Egbert Lievensz. van der Poel

With Galerie Fischer, Luzern;
Dr. J.C.H. Heldring, Oosterbeek;
Anonymous sale, Amsterdam, Sotheby's, 6 November 2001, lot 105.

Arnhem, Gemeentemuseum, Collectie Heldring, 6 April - 1 June 1958, cat. no. 22 (reproduced in the catalogue fig. 38);
Utrecht, Centraal Museum, Werken uit de privé-collectie van J.C.H. Heldring, 25 May - 24 July 1960.

M.E. Houtzager, Collectie J.C.H. Heldring te Oosterbeek, exhibition catalogue, Utrecht 1960, pp. 20-1, cat. no. 26, reproduced fig. 41.

The actual painting is less red and more subdued in colour than the catalogue illustration suggests. The single piece of panel is flat and stable and bevelled on all sides. A small crack can be seen in the lower right corner, as well as a small chip in the upper left corner. Otherwise, the paint surface seems to be in good condition and is under a fine layer of dirt and discoloured varnish. Small discoloured retouchings can be seen in the sky, as well as some minor strengthening in the figures. This is confirmed by the UV light, which also reveals scattered small retouchings throughout and strengthening in the buildings and more in the figures. A repaired vertical scratch of approx. 8 cm. can be seen upper centre. The varnish layer appears to be cleaned unevenly. Offered in a cabinet style wooden frame, with gilt fillet, small holes and chips. (ML)
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In this brightly lit scene of a street at night by Van der Poel, people are gathering around burning tar barrels, raised on wooden poles. We see children, elegantly dressed figures, and also peasants, all crowding around these fires. The street can be recognised as the Oude Delft, the canal running through the heart of the city of Delft, not only due to its characteristic buildings to the left, but also due to the fact that Van der Poel painted this scene in Delft more than once. A work in the Museum Het Prinsenhof, Delft (inv. no. PDS 85) (fig. 1) was painted from a very similar viewpoint, just a few houses back on the Oude Delft. The prominent house in the Delft picture, with its late-Gothic architecture can be easily recognised as the Hoogheemraadschap building (fig. 2). The door further along, with the pediment above it, can be identified with the door in the present work.

In the 1650s Van der Poel painted several of these street scenes, often using a real city view as their setting. Already in his lifetime he was known as the best fire-painter of Holland¹, also depicting imaginary farmhouses, caught on fire in the middle of the night. Here he has chosen a topographical view, allowing scholars to speculate on a possible event in history that would prompt to such bonfires, the celebration of the Peace of Munster in 1648, among them. These speculations however, do not seem to hold any steady ground.² The pictures of bonfires on the Oude Delft by Van der Poel, must therefore just be regarded as depicting nightly spectacles of flickering light: the artist's speciality.

1. See L. van der Vinde, in A. van Suchtelen & A.K. Wheelock Jr., Hollandse stadsgezichten uit de Gouden Eeuw, The Hague 2008, p. 152, cat. no. 33.
2. op. cit.