Lot 1042 Dα

This painting by Joost Cornelisz. Droochsloot documents a highly important event in Netherlandish history, which took place on 31st July 1618 in his home town of Utrecht. Despite the signing of the 12 Years' Truce with Spain in 1609, political and religious differences between the Netherlandish provinces later flared up once again and culminated in the conflict between the more moderate Remonstrants and the orthodox Counter-Remonstrants. Maurice of Orange (1567-1625) was the son of William the Silent and became stadtholder of Holland and Zeeland in 1585, Utrecht and Overijssel in 1590, and Gelderland in 1591. He allied with the Counter-Remonstrants, and in response to this, many of the Netherlandish cities allied with the Remonstrants proceeded to recruit their own bands of soldiers. Maurice worked tirelessly against this, managing to disband the troops and council organised by the city of Utrecht without bloodshed in late July of 1618. This event took place on the Neude - a large square in the centre of Utrecht - and it is here that the painter has depicted this scene.
The present work is an anomaly in an œuvre comprising almost entirely of Dutch village and city scenes with rustic staffage. Droochsloot has here created a veduta depicting a single moment in history, which is an unusual variation of narrative painting. Considering the importance of the event and the artist's ambitious rendering of it, it is not surprising that Droochsloot produced several versions of this work. Some of these can be seen in the Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, the Stadhuis in Utrecht, and the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.