Abraham

1730 · rif. 14402 — Amsterdam c1730. 565 by 935mm. 22.25 by 36.75 inches. Engraving with etching on two sheets joined. View of the Plantage Muidergracht and the Jonas Daniël Meijerplein. The view shown from the present day Mr. Visserplien the busy intersecti.on in central Amsterdam depicts the Portuguese Synagogue on the left and the High German or Great Synagogue. These momumental buildings now house the Jewish Historical Museum. The first Jews to settle in Amsterdam were the Sephardim who had been expelled from Portugal and Spain in 1493. They were joined in the following decades by the Ashkenazi from Central and Eastern Europe the first of whom had come from Germany in 1600. In those years the only available land for them was at the outskirts of the eastern side of the Centrum — the island of Vlooienburg surrounded by the Amstel River and the canals — so they settled along the island's main street Breestraat which quickly became known as Jodenbreestraat. The Great Synagogue now the Jewish Historical Museum and the Portuguese-Israelite Synagogue were opened in 1671 and 1675 respectively. The Portuguese Synagogue was the place where Spinoza was placed under the ban by the Sephardic Jewish community in 1656. Pieter Stevensz. van Gunst 1659-1732 also known as Pieter Stevens van Gunst or Petrus Stephani was a Dutch draughtsman copperplate engraver and printmaker active in Amsterdam London 1704 and the Dutch town of Nederhorst 1730-1731. Abraham Rademaker 1677 – 21 January 1735 was an 18th-century painter and printmaker from the Northern Netherlands. Rademaker was born in Lisse. According to the RKD he was a versatile artist who painted Italianate landscapes but is known mostly for his many cityscapes and drawings of buildings that were made into print. R.W.P. de Vries auction 1925: 295. unknown