1621 -1689 · Gorinchem, imaginary architecture and Italianate landscape

Roman ruins, Mediterranean ports and invented processions make Jacob van der Ulft a master of Dutch architectural whim, built without certain travel to Italy.

Jacob van der Ulft was born in Gorinchem in 1621 into a family of municipal notables. His artistic training remains poorly documented, but his career reveals a rare diversity: painter, designer, engraver, architect, glass painter and city administrator. In 1658, archives mention him for coat of arms projects intended for Gorinchem; the following year, an act qualified him as a painter and architect. He then became mayor, a position he held several times between 1660 and 1679. This public responsibility did not prevent him from developing a very personal visual universe. Van der Ulft represents ports, towns, ruins and vast architecture antiques. He seems to have never traveled to Italy. Its Roman monuments are therefore reconstructed from engravings, drawings by other artists and an imagination informed by classical culture. View of ancient architecture with a procession crowd shows this principle: arches, columns, palaces and squares do not describe an exact site, but make up an ideal city animated by a procession. The small figures give scale, introduce the story and connect the masses of stone. The small figures give scale, introduce the story and connect the masses of stone. Van der Ulft particularly masters pen and wash drawing, whose browns and grays allow him to vary light, distance and texture. He also creates topographical views, notably from the old city hall of Amsterdam, and works with stained glass, a technique for which his contemporaries hold him in high esteem. Accused of financial irregularities in 1679, he temporarily left Gorinchem then settled permanently in Noordwijk in 1683. He died there in 1689. His work thus united the gaze of the architect, the imagination of the motionless traveler and the concrete experience of the Dutch city. The "Jacob van der Ulft" selection notably compares View of ancient architecture with a crowd in procession. Its reading favors details.

Van der Ulft travels through images: the Rome he paints is not a survey, but a reconstructed scene where architecture, history and crowds become the same spectacle.