Claes Janszoon Visscher (1587 – 19 June 1652) was a
Dutch Golden Age
The Dutch Golden Age ( nl, Gouden Eeuw ) was a period in the history of the Netherlands, roughly spanning the era from 1588 (the birth of the Dutch Republic) to 1672 (the Rampjaar, "Disaster Year"), in which Dutch trade, science, and Dutch art, ...
draughtsman A draughtsman (British spelling) or draftsman (American spelling) may refer to:
* An architectural drafter, who produced architectural drawings until the late 20th century
* An artist who produces drawings that rival or surpass their other types ...
, engraver, mapmaker, and publisher. He was the founder of the successful Visscher family mapmaking business. The firm that he established in Amsterdam would be passed down his generations until it was sold to
Peter Schenk.
Biography
Visscher, who was born and died in
Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...
, was also known as Nicolas Joannes Piscator or Nicolas Joannis Visscher II, after his father who lived ca. 1550–1612. He learned the art of etching and printing from his father, and helped grow the family printing and mapmaking business to one of the largest in his time. It was a family business; his son
Nicolaes Visscher I Nicolaes Visscher I (25 January 1618, Amsterdam – buried 11 September 1679, Amsterdam) was a Dutch engraver, cartographer and publisher. He was the son of Claes Janszoon Visscher. His son, Nicolaes Visscher II (1649–1702), also worked with him ...
(1618–1679), and his grandson
Nicolaes Visscher II Nicolaes Visscher II (1649, Amsterdam – 1702, Amsterdam) was a Dutch engraver, cartographer and publisher. He was the son of Nicolaes Visscher I Nicolaes Visscher I (25 January 1618, Amsterdam – buried 11 September 1679, Amsterdam) was a Dutch e ...
(1649–1702) were also mapmakers in Amsterdam on the
Kalverstraat
The Kalverstraat (, ) is a busy shopping street of Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands. The street runs roughly North-South for about 750 meters, from Dam Square to Muntplein square.
The Kalverstraat is the most expensive shopping stree ...
. The times were with the Visschers for other reasons; due to the Protestant reformation, the older Bibles with their "Roman Catholic" illustrations were seen as outdated and
apocryphal
Apocrypha are works, usually written, of unknown authorship or of doubtful origin. The word ''apocryphal'' (ἀπόκρυφος) was first applied to writings which were kept secret because they were the vehicles of esoteric knowledge considered ...
, but to liven up the new Protestant Bibles for the less well-read clergy, the Visschers produced illustrated maps and even landscapes of the ''places'' in the Bible. This became a very successful family business, with collaboration with many respected draughtsmen of the day. A
new translation of the Bible was underway in the Netherlands, and until then, the new German translation done by
Johannes Piscator
Johannes Piscator (; german: Johannes Fischer; 27 March 1546 – 26 July 1625) was a German Reformed theologian, known as a Bible translator and textbook writer.
He was a prolific writer, and initially moved around as he held a number of positions ...
, published in 1602–1604, was translated into Dutch. Though probably not a relative, his Bible translation was accepted by the Dutch Staten-General in 1602, which only lent more publicity and authenticity to the "Fisher" name.
He first established his company in Amsterdam within a district known for publishing maps, the area saw fellow contemporary mapmakers such as
Jodocus Hondius
Jodocus Hondius (Latinized version of his Dutch language, Dutch name: ''Joost de Hondt'') (17 October 1563 – 12 February 1612) was a Flemish people, Flemish and Dutch engraving, engraver and cartographer. He is sometimes called Jodocus Hon ...
and
Pieter van den Keere
Pieter van den Keere ( la, Petrus Kaerius 1571 – c. 1646) was a Flemish engraver, publisher and globe maker who worked for the most part of his career in England and the Dutch Republic.
Life
He was born in Ghent, son of engraver Hendrik van den ...
. There is also a belief that Hondius might have apprenticed Visscher.
