uitgevonden en geoctrojeerde Slangbrandspuiten” or “Description of the recently invented and patented hose fire engines”.

Upon his death at the age of 75, with his wife following a month later, Jan estate included more than 70 of his own paintings and it is believed that his only artistic pupil was his son of the same name, Jan.