Abraham Rademaker, son of the glazier Frederick Rademaker, was probably self-taught. In 1706 he was living in Amsterdam and gave his profession as an etcher. Rademaker specialized in the representation of landscapes depicting Dutch cities and historic monuments but also executed imaginary Arcadian landscapes. He also published topographical views of the northern Netherlands, the Rhine and Cleves, either based on images after well-known seventeenth-century drawings and prints or on his own sketches. Rademaker traveled extensively to record cities, villages and country estates in drawings. After 1724 topographic views based on his works were published under the title Kabinet van Nederlandsche oudheeden. His etchings provide an invaluable record of Holland in the seventeenth century and the early eighteenth century. Rademaker moved to Haarlem in 1730 and joined the Haarlem Guild of Saint Luke in 1732.
This is a preparatory drawing by Rademaker for the etching in his Kabinet van Nederlandsche outheden en gezichten, published in 1725. The artist here freely copied the composition (and transcribed the text on the verso) of a drawing of the same subject by an anonymous, early seventeenth-century artist, now in the Stadsarchief, Amsterdam (van Eeghen collection). This defensive structure stood on the site now occupied by the Hotel de l’Europe in Amsterdam.
The present drawing is the preparatory drawing to the drawing of the Rondeel by Rademaker in the Christoffel Beudeker (1676-1756) Manuscript in Amsterdam.[1]
A warm thanks to Jan de Klerk for bringing the drawing in the Beudeker manuscript to my attention.[2]
[1] City Archives Amsterdam, bibliotheekcollectie (15030/2891).
[2] Correspondence by e-mail, 1 March 2024.
