Anthonie Waterloo
Flemish, c. 1610 - 1690
Dutch painter, draughtsman and etcher. He was the son of a Flemish cloth-shearer who had fled to Amsterdam for religious reasons. In 1640 Antoni married Cathalyna van der Dorp in Amsterdam, and between 1641 and 1651 they had six children. Although he is recorded as a ‘painter’ in the baptismal registers of his children, his work predominantly consists of landscape drawings and etchings. His earliest known dated work is a sheet depicting a View of the Blaauwbrug in Amsterdam (1649; Amsterdam, Gemeente Archf).
Woodland scenery compositionally inspired by Jacob van Ruisdael and technically executed in the vein of Jan Vermeer van Haarlem II features prominently in his few paintings. There are two works signed A. waterlo f in public collections: Forest Scene with a Wooden Bridge (Gotha, Schloss Friedenstein) and Ambush in a Wood (Munich, Alte Pin.). Works bearing the monogram aw may be found in private collections or on the art market. Several unsigned works have been ascribed to him, including Landscape with Trees (Amsterdam, Rijksmus.), Winter Scene with Houses (Bordeaux, Mus. B.-A.) and Landscape with Farmhouses (Innsbruck, Tirol. Landesmus.). Paintings ascribed to Waterlo have sometimes turned out to be copies after his etchings (e.g. Landscape, Liverpool, Walker A.G.).
Waterlo was a renowned etcher in his time and there are almost 140 prints to his name, mostly forest and woodland scenes with both Dutch and Italianate motifs and usually published in series. A number of etchings of panoramic views from the Cunera Tower in Rhenen are not by Waterlo, as was originally thought, but are by Johannes Ruisscher. The inscriptions AW ex. indicate only that these works were published by Waterlo, though he did rework the original copperplates. In 1653 a painter of this name was given freedom of the city of Leeuwarden, but it is unclear whether this refers to the same artist.
Between 1650 and 1653 Waterlo made many topographical views of Amsterdam. These were large detailed drawings of folio size, which were not conceived as studies, but were intended for sale. During this period, Waterlo, with Jan Beerstraten and Roelant Roghman, popularized this genre. Among the best examples are views of the Binnen Amstel River (Paris, Fond. Custodia, Inst. Néer.), the Rijzenhoofd ramparts (Amsterdam, Hist. Mus.) and the Haarlem, Heiligeweg and Zaagmolen city gates (all three Amsterdam, Fodor Mus., Rijksmus. and Gemeente Archf respectively). Waterlo travelled a great deal after 1655, the year he probably made the traditional Rhine voyage. While travelling along the lower Rhine he drew large-scale landscapes of Utrecht, near Rhenen, Arnhem, Nijmegen and Cleves (e.g. Amsterdam, Rijksmus.; Edinburgh, N.G.; London, BM). His drawing of a View of Augsburg (Vienna, Albertina) indicates that afterwards he went south and possibly visited Italy. Some time between this trip and 1660 he toured northern Germany and Poland, recording his impressions in a sketchbook. He presumably sold the sheets of this book himself, after inscribing them with his monogram, aw. He also made large, detailed drawings of views in and around Hamburg, along the Elbe (Altona, Blankenese) in the province of Holstein, near Bergedorf and from Lüneburg east to Danzig (now Gdan'sk), where he depicted, among other things, the Oliva monastery (e.g. Hamburg, Ksthalle).
In 1674 his wife died and he settled in Maarssen, a country seat near Utrecht. From about 1675 he was in regular contact with Jan Weenix, who painted the staffage in his landscapes. In 1677 he lived in Paarlenburg, a small country house outside Maarssen, where he drew a series of country houses and views of the nearby seigniory of Maarsseveen (Amsterdam, Hist. Mus. and Rijksmus.; Brussels, Mus. A. Anc.; Haarlem, Teylers Mus.; Leiden, Rijksuniv., Prentenkab.; Ottawa, N.G.; Paris, Fond. Custodia, Inst. Néer.). Waterlo is presumed to have left before 1688 for Utrecht, where he died in Job’s Hospital.
B. P. J. Broos. "Waterlo, Antoni." In Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online, http://www.oxfordartonline.com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/subscriber/article/grove/art/T090818 (accessed March 8, 2012).
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