Claes Jansz. Visscher II (Amsterdam 1586-1652)

The Charterhouse or Carthusian cloister in Amsterdam was founded in the Jordaan district of Amsterdam in 1398 and, in the early 17th century, still stood outside the city walls. Seen here from the south, it was a subject that Visscher represented several times when making a collection of drawings of the districts and surroundings of Amsterdam in the years around 1607. Other views of the Charterhouse are in the Rijksmuseum, the Stadsarchief Amsterdam and the Van Eeghen Collection (see Schapelhouman and Schatborn, op. cit., note 2). The latter served as the basis for an engraving showing one of the monk's cells, one of a series of four prints (Hollstein 140).