Born as one the four sons of table and cloth maker Abraham Danielsz. Beerstraaten, Jan married twice of which his son Abraham (1643-1666) who also became a painter was one of eleven children (seven sons and four daughters) of his first marriage of which only five still were alive when Jan married for a second time after his first wife passed away in 1664. From his second marriage with Albertje Egbertsdr. van Crale in 1665 Jan had a daughter Albertje and four sons. On both his addresses at the Elandstraat and later the Haarlemmerpoort he hung the sign out De Schipbreuk (The Shipwreck). Jan Abrahamsz. is to be confused by two other contemporary marine painters Anthonie Beerstraten and Abraham Beerstraten.[1] Jan was known both as a marine and landscape painter (for which Jan Asselijn (1610-1652) is known to have painted staffage before 1653).
In the catalogue of the Ingelheim exhibition of 1964, the two sheets were shown as Jan Beerstraten and described as follows: "The drawings were made on a sea voyage on the Zuidersee, where all the places depicted are located, which the draughtsman took part in, probably as a guest on a mail or merchant ship. The views are all taken from the seaward side, sometimes from different angles."
Together with the other sheet in our collection, this drawing shows a most personal travel diary of a trip on the Zuiderzee (nowadays the Ijsselmeer, Markermeer and Gouwzee, closed off from the North Sea by the Afsluitdijk since 1932) where Beerstraaten swiftly sketched the horizons of the villages seen from the water.
The upper panorama shows a view on Monnickendam with it's Grote or Nicolaaskerk and the Speeltoren on the left, nowadays housing the Waterlandsmuseum de Speeltoren. The Speeltoren is also the town hall tower which houses the oldest carillon in the Netherlands that can be played by hand on a diatonic stick keyboard. The center panorama is of importance as a postdate for both drawings, as it shows the predecessor of the Hervormde Kerk (Reformed Church) of Marken for which the Church Bells were casted by Johannes van Trier in 1647. On the lower panorama a view on Edam, with the Grote or Sint Nikolaaskerk (famous for it's 32 stained windows designed by Isaac Nocolay) and the Kleine Kerk.
[1] Laurens J. Bol, Die Holländische Marinemalerei des 17. Jahrhunderts.
Klinkhardt & Biermann, 1973. p.286-287.
[2] Monika Lichtenfeld, Eberhard W. Kornfeld, Frits Lugt, Holländische Zeichnungen des 17. Jahrhunderts in Ingelheim am Rhein (with a foreword by Frits Lugt).
Ingelheim am Rhein, 1964. cat. no. 8
