Willem Hendrickszoon de Keyser (1603 – after 1680) was a Dutch Golden Age architect and sculptor primarily active in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

and London. He designed the Oudezijds Huiszittenhuis in Amsterdam and the Crackstate in

Heerenveen Heerenveen (, fry, It Hearrenfean ) is a town and municipality in the province of Friesland (Fryslân), in the Northern Netherlands. In 2021, the town had a population of 29,790 (1 January) while the municipality had a population 50,859 (1 July). ...

, among others. Both buildings have attained '' rijksmonument'' status.Drs. Minne Dijkstra, "Poortjes van Amsterdam 1571 – 1782: Een inventarisatie van historische poortjes in het Centrum van de stad", juni 2008 (bijgewerkt mei 2009)
(Dutch) He also sculpted

relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term '' relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that th ...

s for Amsterdam's new town hall (now the Royal Palace) and for the monumental tombs of the Dutch naval heroes

Maarten Tromp Maarten Harpertszoon Tromp (also written as ''Maerten Tromp''; 23 April 1598 – 31 July 1653) was a Dutch army general and admiral in the Dutch navy. Son of a ship's captain, Tromp spent much of his childhood at sea, including being capture ...

Michiel de Ruyter Michiel Adriaenszoon de Ruyter (; 24 March 1607 – 29 April 1676) was a Dutch admiral. Widely celebrated and regarded as one of the most skilled admirals in history, De Ruyter is arguably most famous for his achievements with the Dutch N ...

, and Jan van Galen. The relief adorning Tromp's tomb depicts the

Battle of Scheveningen The Battle of Scheveningen (also known as the Battle of Ter Heijde) was the final naval battle of the First Anglo-Dutch War. It took place on 31 July 1653 (10 August on the Gregorian calendar), between the fleets of the Commonwealth of Englan ...

."Grafmonument Maarten Tromp in restauratie", Oude en Nieuwe Kerk Delft
(Dutch)
(Dutch)

Biography

Willem de Keyser was a son of the prominent Amsterdam architect

Hendrick de Keyser Hendrick de Keyser (15 May 1565 – 15 May 1621) was a Dutch sculptor, merchant in Belgium bluestone, and architect who was instrumental in establishing a late Renaissance form of Mannerism changing into Baroque. Most of his works appeared in Amst ...

. He was the brother of architect

Pieter de Keyser Pieter de Keyser (c.1595 – 15 September 1676 (buried)) was a Dutch Golden Age architect (''bouwmeester'') and sculptor. He followed in the footsteps of his father Hendrick de Keyser and completed a number of Hendrick de Keyser's buildings a ...

(1595–1676), sculptor Hendrick de Keyser II (the Younger; 1613–1665), and painter

Thomas de Keyser Thomas de Keyser (c. 1596–1667) was a Dutch portrait painter, a dealer in Belgium bluestone and stone mason. He was the most in-demand portrait painter in the Netherlands until the 1630s, when Rembrandt eclipsed him in popularity. Rembrand ...

(c. 1596–1667). Around 1623 he left Amsterdam to settle in London, where he found employment with his brother-in-law, the English architect

Nicholas Stone Nicholas Stone (1586/87 – 24 August 1647) was an English sculptor and architect. In 1619 he was appointed master-mason to James I, and in 1626 to Charles I. During his career he was the mason responsible for not only the building of ...

, who had married Willem's sister Maria. Stone had been charged with the construction of a number of buildings in classical style designed by Inigo Jones for King

Charles I of England Charles I (19 November 1600 – 30 January 1649) was King of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. He was born into the House of Stuart as the second son of King James VI of Scotland, but after hi ...

. During his stay in England, De Keyser married Walburga Parker. He remained in England until 1640, when the turbulent English political situation forced him to return to Amsterdam.P.C. Molhuysen en P.J. Blok, "Keyser, Willem Hendrikszoon de", in P.C. Molhuysen en P.J. Blok (red.), ''Nieuw Nederlandsch biografisch woordenboek''. Deel 2. A.W. Sijthoff, Leiden 1912
(Dutch) On 13 August 1640 he was accepted as a master into the Amsterdam masons'

guild A guild ( ) is an association of artisans and merchants who oversee the practice of their craft/trade in a particular area. The earliest types of guild formed as organizations of tradesmen belonging to a professional association. They sometimes ...

, and on 3 December 1647 the city government appointed him master mason of the city (''stadsmeestersteenhouwer''). He assisted

Jacob van Campen Jacob van Campen (2 February 1596 - 13 September 1657) was a Dutch artist and architect of the Golden Age. Life He was born into a wealthy family at Haarlem, and spent his youth in his home town. Being of noble birth and with time on his hand ...

in designing and building Amsterdam's grand new town hall (now the Royal Palace) as well as the

spire A spire is a tall, slender, pointed structure on top of a roof of a building or tower, especially at the summit of church steeples. A spire may have a square, circular, or polygonal plan, with a roughly conical or pyramidal shape. Spires a ...

of the adjacent Nieuwe Kerk church. On 20 February 1653 he was dismissed from his post as city mason on charges of fraud. De Keyser was alleged to have altered invoices and paid salaries to persons who were not actually employed.A.W. Weissman, "Symon Bosboom", ''Oud-Holland'', Vol. 25, Nr. 1, pp. 1–8, 1907
(Dutch) Van Campen nevertheless requested his services as a sculptor for the monumental tomb of

in Delft's Oude Kerk church and the tomb of Jan van Galen in the Nieuwe Kerk in Amsterdam. In 1658 he declared bankruptcy and left again for England. He was still living in England in 1674, but married in the Hague. He must have returned to Amsterdam not long thereafter, as he was working in 1678 on a monumental tomb for

in the Nieuwe Kerk, over which he brought a case to court in 1680. It is not known when and where he died.

References

Sources

Willem de Keyser
at the

RKD The Netherlands Institute for Art History or RKD (Dutch: RKD-Nederlands Instituut voor Kunstgeschiedenis), previously Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (RKD), is located in The Hague and is home to the largest art history center i ...

databases {{DEFAULTSORT:Keyser, Willem de 1603 births Year of death missing Dutch Golden Age architects Renaissance architects Dutch Golden Age sculptors Dutch male sculptors Architects from Amsterdam