Jan Abrahamsz Beerstraaten

The Battle of Scheveningen, 10 August 1653 by Jan Abrahamsz Beerstraaten, painted c. 1654, depicts the final battle of the First Anglo-Dutch War (National Maritime Museum)

Jan Abrahamsz Beerstraaten (bapt. 1 March 1622 in Amsterdam – buried in July 1666 in Amsterdam?) was a Dutch painter of marine art and landscapes, particularly of events of the First Anglo-Dutch War and Dutch-Swedish War.

Biography

There is some confusion about the identity of four landscape painters named Beerstraaten; Johannes, this Jan Abrahamsz, Abraham, and Anthonie.^[1] Jan Abrahamsz, painter, married in Amsterdam on August 30, 1642. From this marriage eleven children were born, and when he married a second time in 1665, a daughter was born. Currently, The RKD records Johannes as the same person, and Abraham Beerstraaten is considered to be his oldest son.^[2]

Anthonie Beerstraaten was related to this painter.^[3] The RKD has registered two paintings signed Anthonie van Beerstraten: one is a view of a southern seaport from 1664 (currently location Enkhuizen) and the other a view of a church in Aarlanderveen in the former city hall of Alphen aan den Rijn. Based on these two paintings C. Hofstede de Groot an early Dutch art historian, classified paintings signed A. Beerstraaten as by Anthonie if they were a poorer grade than ones already attributed to Abraham.

Selected works

• Winter View of Leyden, 1660 – Hermitage Museum
• Skating at Slooten, near Amsterdam – Metropolitan Museum of Art
• Winter Landscape, 1655 – John Paul Getty Museum
• Imaginary view of a port, with the façade of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome, also known as The Old Port of Genes – Louvre
• Port – National Museum of Serbia, Belgrade
• Imaginary view of a port with the chevet of Lyon Cathedral – Louvre
• View of the Yacht of the Princes of Orange and Other Ships – Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
• The Castle of Muiden in Winter – National Gallery, London
• 5 works now at the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
• Sailing man-of-war (watercolour on paper) – Courtauld Gallery
• A Dutch Flagship and a Fluyt Running into a Mediterranean Harbour – National Maritime Museum
• The Battle of Scheveningen – National Maritime Museum

Gallery

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  First phase of the Battle of the Sound

• 

  The Battle of Scheveningen

• 

  The Paalhuis and the Nieuwe Brug (Rijksmuseum)

• 

  A winter landscape with activities on the ice near Castle Buren

References

1. Jan Abrahamsz Beerstraaten in the RKD
2. Abraham Beerstraaten in the RKD
3. Anthonie Beerstraaten in the RKD

External links

• Art and the empire city: New York, 1825-1861, an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on Beerstraaten (see index)
• Beerstraaten, Jan Abrahamsz at the Netherlands Institute for Art History
• http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/beerstraten_jan_abrahamsz.html
• http://www.artnet.com/artist/2224/jan-abrahamsz-beerstraten.html
• http://wwar.com/masters/b/beerstraten-jan_abrahamsz.html