Pieter de Swart (Breda 1709 – c.1773)

Design for the Landtor Gate in Weilburg

Pen and black ink, grey, pink and brown wash, black ink framing lines, watermark D & C Blauw, 366 x 346 mm (14.4 x 13.6 inch)

Inscribed ‘Pieds De Rynlant’ (pen and black ink, underneath the main elevation)

Provenance
Private collection, The Netherlands

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Pieter de Swart was one of the leading Dutch architects of the eighteenth century.¹ Born in Breda, he was patronised at early age by Prince Willem IV of Orange, who sent him to Paris in 1745-1746 to study with Jacques-François Blondel (1705–1774). Upon his return to The Hague, he continued his studies with the by then ancient Daniël Marot (1661–1752), who was still court architect. When Willem IV became Stadtholder in 1747 he appointed De Swart as his court architect. Among his extant works in The Hague are Palace Lange Voorhout (now Escher Museum) of 1760 and the Royal Theatre of 1766.

Around 1759 De Swart received an honourable commission from Prince Karl Christian von Nassau-Weilburg, future husband of Princess Carolina, elder sister of Stadtholder Willem V, to design an elaborate entrance gate to his residence town, Weilburg, in Hessen. A design for the gate is preserved in the Hessisches Hauptstaatarchiv in Wiesbaden (fig.).² The present, recently discovered drawing is an alternative design by De Swart for the gate – though the front elevation is nearly identical to the Wiesbaden design, apart from differences in the carved ornamentation in the superstructure of the gate, the depth of the gate in the present drawing is greater than that projected in the Wiesbaden design. When the Landtor was actually built, the superstructure was much simplified and the central carved cartouche and side sculptures were omitted, and pilasters rather than colums were employed.

Two drawings for temporary ornamental gates by De Swart, made in 1745 during his sojourn with Blondel, are part of the collections of the Musée Carnavalet in Paris,³ and an elaborate design for a temporary fireworks theatre built in the Hofvijver in The Hague in 1749 is the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.⁴

1. For De Swart, see F.H. Schmidt, Pieter de Swart. Architect van de achttiende eeuw, Zwolle/Zeist 1999.
2. Schmidt, op. cit., p. 157, fig. 145.
3. Schmidt, op. cit., pp. 52-53, figs. 35-36.
4. Schmidt, op. cit. p. 73, fig. 50.