Zes voorstellingen van watersnood en dijkdoorbraken in 1799

CORNELIS VAN HARDENBERGH

Rotterdam 1755-1843 Haastrecht

Comparative literature
Frederik Muller, De Nederlandsche geschiedenis in platen : beredeneerde beschrijving van Nederlandsche historieplaten, zinneprenten en historische kaarten, 4 volumes:
Frederik Muller, Amsterdam 1863-1882, Voll. III (jaren 1795 tot 1879), p. 32, no. 5519a/1-6.

Used as illustration in: Cornelis Zillesen, Beschryving van den watersnood, van’t jaar MDCCXCIX, Amsterdam: Johannes Allart, 1800.

The flood disaster in Gelderland in February 1799 was caused by ice drift and dike breaches in the Waal, particularly around Nijmegen, Millingen, Doornik, Rossum, and Haarsteeg. The ice masses caused accumulations that pushed over or breached the dikes, leading to flooding, destroyed houses, and 17 deaths in Doornik and 12 in Haarsteeg. The disaster was so severe that the dangerous protruding corner at Haarsteeg was abandoned and replaced by a straight dike.

Cornelis van Hardenbergh, a drawing teacher in Utrecht from 1780 to 1832 at the Fundatie van Renswoude and the civic orphanage, depicted the disaster in various sheets showing the calamity by location. Five drawings from the six sheets offered here, along with one other drawing by Van Hardenbergh, were reproduced in print in 1800 by Reinier Vinkeles and published in a book about the disaster. The sixth drawing was not reproduced in print. Presumably because a drawing by another artist was made into a print at the time. That print is included in Frederik Muller’s list of historical prints following the six prints based on drawings by Van Hardenbergh.

This collection of six drawings offers a unique glimpse into Van Hardenbergh’s studio practice. Presumably, these drawings have always remained together as a group and were framed as early as the nineteenth century.

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