The trademark of the Visschers was a fisherman, as he often published under the name Piscator. In his maps, a small fisherman would be strategically placed somewhere near water.
If the subject was a landscape without a stream or pond, then often a figure walking with a fishing rod can be seen. Their map plates were reused for a century by other printers who unknowingly copied the entire plates, including the tell-tale fishermen. Observant scholars are thus able to trace the provenance of Bibles, maps, and landscapes from these signs.
Aside from Bibles, Claes Visscher II primarily etched and published landscapes, portraits, and maps. He etched over 200 plates and his maps included elaborate original borders. Visscher died in 1652.
He was a publisher of prints by
Esaias van de Velde
Esaias van de Velde (17 May 1587 (baptized) – 18 November 1630 (buried)
) was a Dutch landscape painter.
Biography
He was born in Amsterdam, where his Flemish father Hans had fled as a Protestant in 1585. He probably studied under his fath ...
, and
David Vinckboons
David Vinckboons (baptized 13 August 1576 – c.1632 ) was a Dutch Golden Age painter born in Mechelen, Southern Netherlands. Vinckboons, whose name is often spelled as Vingboons, Vinghboons, Vinckebonis or Vinckboom, had at least ten chil ...
, and was a big influence on
Roelant Roghman
Roelant Roghman (14 March 1627 - 3 January 1692) was a Dutch Golden Age painter, sketcher and engraver.
Biography
Roghman was born in Amsterdam, the son of the engraver Henrick Lambertsz Roghman and Maria Jacobs Savery. His mother was a daughte ...
and on his sister Geertruyd.
Geertruid Roghman
in the Netherlands female lexicon of history
Gallery
File:Claes Jansz Visscher - detail kaart van NL.jpg, Detail of a map from 1630 with the "Fisher logo". The signature is both the fisherman drawing and the text "by C.J.Visscher in the Kalverstraet in Amsterdam.
File:Claes Jansz Visscher - detail Kerck tot Sloten.png, Fisher added to print of drawing by Geertruydt Roghman
Geertruydt Roghman (1625, in Amsterdam – 1657, in Amsterdam), was a Dutch Golden Age painter, engraver, and printmaker.
Biography
Roghman was born in Amsterdam, the daughter of the engraver Henrick Lambertsz Roghman and Maria Jacobs Savery. Acc ...
.
File:London panorama, 1616b.jpg, Visscher panorama
The Visscher panorama is an engraving by Claes Visscher (1586-1652) depicting a panorama of London. It shows an imagined view of London in around 1600. The engraving was first published in Amsterdam in 1616, with the title "Londinum Florentissi ...
, panorama of London
The city of London has long been a subject for panoramas by artists, mapmakers, and topographers. Many of their works have this as their title.
History
The earliest topographical drawings preceded maps according to modern definition, although they ...
, 1616
File:Map of Paris by Claes Jansz. Visscher - Harold B. Lee Library.jpg, 1618 map of Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
by Claes Janszoon Visscher
File:Claes Janszoon Visscher - Nova Totius Terrarum Orbis Geographica Ac Hydrographica Tabula Autore'.jpg, 1652 world map by Claes Janszoon Visscher
References
Claes Jansz Visscher
with some etchings in the Rijksmuseum
The Rijksmuseum () is the national museum of the Netherlands dedicated to Dutch arts and history and is located in Amsterdam. The museum is located at the Museum Square in the borough of Amsterdam South, close to the Van Gogh Museum, the St ...
External links
''Vermeer and The Delft School''
a full text exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, which includes material on Claes Jansz. Visscher (see index)
*
Pieter Bruegel the Elder: Drawings and Prints
', a full text exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, which includes material on Claes Jansz. Visscher (see index)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Visscher, Claes Jansz.
1587 births
1652 deaths
17th-century Dutch cartographers
Engravers from Amsterdam
Dutch Golden Age printmakers