The artist and his wife, Sara ter Hiel (d. 1712): "een gesichje van de Bocht van de Oude Heeregracht," mentioned in the inventory attached to the 5 Dec. 1692 will of Jan van der Heyden and Sara ter Hiel, living on the Koestraat, Amsterdam, and as "de bogt van de Heeregragt met de Warmoessluys int Verschiet," valued at 50 florins, in the inventory of the estate of Sara ter Hiel, Amsterdam, 18 May 1712, by bequest to her son;(1) Samuel van der Heyden (d. 1729), Amsterdam, by bequest 1729 to his sister; Sara van der Heyden (d. 1738), Amsterdam.(2) Jacob Crammer Simonsz., Amsterdam (estate sale, Amsterdam, Van der Schley, Yver, and Schelte, 25 Nov. 1778, lot 10, as "op panel hoog 13 1/2, breed 15 1/2 duim. Een Gezigt binnen Amsterdam, verbeeldende de Heeregragt, van de Lelysluys af te zien, naar de Warmoe gragt, de Son Ligten zyn ’er Geestig in waargenoomen, en de Beeldjes en Vaartuygen; gestoffeert, door A van den Velde, Dit Stuk is zeer bevallig en plaisant geschilderd"). Louis Cesar de la Baume Le Blanc, duc de la Valliere (1708–1780), Paris (sale, Paris, A. Paillet, 21–23 Feb. 1781, lot 67, as "La vue d’un Canal de Hollande, borde de maisons & plante d’arbres; plusieurs barques chargees de marchandises, sont arretees pres du trottoir, ou sont distribuees diverses figures. La variete dans la construction des maisons, la ton de couleur & les moindres details, sont rendus avec la plus grande finesse & une exacte verite. La reflexion des objets dans l’eau, contribue a une harmonie parfaite, & sont annoncer ce Tableau comme un des plus finis de cet habile Peintre. Haut. 13 pouc. 6 lig. larg. 16 pouc. 6 lig. B.," sold [bought in?] to); [A. J. Paillet, Paris]. M. B. de B[oynes], Paris (sale, Paris, 15–10 Mar. 1785, lot 42, as "Ce Tableau, l’un des plus fins de ce maitre, represente le cote interieur d’un canal des villes de la Hollande, sur lequel on voit des barques & des cignes; au-dela du mur du quai de ce canal s’elevent de grands arbres a travers les percees desquels on decouvre de beaux batimens de brique, & decores des ornemens qui appartiennent a l’Architecture, rendus avec tout l’interet & l’art que l’on admire dans les productions de ce maitre; le ciel est parfaitement bien rendu, ainsi que les figures que l’on voit aux differens endroits de ce tableau. Hauteur 16 pouces, largeur 13 pouces. B. Il vient de la vente de M. le Duc de la Valliere, no. [67–1900]").(3) Chevallier F[erdinando] Meazza (1837–1913), Milan (sale, Milan, Riblet, 15–19 Apr. 1884, lot 186, ill.). [Antoine Baer, sold Feb. 1885 to];(4) Albert Lehmann, Paris (sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 12–13 June 1925, lot 255, ill., sold for 112,500 francs to); M. Guiraud.(5) Esmond, Paris.(6) [Otto Wertheimer (1896–1973), Paris, in 1945, sold by 1950 to];(7) [Duits, London, sold by 1953 for 85,000 guilders to]; Sidney James van den Bergh (1898–1977), Wassenaar, sold 1971 through;(8) [G. Cramer, The Hague, to]; Mr. and Mrs. Edward William Carter, Los Angeles ,partial gift and partial sale by the heirs 2009 to; LACMA.
Footnotes
(1) Bredius 1912, pp. 132 and 135, respectively. For a further discussion of the distribution of the possessions of Jan van der Heyden and Sara ter Hiel, see I. H. Van Eeghen 1973. According to the 1692 will, the painting was to be given to their daughter Sara van der Heyden. In 1712, however, the painting was given to their son Samuel.
(2) HdG 1908–27, vol. 8 (1927), no. 22, p. 337, cited as previous provenance of the Carter painting, "Een Gezicht langs de Heeregragt. Zeer uitvoerig op Paneel geschilderd, en door A. van de Velde gestoffeerd. Hoog 15 1/2, breed 16 duim" (anonymous sale, Amsterdam, van der Linden and de Winter, 5 June 1765, lot 27, sold for 175-0 florins, to Hoogenhuysen for Loquet). That painting is probably identical with lot 134 in the sale 22 September 1783 of paintings owned by Pieter Locquet by Van der Schley, De Bosch, Ploos van Amstel, De Winter, and Yver. The Locquet painting is described in similar terms as that in the 1765 sale: "15 1/2 × 15 1/2 duim, panel. In dit natuurlyk stuk vertoond zich een Gezicht langs de Heer-Gragt te Amsterdam ziende gedeeltelyk naar de Lely-Gragt, gestoffeert met verscheide Wooningen, Geboomte, en diversche Beeldjes, dit stuk is niet min bevallig dan Konstig geschildert, en het streelende zonligt; doed een zeer schooner uitwerking," sold for 405 florins to Nyman. Because the view is described as toward the Lely-Gragt, it cannot be the Carter painting, which is described as looking from the Leliegracht.
(3) The number and price are handwritten. The sale was said to be from the cabinet of M. B. de B.*** Various copies of the catalogue are annotated "Boynes."
(4) According to an annotated catalogue of the 1925 Lehmann sale. Advertisements in La chronique des arts et de la curiosité in 1880 identify Antoine Baer as an expert of tableaux ancienes et modernes located at 2 rue Laffitte.
(5) According to an annotated copy of the catalogue at the Getty Research Institute. Probably a reference to S. Guiraud, Paris. According to Los Angeles-Boston-New York 1981–82, citing information from a photo mount at the Witt Library, The Courtauld Institute of Art, London, Alfred de Rothschild owned the painting between Lehmann and Beurnonville. This cannot be correct, however, since Baron Alfred Charles de Rothschild (1842–1918), London and Halton, Hertfordshire, died in 1918. The reference is probably to Houses on the Herengracht that is still in the Rothschild collection at Waddesdon Manor. Baron de Beurnonville, who seems to have owned a major collection of Dutch and Flemish paintings, had a number of sales in Paris during the 1880s.
(6) According to Wagner 1971.
(7) According to A. B. de Vries (orally, The Hague, 1978, note in file), Lehmann sold the painting to Wertheimer in Paris, who sold it to Duits, who sold it to Van den Bergh for "85,000." If Wertheimer did acquire the painting in 1925 from the Lehmann sale, it is unclear where it was during the early 1940s. Otto Wertheimer (1879–1972) was born in Buehl Baden, Germany, and died in Paris. He held a position in the department of the history of art at the University of Berlin until 1933, when as a Jew he lost his job and moved to Paris. Wertheimer’s parents were deported to concentration camps. Although his father and sisters died during the war, Otto Wertheimer, who spent part of World War II in the Vichy government zone and part in Switzerland, was able to obtain his mother’s release from a concentration camp, probably through the payment of a bribe.
(8) Sidney J. van den Bergh, a major collector of seventeenth-century Dutch paintings, was a senior manager of Unilever and Dutch minister of defense in 1959. See A. B. de Vries 1964, Leiden 1965, and A. B. de Vries et al. 1968, and introduction to the present volume. Van den Bergh sold a number of paintings to the Carters through G. Cramer, The Hague. Sales of his collection also took place in Amsterdam in 1975 and London in 1979.
