Amsterdam (Rough Guide) - Martin Dunford [43]
The Grachtengordel | Grachtengordel west |
Herengracht 380–394 and the Huis Marseille
The gracious symmetries of the Cromhouthuizen contrast with the grandiose pretension of Herengracht 380, built in the style of a French chateau for a tobacco planter in 1889. Ornately decorated, the mansion’s main gable is embellished with reclining figures and the bay window by cherubs, mythical characters and an abundance of acanthus leaves. It was the first house in the city to be supplied with electricity and it now houses the Netherlands Institute for War Documentation – the Nederlands Instituut voor Oorlogsdocumentatie. Opposite, across the canal, is the only spot in Amsterdam where the houses come straight out of the water, Venice-like, without the intervention of a pavement.
Also on the west side of the canal, Herengracht 388 is another handsome Philip Vingboons building, while Herengracht 394, the narrow house with the bell gable at the corner of Leidsegracht, bears a distinctive facade stone illustrating the legend of the four Aymon brothers, shown astride their trusty steed. The subject of a popular medieval chanson, the legend is all about honour, loyalty and friendship, dynastic quarrels and disputes, revolving around the trials and tribulations of the horse. The long, rambling tale ends when the redoubtable beast repeatedly breaks free from the millstones tied around its neck and refuses to drown; the third time it comes to the surface, the brothers walk away, no longer able to watch the agonies of their animal. Assuming he’s been abandoned, the horse cries out and promptly expires.
The Huis Marseille, Keizersgracht 401 (Tues–Sun 11am–6pm; €5; www.huismarseille.nl), is a photography museum offering a rolling programme of exhibitions mostly featuring contemporary photographers. The museum occupies a grand old mansion, but the display space is confined to just four rooms.
The Grachtengordel | Grachtengordel west | Herengracht 380–394 and the Huis Marseille |
Han van Meegeren and the forged Vermeers
Keizersgracht 321, on the other side of the canal from the Meritis building, is in itself fairly innocuous, but this was once the home of the Dutch art forger Han van Meegeren (1889–1947). During the German occupation of World War II, Meegeren sold a “previously unknown” Vermeer to a German art dealer working for Herman Goering; what neither the agent nor Goering realized was that Meegeren had painted it himself. A forger par excellence, Meegeren had developed a sophisticated ageing technique in the early 1930s. He mixed his paints with phenol formaldehyde resin dissolved in benzene and then baked the finished painting in an oven for several hours; the end result fooled everyone, including the curators of the Rijksmuseum, who had bought another “Vermeer” from him in 1941.
The forgeries may well have never been discovered but for a strange sequence of events. In May 1945 a British captain by the name of Harry Anderson discovered Meegeren’s “Vermeer” in Goering’s art collection. Meegeren was promptly arrested as a collaborator and, to get himself out of a pickle, he soon confessed to this and other forgeries, arguing that he had duped and defrauded the Nazis rather than helping them – though he had, of course, pocketed the money. It was a fine argument and his reward was a short prison sentence – but in the event he died before he was locked up.
The Grachtengordel | Grachtengordel west |
Leidsegracht
The Leidsegracht is a largely residential canal, lined with chic town houses and a medley of handsome gables. It’s a tranquil scene – or at least it would be were it not for the flat-topped tour boats, which use the canal as a short cut as they shunt into and out of Prinsengracht. An eighteenth-century wine merchant by the name of Paling would have welcomed the sight of a boat when he slipped into the Leidsegracht on a dark November evening. Well known as one of the greediest men in Amsterdam, he could apparently shovel down seven pounds of beef,