Sea of Land, an atlas of Dutch Polder design and landscape history

book review by art historian Drs Kees Kaldenbach

 

 

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====================

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A full article on the large portrait of the marvellous preacher Uytenboogaard.
Artikel over Uytenboogaerd, Nederlandse versie.
Geert Grote en het religieuze Andachtsbild

TEFAF 2008 art fair

====================

 

Book review
by Kees Kaldenbach of

Sea of Land. The polder as an experimental atlas of Dutch landscape architecture
Authors: Wouter Reh, Clemens Steenbergen, Diederik Aten
Hardcover. 284 pages | Publisher: Noord-Holland Uitgeverij | june 2005 (Dutch) 2007 (English). 251x35x306 mm

Dutch text.

 

The waterwolf attacked mercilessly in the landscape of Holland. When storm winds blew, the waterwolf clawed wildly at the land mass... waves of the lakes, whipped up by stormy winds devoured the edges of these lakes and during evil hours they swallowed up many yards, sometimes hundreds of yards and during bad nights the waterwolf even swallowed entire villages. Due partly to incessant peat winning the remaining soil was already full of holes and weakened by moisture. Firewood was hard to come by and expensive. Thus the soil became a weakened victim for the foul waves.

The solution was both inventive and extremely expensive: to put a ring dike around the lake, with a ring canal, then pumping out the water by means of windmills. Then letting the bottom of the lake dry up and construct blocks of parcels, with roads and drainage ditches. Thus the entite area was tamed according to the most modern of technologies and theories about the ideal geometric ideal town and ideal land. Clearly divided in rectangles and parcels (in Dutch -> kavel), each having a road at one end and a drainage ditch at the other end. In the Beemster polder the investor Dirk van Os was very active. He was a rich merchant from Amsterdam, co-founder of the Dutch United East Company (VOC) and major shareholder in the VOC, with a commanding position on the board as bewindhebber. In the Beemster he bought 1150 morgen land. One morgen is about 0.9 hectare, or "approximately the amount of land tillable by one man behind an ox in the morning hours of a day" (Wiki). Thus he became not only a major shareholder of the VOC but also a major land owner in the Beemster polder, leasing out agricultural land to farmers.

A little known fact: The sum total shareholder investment in the VOC, starting in 1602 was a grand total of just over 6 million guilders / gulden but in the line of Dutch polders the invested mony was many times this sum. Driven on one hand by the fear of the waterwolf, but also by a good sense for profit, Dutchmen opened up investment projects and created a perfect rectangular landscape with total technological mastery over both water and land. An astonishing view to travelers from abroad.

This atlas is a major and artful production by the publisher and a proud celebration of the very best that landscape architecture can offer worldwide. This well appointed atlas has material on all great polders of the Netherlands - a treasure trove of information in text (as stated in the preface: a breakthrough analyses of the crossroads of art, architecture, urban planning, hydraulic engineering and economy), with ample historic maps in full color, composition drawings, technical structure images of dikes, roads, waterways, tree planing schemes, and all of this liberal in size and color, and with superior aerial photography and additional photos on ground level. It is an atlas to totally fall in love with and to take along when exploring for yourself by bike or by car.

The chapter about the Beemster Polder (1612) is convincing in its celebration of the landscape and urban planning an engineering marvels and shows why this very polder has been chosen as part of the UNESCO list of world heritage.

As an art historian and tour guide I would be honoured to take you along in my car and show you these polders and windmills.

 Menu of Kaldenbach tours, expert guided tours to the Polders and Windmills & more.

Sample pages, Beemster polder.

 

Announcement in English by publisher

http://www.uitgeverij-noord-holland.nl/nl/uitgaven.aspx?mod=shop&shp=uitgaven&act=viewprd&prd=11264

Kees Zandvliet o fthe Amsterdam Museum (in Dutch):

http://www.athenaeum.nl/nieuws/keuze-van-de-conservator-zee-van-land

Research presented in November 2014 about the Amsterdam art collector Mannheimer: he almost bought the best Vermeer: The Art of Painting (now in Vienna)

 Menu of Kaldenbach tours, also for expert guided tours to the Polders and hundreds of Windmills.

 

====================

Adriaen Coorte, by Quentin Buvelot, book & exhibition catalogue.
De Grote Rembrandt, door Gary Schwartz, boek.
Geschiedenis van Alkmaar, boek.
Carel Fabritius, Tentoonstellingscatalogus.
Frans van Mieris, Tentoonstellingscatalogus.
From Rembrandt to Vermeer, Grove Art catalogue, book.
Vermeer Studies, Congresbundel.
C. Willemijn Fock: Het Nederlandse interieur in beeld, boek.
Het Huwelijksgeschenk (1934), boek over de egoïstische vrouw, die haar luiheid botviert.
Zandvliet, 250 De Rijksten van de Gouden Eeuw , boek + nieuwe stippenplattegrond!
Ik doe wat ik doe, teksten van Lennaert Nijgh , boek + cd
Het Rotterdam Boek, boek.
Bouwen in Nederland 600 - 2000, boek.
Hollandse Stadsgezichten/ Dutch Cityscape, exhib. cat.
Zee van Land / over Hollandse Polders (NL) boek
Sea of Land / about Dutch Polders (English) book
A full article on the large portrait of the marvellous preacher Uytenboogaard.
Artikel over Uytenboogaerd, Nederlandse versie.
Geert Grote en het religieuze Andachtsbild

TEFAF 2008 art fair

====================

 

 Menu of Kaldenbach tours


How to find Drs Kaldenbach:

Map of Haarlemmermeerstraat, Amsterdam. Please note this tricky situation: there is another street in town that sounds almost the same: Haarlemmerstraat. You need however to find my street, Haarlemmermeerstraat. Take tram 2 to Hoofddorpplein square or tram 1 to Suriname plein square.

 

Contact information:

Drs. Kees Kaldenbach , kalden@xs4all.nl

 


Menu of tours

 


 

Reaction, questions? Read client testimonials.

Drs. Kees Kaldenbach, art historian, kalden@xs4all.nl Haarlemmermeerstraat 83hs, 1058 JS Amsterdam (near Surinameplein, ring road exit s106, streetcar tram 1 and 17).

Telephone 020 669 8119; cell phone 06 - 2868 9775.

Open seven days a week.

Amsterdam Chamber of Commerce (Kamer van Koophandel) number of Johannesvermeer.info / Lichaam & Ziel [ Body & Soul] is 3419 6612.

E mail esponses and bookings to art historian Drs. Kees Kaldenbach.

This page forms part of the 2000+ item Vermeer web site at www.xs4all.nl/~kalden

Launched July 15, 2011. Updated October 25, 2016.