ANTHONIE BEERSTRAATEN (Amsterdam c.1645 – after 1664 Amsterdam)
Anthonie Beerstraaten (Amsterdam c.1645 – after 1664 Amsterdam)
View of Wijk aan Zee (recto); A Group of Figures, two Figures carrying a Basket (verso)
Black chalk and grey wash, within pen and brown ink framing lines (recto); black chalk (verso), 193 by 314 mm (7.6 x 12.4 inch)
Provenance
With dealer Albert van Loock (1917–2011?), Brussels (Lugt 3751)
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Anthonie was born in Amsterdam around 1645 as the son of the painter Jan Abrahamsz Beerstraaten, who specialised in marine paintings and town views.1 Anthonie’s elder brother Abraham also became a painter, both taught by their father, and because of the identical initials of the two brothers it is frequently difficult to distinguish their work.2 Only two paintings are signed ‘Anthonie van Beerstraaten’ in full, a view of a southern seaport dated 1664, known from an auction of 1889 in Enkhuizen and a view of the church of Aarlanderveen (in the former Council House in Alphen aan den Rijn). In 1662 Jan Abrahamsz travelled to Friesland accompanied by Abraham, drawing views of various villages there, and Anthonie is likely to have joined his father on this or other journeys as well.
Few drawings by Anthonie are known today, mostly much influenced by the topographical drawings by his father. Two sheets are preserved in the Weimar Museum, including a view of a Gothic church dated 1664,3 and a further drawing View of Utrecht with the Mariakerk is in the collection of the British Museum in London (fig.).4 Paintings by Anthonie Beerstraaten are in the Mährisches Landesmuseum in Brno, the National Gallery of Denmark, Copenhagen and the Centraal Museum in Utrecht.
This atmospheric sheet depicts Wijk aan Zee, in the dunes near Egmond aan Zee. On the reverse of the drawing is a very rough sketch of figures carrying baskets, which must have been jotted down in mere seconds.
1. For Anthonie, see: see the biography in Saur Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon: die bildenden Künstler aller Zeiten und Völker, Munich 1992- , vol. 8 (1994), p. 256.
2. For the family relationships see G. van der Most and H.J.W. Snel, ‘Beerstraten/Bee)restrat(e) te Amsterdam en Huizen’, Gens Nostra, maandblad der Nederlandse genealogische vereniging 55 (2000), pp. 357-377.
3. Stiftung Weimarer Klassik und Kunstsammlungen, inv. no. KK 4758; see exh. cat. Rembrandt und seine Zeitgenossen, Weimar (Schlossmuseum) 1981, p. 80, cat. no. 37. https://rkd.nl/images/186286
4. Black chalk, grey and brown wash, 262 x 483 mm, inv. no. 1893,0612.6.
