The City Walls of Utrecht by the "Plompetoren"
Paulus van Liender (Dutch, 1731-1797)
1763
View the original$19
Type
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Materials & printing
Archival matte paper, 189 g/m² (10.3 mil), sourced from Japan, printed with multicolor water-based inkjet so every brushstroke stays crisp. Framed prints arrive ready to hang in a .75″ ayous-wood frame with an acrylite front. Sized to standard frames by cropping, never stretching — at most about 3% comes off one edge, which isn’t noticeable on most pieces, and we only offer a size when it stays that small.
Shipping & returns
Made to order and delivered in 5–8 business days (2–4 to print, 3–4 in transit). US shipping only for now. Because each print is made for your order, all sales are final — but if it arrives damaged or defective, send us a photo within 14 days and we’ll replace it free. Full policy.
Why is it this affordable?
A thin, flat margin on every piece — just enough to keep the store running. Most of what you pay is the print itself. We only sell sizes that reproduce at full quality, and we don’t mark up the large sizes the way most shops do.
About this work
Delicately and fastidiously wrought, this view of the bend in a canal documents a specific place and time. Liender, who preferred topographical and architectural subjects throughout his career, drew this view of the Utrecht city walls with the Plompetoren (Hulking Tower) on several occasions. The knife-edge precision in varying the saturation of the ink and wash helps create the illusion of the glassy surface of the canal at the lower center of this drawing. Despite the care with which the structures and foliage are depicted, more than half of the drawn sheet is devoted to an ethereal description of light and air.
- Medium
- Pen and black ink, with brush and gray wash, on ivory laid paper
- Original size
- 21.4 × 32.5 cm (8 7/16 × 12 13/16 in.)
Museum record · 2 owners · 4 exhibitions
Provenance
- Pieter Langerhuizen Lzn., (1839–1918), Crainloo, Holland; sold, Frederick Muller, Amsterdam, April 29–May 1, 1919, lot 489.
- Sold, Sotheby’s, New York, Jan. 9, 1996, lot 187, to Dorothy Braude Edinburg, Brookline, Mass.; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2013.
Exhibitions
- Art Institute of Chicago, Gifts of a Lifetime: 49 Old Masters Drawings from the Dorothy Braude Edinburg Collection, Dec. 11,1998–Mar. 28,1999, checklist 35.
- Art Institute of Chicago, Drawings in Dialogue: Old Master Through Modern, The Harry B. and Bessie K. Braude Memorial Collection, June 3–July 30, 2006.
- Art Institute of Chicago, The Thrill of the Chase: Drawings for the Harry B. and Bessie K. Braude Memorial Collection, Mar. 15–June 15, 2014.
- The Art Institute of Chicago, "Rubens, Rembrandt, and Drawing in the Golden Age", September 28, 2019 - January 5, 2020, 267, 305, 333,, cat. by Victoria Sancho Lobis, et. al.
