Isaac Ouwater – View of Nieuwstraat in Hoorn, 1785

by Atelier Liesjes

A wide, cobbled street runs from the foreground into the distance, flanked on both sides by brick houses with stepped gables, pediment gables and white window frames. On the right stands a tall building with a statue on its gable; further in the background, a slender church tower with an open lantern rises above the rooftops, next to a large church roof. In the foreground, two women are walking in eighteenth-century dress: one in a green jacket and a white bonnet, the other in a light-coloured dress with an apron. A little girl in a red skirt is kneeling on the cobblestones and a small dog is trotting alongside them; in the middle of the street, a man carrying a basket and a walking stick is coming towards the viewer. On the left stands a man with a wheelbarrow beside a donkey cart; on the right, a carriage drawn by white horses awaits. The sky is silvery-blue with fine clouds. The painter chose an almost linear perspective, so that the street, like a corridor, leads the eye towards the tower. The light is soft and even, as on a cloudy day, and the colours remain subdued: reddish-brown brick, creamy white, grey-green and the occasional touch of red in the clothing. The style is the same refined realism found in Ouwater’s views of Amsterdam, with great attention to façades, street furniture and the small figures that inhabit the city. The result is an intimate portrait of a provincial town in the late eighteenth century. Isaac Ouwater (Amsterdam 1748 – Amsterdam 1793) travelled throughout the Netherlands to depict towns and buildings, working in the tradition of seventeenth-century cityscape painting. His views are topographically accurate yet picturesque, with a warm, subdued colour palette. This view of the Nieuwstraat in Hoorn is signed in the bottom left-hand corner and dated 1785. An atmospheric cityscape for a classically furnished room.