Provenance
(Sale, Amsterdam, 24 September 1777, no. 43);[1] Vermeulen.[2] (sale, Amsterdam, 11 July 1798, no. 38); Gruyter.[3] Samuel S. Scheikévitch [1842-1908], Moscow and Paris; (sale, Frederik Muller & Cie, Amsterdam, 30 April-2 May 1907, 1st day, no. 82, as _Vue de Dordrecht_). (Trotti & Co., Paris); half-share sold July 1908 to (M. Knoedler & Co., New York); purchased 22 December 1908 by William Andrews Clark [1839-1925], New York, as _Shipping Scene_;[4] bequest April 1926 to the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; acquired 2014 by the National Gallery of Art.
[1] The early provenance through the 1907 sale is according to Cornelis Hofstede de Groot, _Beschreibendes und kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke der hervorragendsten holländischen Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts_, 10 vols., Esslingen and Paris, 1907-1928: 8(1923): 19, no. 50.
[2] The buyer’s name is in an annotated catalogue of the 1777 sale in the Frick Art Reference Library, New York; copy in NGA curatorial files. The buyer was possibly Cornelis Vermeulen (1732-1813), a Dordrecht art dealer, painter, illustrator, and copyist.
[3] A copy from an annotated catalogue of the 1798 sale is in NGA curatorial files. The buyer was probably Willem Gruyter, Sr., a collector and dealer in Amsterdam.
[4] The painting is stock number 11653 in the M. Knoedler & Co. Records, accession number 2012.M.54, Research Library, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles: Painting Stockbook 5, 1899 April – 1911 December, p. 160; Sales Book 9, 1907 May – 1912 January, p. 90; copies in NGA curatorial files.
Accession Number
2014.136.34
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 63.1 × 87.2 cm (24 13/16 × 34 5/16 in.) | framed: 92.7 × 116.2 × 12.7 cm (36 1/2 × 45 3/4 × 5 in.)
Classification
Painting
Credit Line
Corcoran Collection (William A. Clark Collection)
Tags
Painting Baroque (1600–1750) Oil Painting Canvas Dutch
Background & Context
Background Story
View of Dordrecht from the North from the early 1650s shows van Goyen returning to the subject of Dordrecht from a different vantage point, demonstrating his sustained interest in the city that was one of the most important commercial centers of the Dutch Republic. The view from the north emphasizes the flatness of the Dutch landscape and the way in which Dordrecht's buildings seem to rise directly from the water—a characteristic effect of the Low Countries topography that van Goyen captured more effectively than any other Dutch landscape painter. The early 1650s date places this in van Goyen's late period, when his tonal palette was beginning to give way to a more colorful approach that would influence the next generation of Dutch landscape painters.
Cultural Impact
Van Goyen's multiple views of Dordrecht demonstrate the 17th-century Dutch practice of painting the same subject from different vantage points, creating a comprehensive visual record of the city's appearance. This practice was driven by the market demand for recognizable city views, but it also created a body of work that documents the Dutch landscape with the systematic thoroughness of a topographic survey.
Why It Matters
View of Dordrecht from the North is van Goyen's Dordrecht revisited: the same city from a different vantage point, demonstrating both his sustained engagement with specific locations and the systematic approach to landscape painting that made his views of Dutch cities among the most comprehensive visual records of the 17th-century Netherlands.
