Rembrandt's Amsterdam

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


PLAN OF THE CITY OF AMSTERDAM ABOUT 1650

Line indicating the extension of the town, started during the last ten years of Rembrandt's life.
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.

Plate 1. View of Amsterdam from the East. (reversed) . After the etching by Rembrandt
“The city seems to float upon the waters and looks like the sovereign of the deep. It is crowded with merchants of every nation and its habitants are themselves the most eminent merchants in the world. It appears, at first, not to be the city of any particular people, but to be common to all, as the centre of their commerce. The vessels in this harbour are so numerous, as almost to hide the water in which they float; and the masts look at a distance like a forest.”
“I gazed, with insatiable curiosity, upon this great city, in which everything was in motion.”