Jan van der Heyden and The Dam with the New Town Hall in Amsterdam

'The Dam with the New Town Hall in Amsterdam' (1668) by Jan van der Heyden; Musée du Louvre, Paris

Finally a painter I'm familiar with. When you say Jan van der Heyden, born on 5 March 1637 and died on 28 March 1712, I think of his Amsterdam paintings. Just a quick note on his date of death: it's beyond me why the English Wikipedia page names 12 September 1712 as his date of death, whereas the Dutch page says 28 March, also here it says the 28th of March, and Dutch websites mention that 300 years ago today Jan van der Heyden died. Anyway, I chose Van der Heyden because I like his Amsterdam paintings. I live in Amsterdam and it always amazes me how much of the image above is still there. Van der Heyden moved with his family to Amsterdam around 1650 and was a witness to the fire in the old town hall. It made a deep impression on him. So he had been fascinated with fire fighting ever since he was a boy. He is often credited with the invention of the fire hose and was put in charge of the fire brigade. He was a skilled landscape painter and his most important works were painted between 1660 and 1670. He died in wealth, still owning most of his work.