Artist: Jan van der Heyden (1637–1712)
Title: English: An Architectural Fantasy
Genre: landscape painting
Date: circa 1670
Medium: oil on panel
Dimensions: height: 49.7 cm (19.5 in); width: 70.7 cm (27.8 in)
Collection: National Gallery of Art (Washington, D.C.)
What I love about this painting:
It is classical and very much in the tradition of the Dutch Masters of the 17th century, making use of light and shadow. But he has moved away from heavily shadowed subjects. The sky is as important as the scene below.
Now here is where I see Jan van der Heyden as teller of fantasy tales. His medium is the paintbrush, but he has a story to tell, nonetheless. The inclusion of the poor woman and her child begging outside the gate reminds me of the folk tale of “How the Rich Man Saw Heaven.”
In that tale, a rich man passes a beggar kneeling outside the gates to his castle every day for many years. In all that time, while his wife daily brings scraps of food to the beggar, the rich man barely notices him, other than wishing him gone.
The beggar and the rich man die on the same day, and the rich man finds himself kneeling outside the gates of heaven. He sees the beggar enter, and asks St. Peter why he must kneel outside while the beggar is ushered in.
St Peter replies, “This man, grateful for the kindness of your wife, daily prayed that you would see heaven. You ignored his plight, considered him far beneath you, resented the mercy your wife showed him. Yet, we have heard his prayers and agree that you should be allowed to see heaven.”
In this painting, God sees our world, looking down from that wonderful sky. I suspect van der Heyden is telling us a cautionary tale, one that especially pertinent in these uncertain times.
About this painting via Wikipedia:
Van der Heyden also created completely imaginary architectural fantasies, so-called capricci. An example is An Architectural Fantasy (c. 1670, National Gallery of Art), which appears to be a product of pure imagination. Italian influences are visible in the classical structure recalling the buildings of Palladio and the decorative sculptural elements.
The figures, probably painted by Adriaen van de Velde, in contrast, are unmistakably Dutch. While the great house with its sunlit formal gardens evokes an idealized world, at the elaborate gateway of the brick walls surrounding the gardens, an elegant gentleman encounters a beggar with her baby.
The inclusion of these discordant elements undermining the country idyll set van der Heyden apart from his contemporary Gerrit Berckheyde. Various of his compositions include out-of-place statuary, stray farm animals or even urban shepherdesses, which add a feeling of anomaly and contradiction. These elements contribute to the feeling of modernity typical for his works. [1]
About the artist, via Wikipedia:
Jan van der Heyden (5 March 1637, Gorinchem – 28 March 1712, Amsterdam) was a Dutch Baroque-era painter, glass painter, draughtsman and printmaker. Van der Heyden was one of the first Dutch painters to specialize in townscapes and became one of the leading architectural painters of the Dutch Golden Age. He painted a number of still lifes in the beginning and at the end of his career.
Jan van der Heyden was also an engineer and inventor who made significant contributions to contemporary firefighting technology. Together with his brother Nicolaes, who was a hydraulic engineer, he invented an improvement of the fire hose in 1672. He modified the manual fire engine, reorganized the volunteer fire brigade (1685) and wrote and illustrated the first firefighting manual (Brandspuiten-boek). A comprehensive street lighting scheme for Amsterdam, designed and implemented by van der Heyden, remained in operation from 1669 until 1840 and was adopted as a model by many other towns and abroad.
Painting was not the sole occupation and interest of van der Heyden. In fact he never joined Amsterdam’s painters’ guild. Even while his work was in great demand, he did not rely on his art to make a living. His principal source of income was, in fact, not painting. Rather he was employed as engineer, inventor and municipal official. He was clearly greatly preoccupied with the problem of how to fight fires effectively, and, with his brother Nicolaes, devoted much time between 1668 and 1671 to inventing a new, highly successful water pumping mechanism.
He devised streetlamps and the first street-lighting system for Amsterdam and was in 1669 appointed director of street lighting.
In 1673 the two brothers received official appointments to manage the city’s fire-fighting equipment and organisation. The two official appointments were sufficient to ensure the prosperity of the artist
Jan van der Heyden moved in 1680 to the Koestraat near the St. Anthonismarkt. Here he built a new family home and a factory for producing fire equipment. In collaboration with his eldest son Jan, he published in 1690 an illustrated book on firefighting, entitled ‘Beschrijving der nieuwlijks uitgevonden en geoctrojeerde Slangbrandspuiten’ (‘Description of the recently invented and patented hose fire engines’).
Jan van der Heyden died a wealthy man in 1712. His wife survived her husband by only a month. The inventory of the estate made soon after her death include more than 70 of his own paintings. [1]
Credits and Attributions:
IMAGE: An Architectural Fantasy by Jan van der Heyden ca. 1670. Wikipedia contributors, “Jan van der Heyden,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jan_van_der_Heyden&oldid=1322644726 (accessed June 25, 2026).
[1] Wikipedia contributors, “Jan van der Heyden,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jan_van_der_Heyden&oldid=1322644726 (accessed June 25, 2026).
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