Spilman, Henricus (or Hendrik) [View of Delft]

Henricus (or Hendrik) Spilman. [View of Delft].

Watercolor in grisaille, ca. 1750 - 1780. 5 5/8 x 8 1/8 with thread margins. Laid paper mounted on heavier laid sheet with pale beige watercolor wash border. Signed "Hs Spilman" on tab, bottom right. Various pencil notations and numbers on mount, and small (1/4") circular chop in black ink on verso of sheet, along with penciled name "Pynaker." Image in very good condition on lightly time-toned mount; both professionally deacidified.   

A delicately detailed watercolor view of three figures, two adults and a child, strolling along a canal, with a church in the near distance. Clusters of trees surround the church and a second building just visible to the right, and border the path to the left of the strolling family. Open fields extend into the right foreground under a lightly clouded sky. The church depicted may be the "Nieuwe Kerck" in Delft, built in the second half of the 16th century. This is a gentle and bucolic view of the Dutch countryside.

Henricus (or Hendrik) Spilman (1721-1784) was a Dutch draftsman and watercolorist specializing in landscapes and city views. Born in Amsterdam, Spilman became a student of Abraham de Haen II, and entered the Guild of Haarlem in 1742, engraving portraits and landscapes in the style of Everdingen and Berchem.

Click the link below to view others from this series: 

[View of a Windmill in Delft]