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Rembrandt's Amsterdam

Chapter 2: Map Key
By Frits Lugt
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ArchitectureArtHistory - Early Modern (c. 1450-1750)History - European

About This Book

A compact topographical and historical survey reconstructs Amsterdam as it appeared in the seventeenth century through maps, commentary, and reproductions of etchings and drawings linked to the painter. It describes canals, gates, towers, civic buildings, and notable vantage points, noting fires, rebuilding, and urban changes that altered architectural memory. Illustrated plates support close readings of specific streets and views, while commentary situates the city's maritime economy, social energy, and evolving morphology, offering a guide for visualizing the period landscape and understanding how past and present urban fabric interrelate.

Rembrandt's Amsterdam

 Reprinted, by permission of Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, from “The Print-Collector's Quarterly”



Frits Lugt



Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
1915

Contents

Illustrations

PLAN OF THE CITY OF AMSTERDAM ABOUT 1650

Map Key

Line indicating the extension of the town, started during the last ten years of Rembrandt's life.
1. House of the painter Pieter Lastman, the master of Rembrandt, in the “St. Anthonie-breestraat.” In the same street was the house of the dealer Hendrick Uylenburgh, with whom Rembrandt stayed during the first years after his settlement in Amsterdam.
2. House in the “Doelenstraat” where Rembrandt lived in 1636 (see plates 18, 19, 20).
3. Part of the Amstel where Rembrandt seems to have lived towarda 1639.
4. House in the “St. Anthonie-breestraat” (now called “Joden-breestraat,” No. 4) occupied and owned by Rembrandt from 1639 until 1658 (see plate 16). On the canal behind was the Synagogue of his friend Menasseh-ben-Israel. The bridge and sluice seen on plate 17 is the one between this red number and number 1.
5. House on the “Rosengracht” (now No. 184) where Rembrandt lived during the last ten years of his life.
6. The “Bloemgracht” where Rembrandt is said to have used a store-house as a studio, principally for his pupils, during his first years in Amsterdam.
7. The place where Rembrandt's son Titus lived, on the “Singel,” opposite the apple-market, in 1668, during his short married life (see plate 11).
8. House on the “Keizersgracht” (now No. 208) of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp, the principal person in Rembrandt's painting The Anatomical Lesson. Next to him lived Dr. Aernout Tholinx, whose portrait was etched and painted by Rembrandt.
9. House on the “Singel” (now Nos. 140-142) of Mr. F. Banning Cocq, the Captain in Rembrandt's masterwork, The Night-watch (see plate 23).
10. House on the “Kloveniersburgwal” (now No. 47) in which apparently lived Mr. Jan Six, a well-known and influential person in Rembrandt's life, whose painted and etched portraits count among Rembrandt's finest productions.
11. House in the “Kalverstraat” (now No. 10) of the print-dealer and publisher Clement de Jonghe whose portrait Rembrandt etched.
12. The old St. Anthony-gate, in Rembrandt's days Public Weighing-House, and, on the first floor, the seat of the Surgeon's Guild, of which Dr. Tulp and Dr. Deyman were the foremen.
13. The “Doelen,” meeting-place of the Civic Guard, for which Rembrandt's Nightwatch was painted. At its side the tower, Swyght-Utrecht (see plates 18,19,20).
14. The Staalhof, the office for which Rembrandt executed his celebrated picture known as The Syndics.
15. The inn called De Keizers Kroon in the Kalverstraat (now No. 71) where Rembrandt's collections were sold at auction, after his bankruptcy, in 1657 and 1658 (see plate 22).
16. The Dam, with the town-hall on the right and the Public Weighing-House in the middle (see plates 2,3,4).
17. The bridge called Grimnessesluis (see plate 5).
18. The St. Anthony-gate (see plate 6) at the end of the street where Rembrandt lived.
19. The spot where Rembrandt has apparently sketched the mills and the views of the town (see plate 7).
20. The tower called Montelbaanstoren (see plates 9 and 10) and the bridge from which Rembrandt sketched it.
21. The bridge called “Leliebrug,” from which Rembrandt sketched the tower of the church called Westerkerk. This church, on the map, is between the bridge and the house numbered 8. (See plate 13.) In this church Rembrandt was buried.
22. About this spot Rembrandt must have found the subject for his etching View of Amsterdam (see Frontispiece, plate 1). When this etching was executed, the tongue of land, near there, with the two bastions, did not yet exist.
23. Bridge called Blaubrug (Blue Bridge) where Rembrandt sketched the perspective along the Amstel river.
24. Houses on the “Singel” (now Nos. 234-236) where the caligrapher Lieven Willemsz. Coppenal, an intimate friend of Rembrandt, had his school, and probably lived.
25. House on the “Keizersgracht” (stated as the second house from the “Beerenstraat”), where the painter Johan van de Cappelle, a friend and fervent admirer of Rembrandt, lived until 1663.
26. House in the “Koestraat” (now No. 15), where the same painter lived after 1663. This house, until then, had been inhabited by the celebrated musician Sweelinck and his descendants.
27. House on the “Lauriergracht” (probably between the first and second bridge) where Rembrandt's pupil Govert Flinck lived from 1644, until his death in 1660. Ten years earlier he was staying in the house of the dealer Hendrick Uylenburgh (see above) where Rembrandt then also lived.

To locate the houses of some others of Rembrandt's artist-friends and pupils is more difficult: Ferdinand Bol lived, in Rembrandt's time, on the "Fluweele burgwal" (i.e., on the map, the left-hand side of the canal numbered 28), and afterwards in the new extension on the "Keizersgracht" near the "Spiegelstraat." So did Gerbrand van den Eeckfwut, who died on the "Heeren-gracht" near the " Viyselstraat." Philips Koninck lived, in Rembrandt's time, on the "Keizersgracht," the same canal where we found Tulp and van de Cappelle.