(Amsterdam 1713–1761)
The Sint Laurenskerk, Rotterdam, from the Northeast; and
The Grote Markt, Haarlem, from the Northwest,
signed lower right (the second): J. T. Kompe f. and dated on the clock: AN/NO/ 17/30,
oil on panel, each 40 x 52.1 cm, framed, a pair (2)

Provenance:
sale, Christie’s, New York, 31 October 2017, lot 43;
where bought by the present owner

The present detailed and elegant views of Rotterdam and Haarlem lit by gentle skies are outstanding examples within the early oeuvre of one of the Dutch Republic’s foremost architectural painters of the 18th century. They are among the first known paintings executed by the artist.

Inspired by the artistic register and innovations of his forebears, such as the townscape painter Jan van de Heyden (1637–1713), in the carefully composed prospect of Haarlem’s St. Bavo, ten Compe has substituted the date on the clock tower that in reality reads ‘AN/NO/15/20’ for ‘AN/NO/1730’, the year when the painting was executed. Ten Compe, then a precocious seventeen year old, has taken other liberties with this view of the Grote Markt. While the Vleeshal, or meat market, and coffee house are shown in other contemporary views, he has relocated the Enschede publishing house, framing the right of the the composition with its inscribed signage, from its real location on the Frankenstraat. This may have been done to emphasise civic pride in the town’s printing industry. Haarlemers regarded native son Laurens Coster (circa 1370–1440) as the inventor of the printing press. These innovations of ten Compe’s entertained his patrons, attracting the attention of the wealthy collector Gerrit Braamcamp (1699–1771), whose collection of 380 Dutch and Flemish paintings was of considerable importance.

The vibrancy of the quayside, before Rotterdam’s St Laurenskirk, (currently the only remainder of the medieval city of Rotterdam, following its reconstruction after the Second World War) is enhanced by the brightly painted carriage wheels and courtly dress of the couple processing past the church. The panel underneath displays an earlier, abandoned composition, with a series gabled canal houses projecting through the sky beside the Laurenskerk. The Haarlem view has two figures which were not carried through into the final paint stage. These pentimenti are typical of Jan ten Compe.