Page "Aert van der Neer" Paragraph 5

In 1652 Van Der Neer witnessed the fire which consumed the old town-hall of Amsterdam.

He made this accident the subject for two or three pictures, now in the galleries of Berlin and Copenhagen.

Though Amsterdam appears to have been constantly Van Der Neer's domicile, his pictures tell that he was well acquainted with the canals and woods about Haarlem and Leiden, and with the reaches of the Maes and Rhine.

Dordrecht, the home of Albert Cuyp, is sometimes found in his pictures, and substantial evidence exists that there was friendship between the two men.

At some period of their lives they laid their hands to the same canvases, on each of which they left their joint mark.

On some it was the signature of the name, on others the more convincing signature of style.

There are landscapes in the collections of the dukes of Bedford and Westminster, in which Cuyp has represented either the frozen Maes with fishermen packing herrings, or the moon reflecting its light on the river's placid waters.

These are models after which Van Der Neer appears to have worked.