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

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

Watercolor in grisaille, ca. 1750 - 1780. 5 5/8 x 8 1/16 with thread margins. Laid paper mounted on heavier laid sheet with pale beige watercolor wash border. Signature trimmed off, bottom right, with remnant visible. "H. Spilman" inscribed in pencil on wash border under image. Various pencil notations and numbers on mount, and small (1/4") circular seal in black ink on verso, bottom left of sheet, along with penciled inscription "de Molen by de Koepoout (?) te Delft." Image in very good condition on lightly time-toned mount; both professionally deacidified. 

A summer scene along a Dutch canal. A large windmill dominates the left foreground, with all its features shown in detail, including a tiny figure at the rail. In the center foreground, three men work with a machine on the canal bank. Behind them the wide path stretches away into the distance. Trees line the far bank of the canal and surround the distant buildings. An interesting glimpse of mid-eighteenth century Dutch village life.

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.

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[View of Delft]