Art Museum Journal

A 17th-century Etching: The Port of Amsterdam and the Schreyers’ Hoek,

Scene of Henry Hudson’s 1609 Departure for the New World
By ARTHUR KIRMSS
August 13, 2009

Second in a series of monthly articles honoring New York State’s Henry Hudson Quadricentennial, 1609-2000, featuring images of authentic artworks from the 1600s, the kind known and used in old Amsterdam in the Netherlands, Nieuw Amsterdam (New York City) and Beverwijck (Albany), in both northern and southern New York State.

The Port of Amsterdam and the Schreyers’ Hoek provides the viewer with four select images of the Dutch city’s port in the 17th Century.

The Art of Etching
Etchings were drawn with a sharp needle onto the specially coated surface of a copper plate. The scratches of the drawing cut through the coating to expose the copper, thus enabling the artist’s image to be permanently etched with an acid named Dutch mordant. The plate was then cleaned, inked, wiped and printed on damp paper placed upon the plate, then run through a hand press. The print described here is one such work. The finished etching was pulled from the copper and tacked up to dry. It was then mounted and framed for display. The author considers this etching a popular work of art made during the time of Dutch Baroque artist Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669).

The Port of Amsterdam and the Schreierstoren
This etching depicts the port of Amsterdam during the Golden Age of Dutch art. It describes the bridges, buildings and people in period clothing walking among them. The print is likely one of the few of its kind to have survived into the modern era. After some 350 years, the bridges may be long gone. Yet they’re visible in this image and help to date the print to the mid-17th Century. The style of the people’s attire portrayed in this image also corroborates the print’s dating. The spelling Schreyers’ Hoek is from the 17th Century; today the building’s name is called the Schreierstoren.

The structure depicted in the print’s upper left-hand quadrant still stands. This is the Schreierstoren or Weeping Tower, so named for the townswomen who stood on its walls and cried out a last farewell to their men who sailed from the ancient building on transatlantic voyages often lasting months and years. The name indicates its place as the Schreyers’ Hoek.

The Schreierstoren is one of the last remaining bastions of the old city wall of Amsterdam. Built in 1482, this late medieval brick tower can be seen today by the outer dock along the Ij River, the city’s original main waterway. The tower’s location is known today as Schreierstoren.

The Weeping Tower was witness to Henry Hudson’s departure in 1609 on the Half Moon, the ship he captained when he embarked on his historic voyage to the port which would be named Nieuw Amsterdam (later New York). This print is a relic from the century of the Hudson River’s discovery, an era we celebrate four centuries later in 2009. According to the Michelin Guide for the Netherlands, a bronze plaque affixed to the tower commemorates Hudson’s 1609 trip to the New World.

Note:  Arthur Kirmss’ book Zeewant Maecken: Wampum Revealed is forthcoming.