1.
Rembrandt
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Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn was a Dutch draughtsman, painter, and printmaker. A prolific and versatile master across three media, he is considered one of the greatest visual artists in the history of art. Having achieved youthful success as a painter, Rembrandts later years were marked by personal tragedy. Yet his etchings and paintings were popular throughout his lifetime, his reputation as an artist remained high, Rembrandts portraits of his contemporaries, self-portraits and illustrations of scenes from the Bible are regarded as his greatest creative triumphs. His self-portraits form a unique and intimate biography, in which the artist surveyed himself without vanity and his reputation as the greatest etcher in the history of the medium was established in his lifetime, and never questioned since. Few of his paintings left the Dutch Republic whilst he lived, but his prints were circulated throughout Europe, because of his empathy for the human condition, he has been called one of the great prophets of civilization. Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn was born on 15 July 1606 in Leiden, in the Dutch Republic and he was the ninth child born to Harmen Gerritszoon van Rijn and Neeltgen Willemsdochter van Zuijtbrouck. His family was quite well-to-do, his father was a miller, religion is a central theme in Rembrandts paintings and the religiously fraught period in which he lived makes his faith a matter of interest. His mother was Roman Catholic, and his father belonged to the Dutch Reformed Church, unlike many of his contemporaries who traveled to Italy as part of their artistic training, Rembrandt never left the Dutch Republic during his lifetime. He opened a studio in Leiden in 1624 or 1625, which he shared with friend, in 1627, Rembrandt began to accept students, among them Gerrit Dou in 1628. In 1629, Rembrandt was discovered by the statesman Constantijn Huygens, as a result of this connection, Prince Frederik Hendrik continued to purchase paintings from Rembrandt until 1646. He initially stayed with an art dealer, Hendrick van Uylenburgh, Saskia came from a good family, her father had been a lawyer and the burgemeester of Leeuwarden. When Saskia, as the youngest daughter, became an orphan, Rembrandt and Saskia were married in the local church of St. Annaparochie without the presence of Rembrandts relatives. In the same year, Rembrandt became a burgess of Amsterdam and he also acquired a number of students, among them Ferdinand Bol and Govert Flinck. In 1635 Rembrandt and Saskia moved into their own house, renting in fashionable Nieuwe Doelenstraat, in 1639 they moved to a prominent newly built house in the upscale Breestraat, today known as Jodenbreestraat in what was becoming the Jewish quarter, then a young upcoming neighborhood. The mortgage to finance the 13,000 guilder purchase would be a cause for later financial difficulties. Rembrandt should easily have been able to pay the house off with his income, but it appears his spending always kept pace with his income. It was there that Rembrandt frequently sought his Jewish neighbors to model for his Old Testament scenes, in 1640, they had a second daughter, also named Cornelia, who died after living barely over a month
2.
Windmill
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A windmill is a mill that converts the energy of wind into rotational energy by means of vanes called sails or blades. Centuries ago, windmills usually were used to mill grain, pump water, thus they often were gristmills, windpumps, or both. The majority of modern windmills take the form of wind turbines used to generate electricity, the windwheel of the Greek engineer Heron of Alexandria in the first century is the earliest known instance of using a wind-driven wheel to power a machine. Another early example of a wheel was the prayer wheel. It has been claimed that the Babylonian emperor Hammurabi planned to use wind power for his ambitious project in the seventeenth century BCE. The first practical windmills had sails that rotated in a horizontal plane, according to Ahmad Y. al-Hassan, these panemone windmills were invented in eastern Persia as recorded by the Persian geographer Estakhri in the ninth century. The authenticity of an anecdote of a windmill involving the second caliph Umar is questioned on the grounds that it appears in a tenth-century document. Made of six to 12 sails covered in reed matting or cloth material, these windmills were used to grind grain or draw up water, Windmills were in widespread use across the Middle East and Central Asia, and later spread to China and India from there. A similar type of windmill with rectangular blades, used for irrigation, can also be found in thirteenth-century China. Horizontal windmills were built, in numbers, in Europe during the 18th and nineteenth centuries, for example Fowlers Mill at Battersea in London. Due to a lack of evidence, debate occurs among historians as to whether or not Middle Eastern horizontal windmills triggered the development of European windmills. In northwestern Europe, the horizontal-axis or vertical windmill is believed to date from the last quarter of the century in the triangle of northern France, eastern England. The earliest certain reference to a windmill in Europe dates from 1185, a number of earlier, but less certainly dated, twelfth-century European sources referring to windmills have also been found. These earliest mills were used to grind cereals, the evidence at present is that the earliest type of European windmill was the post mill, so named because of the large upright post on which the mills main structure is balanced. The body contains all the milling machinery, the first post mills were of the sunken type, where the post was buried in an earth mound to support it. Later, a wooden support was developed called the trestle and this was often covered over or surrounded by a roundhouse to protect the trestle from the weather and to provide storage space. This type of windmill was the most common in Europe until the nineteenth century, in a hollow-post mill, the post on which the body is mounted is hollowed out, to accommodate the drive shaft. This makes it possible to drive machinery below or outside the body still being able to rotate the body into the wind
3.
Sloten, Amsterdam
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Sloten is a village in the Dutch province of North Holland. It is a part of the municipality of Amsterdam, and lies about 6 km west of the city centre, Sloten was a separate municipality until 1921. During the 1928 Summer Olympics, it hosted the rowing events, andreas Peter Cornelius Sol J. Kuyper, Gemeente Atlas van Nederland, 1865-1870, Sloten. Map of the municipality, around 1868
4.
