5668 x 3945 px | 48 x 33,4 cm | 18,9 x 13,2 inches | 300dpi
Data acquisizione:
3 agosto 2015
Ubicazione:
Rieker Windmill, de Riekermolen, on the Amstel River, De Borcht 10, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Altre informazioni:
Amsterdam, the Rieker Windmill, de Riekermolen, on the Amstel River where Rembrandt used to sketch. The 1636 smock mill is located just inside the city limits. It is quite famous as the Rembrandt Windmill with the buses that show cruise guests around. There is a modern statue of a sketching Rembrandt on the lawn of the mill. The mill was indeed built within his lifetime (1606–1669). He did walk here very often as did many people living in Amsterdam and they still walk; run or bike here: just steps away is the very busy historic pub and restaurant Klein Kalfje. It was a good hour's walk from the well known Rembrandt's House to here. And he loved sketching after nature. However this windmill then stood in a different spot on the South end of the Nieuwe Meer. It was only in 1961 that it was relocated here. It's still operated. A miller works and lives here, but the work of the mill is aided by an electric pump in a different spot. The mill cannot be visited on the inside, but everything is completely original. Just the original 1636 scoop wheel has been replaced by a much more efficient Archimedes' screw or screwpump (vijzel in Dutch) in 1871, which was rather late. Rembrandt was the son of a miller. His father's mill was a much more ancient design: a post mill. There is one painting where such a mill is the main subject. Windmills are featured in some etchings and many more in his drawings as part of the everyday 17C landscape around Amsterdam.
