This accurate view of the Amsterdam harbour illustrates the city’s position as the epicentre of the 17th century world with the Dutch Republic at the height of its commercial power and Amsterdam being a city of international trade, religious tolerance and prosperity.
In Storck’s view, the Paalhuis is depicted to the left. The building was erected in Dutch Renaissance style in 1561 when the Nieuwe Brug over the Damrak was reconstructed in stone. It was here every skipper calling at Amsterdam harbour had to register and pay their ‘paalgeld’ or port fees. The building also served as a mailing office and maritime announcements were posted on its wooden pillars, as can be seen in the present picture. From the Nieuwe Brug the 17th century by-passer had a spectacular view over the harbour. The location was depicted in the Golden Age from different viewpoints such as the ‘Paalhuis in winter’ by Jan Abrahamsz. Beerstraten (Rijksmuseum, no. SK-A-20) and in a drawing and painting, both signed and dated 1679, by Abraham Storck, the artist rendering the scenery from the opposite side (respectively in the Collection Van Eeghen, Amsterdam and currently with D. Koetser, Zurich).
In the background stands the Haringpakkerstoren, where herring was gathered, pickled, packed and traded. To the far right is the Nieuwe Stadsherberg, a large inn built on wooden piles in the IJ in 1662, connected with a long bridge to the Texelse Kade (nowadays Prins Hendrikkade). Here visitors were accommodated when evening closure of the harbour had passed. Various pleasure yachts, a trademark in compositions by Storck, sail in the foreground on the calm water.
Today the view is very different. The Paalhuis was demolished as early as 1681, as was the Haringpakkerstoren in 1829. With the erection of the Central Station on an artificial island at the end of the 19th century, the Nieuwe Stadsherberg had to give way to the new build and the Amstel estuary was enclosed. The waterfront moved north behind the railway line, where new docks and warehouses sprouted.
All three sons of maritime painter Jan Jansz. Sturckenburgh; Johannes, Jacobus and Abraham, probably trained with their father in the family studio in Amsterdam. The painted oeuvre of the three brothers is very similar and difficult to distinguish and the attributions of pictures by Abraham and Jacobus are often being confused. In all likelihood they may well have collaborated in single pictures executed in their family workshop, meeting the high demand for cityscapes and ‘capriccio’ views. Two other variants of this present imposing view are known. One, bearing the signature ‘A. Storck’, was sold in 2008 with Sotheby's as Jacobus Storck, however, it was documented in the RKD, The Hague as either Abraham Strock or Attributed to Jacobus Storck. The second work, sold in 1953 with Mak van Waay as Abraham Storck, is most likely identical to the canvas exhibited in Amsterdam and Toronto in 1977 (see: Amsterdams Historisch Museum and Art Gallery of Ontario, The Dutch Cityscape in the 17th Century and its Sources, 1977, pp. 228-9, no. 125), and is attributed as either Johannes Storck or Jacob Storck.A drawing of this view of 1678, which is closest is composition to the latter painting, was previously recorded in the collection of C.L. Wurfbain, and is equally attributed to Johannes Storck (see: B. Bakker e.o., De verzameling Van Eeghen, Amsterdamse tekeningen 1600-1950, Zwolle, 1988, ill. under no. 38, fig. 38.1).
HENRIJ THEODOOR COX (1868-1935)
Henrij Th. Cox was an intellectual, entrepreneur, lieutenant at sea and a writer. He was the co-founder of several companies in the ports of Amsterdam, such as the Amsterdamsch Havenbedrijf and the Nederlandsche Steenkolen Handelmaatschappij. As was one of the directors of the Hollandsche Stoomboot Maatschappij, the Dutch Steamboat Company, he governed from Amsterdam scheduled shipping services to various British, European and West-African ports. Cox was an avid sailor and a passionate researcher of Napoleon. In 1916 his book Napoleon krijgsgevangen : historie en legende was published. Born in Batavia as the son of a celebrated businessman, Cox moved as a young boy to The Netherlands, where he grew up surrounded by Asian works of art collected by his parents in the Indies. He himself started collecting with the help of connoisseur and collector Frits Lugt and held a particular fondness for maritime subjects. By the end of his lifetime his collection comprised of works by eminent masters of the Dutch Golden Age such as Willem van de Velde, Lieven Verschuier, Willem Kalf, Aert van der Neer, Aelbert Cuyp, Jan Siberechts and Willem Claesz. Heda amongst others.
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