signed and inscribed ‘JdB: ad Viv./ St Jans Kerk te Arnem.’
black chalk, pen and brown ink, brown-grey wash, watermark pro patria, pen and brown ink framing lines
15.5 x 20.6 cm

Provenance:
acquired at auction 20 April 1940 (auction Her[t]zberger according to a note on the mount);
Private Collection, The Netherlands.

Literature:
H. Romers, 'J. de Beijer oeuvre-catalogus', The Hague, 1969, no. 40.

De Beijer depicted the St Jans Kerk in Arnhem in a number of drawings of which some are dated 1742. Another, sketchier version of the present composition, which is about half the size of this sheet, is in the Gelders Archief. It seems plausible that the sheet now in the Gelders Archief was made from life and that the present drawing was later executed in the artist’s studio. This sheet probably functioned as the final design for the engraving by Hendrik Spilman which was used in ‘Het verheerlykt Nederland of Kabinet van hedendaagsche gezigten’, published in Amsterdam in 1746.

[1] see H. Romers, 'op. cit.', nos. 34-40.
[2] ibid., no.