Etching
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Etching is traditionally the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio in the metal. In modern manufacturing, other chemicals may be used on other types of material, as a method of printmaking, it is, along with engraving, the most important technique for old master prints, and remains in wide use today. In a number of variants such as microfabrication etching and photochemical milling it is a crucial technique in much modern technology. In traditional pure etching, a plate is covered with a waxy ground which is resistant to acid. The artist then scratches off the ground with an etching needle where he or she wants a line to appear in the finished piece. The échoppe, a tool with an oval section, is also used for swelling lines. The plate is dipped in a bath of acid, technically called the mordant or etchant. The acid bites into the metal where it is exposed, leaving behind lines sunk into the plate, the remaining ground is then cleaned off the plate. The plate is inked all over, and then the ink wiped off the surface, the plate is then put through a high-pressure printing press together with a sheet of paper. The paper picks up the ink from the lines, making a print. The process can be repeated many times, typically several hundred impressions could be printed before the shows much sign of wear. The work on the plate can also be added to by repeating the whole process, Etching has often been combined with other intaglio techniques such as engraving or aquatint. The process as applied to printmaking is believed to have been invented by Daniel Hopfer of Augsburg, Hopfer was a craftsman who decorated armour in this way, and applied the method to printmaking, using iron plates. Apart from his prints, there are two examples of his work on armour, a shield from 1536 now in the Real Armeria of Madrid. The switch to copper plates was made in Italy. On the other hand, the handling of the ground and acid need skill and experience, prior to 1100 AD, the New World Hohokam independently utilized the technique of acid etching in marine shell designs. Jacques Callot from Nancy in Lorraine made important technical advances in etching technique and he developed the échoppe, a type of etching-needle with a slanting oval section at the end, which enabled etchers to create a swelling line, as engravers were able to do. Callot also appears to have responsible for an improved, harder, recipe for the etching ground
5.
Leeuwarden
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Leeuwarden is a city and municipality with a population of 108,249 in Friesland in the Netherlands. It is the capital and seat of the States of Friesland. The oldest remains of houses in the city back to the 2nd century AD. Leeuwarden has been inhabited since the 10th century. It was granted city privileges in 1435, the city was liberated from German occupation in World War II by The Royal Canadian Dragoons in 1945. It is the hub of the province of Friesland, situated in a green and water-rich environment, with lakes, villages. Leeuwarden is a royal residence and has a historic centre, many listed buildings. Leeuwarden has been awarded the title European Capital of Culture 2018, one important cultural and historical event is the Elfstedentocht, an ice skating-tour of eleven cities in Friesland, starting and finishing in Leeuwarden. Besides the city of Leeuwarden, population centres in the municipality with a population of 1,000 or more are Grou, Goutum, Wergea, Jirnsum, Reduzum, and Wirdum. The municipality is governed by the mayor Ferd Crone and a coalition of the Labour Party, Christian Democratic Appeal, and PAL-GroenLinks. The name Leeuwarden first came into use for Nijehove, the most important of the three villages that merged into one, namely Oldehove and Hoek in the early 9th century. There is much uncertainty about the origin of the citys name, historian and archivist Wopke Eekhoff summed up a total of over 200 different spelling variants, of which Leeuwarden, Liwwadden, and Ljouwert are still in use. The second syllable is easily explained, Warden, Frisian/Dutch for an artificial dwelling hill, is a designation of terps, the first part of the name, leeuw, means lion in modern standard Dutch. This interpretation corresponds with the coat of arms adopted by the city, however, modern standard Dutch was not used in this region in the Middle Ages, when the city was called Lintarwrde. Some scholars argue that the name of the city is derived from leeu-, the last one suits the watery province of Friesland. The name is similar to that of the French commune Lewarde, located in the Nord Department, the oldest remains of houses date back to the 2nd century AD in the Roman era and were discovered during an excavation near the Oldehove. The area has been inhabited since the 10th century, and was mentioned as a city in German sources in 1285. Situated along the Middelzee, it was a trade centre until the waterway silted up in the 15th century
6.
Friesland
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Friesland or Frisia is a province in the northwest of the Netherlands. It is situated west of Groningen, northwest of Drenthe and Overijssel, north of Flevoland, northeast of North Holland, in 2010, the province had a population of 646,000 and a total area of 5,749 km2. The capital and seat of the government is the city of Leeuwarden. Since 2017, Arno Brok is the Kings Commissioner in the province, a coalition of the Labour Party, the Christian Democratic Appeal, and the Frisian National Party forms the executive branch. The province is divided into 24 municipalities, the area of the province was once part of the ancient, larger region of Frisia. The official languages of Friesland are West Lauwers Frisian and Dutch, a proto-Frisian culture slowly began to emerge around 400–200 BC known for its artificial dwelling hills as a defence against the sea. The Roman claim on Frisia began in 12 BC with the campaign of Nero Claudius Drusus in Germania, after a series of costly battles against the Frisians, the Romans were suddenly sworn fealty. The de facto independence they later enjoyed as a Roman vassal shows that this might have been a mostly diplomatic decision based on the temporary favourable bargaining position. Together with other Germanic tribes such as the Salians and the Batavii they managed to keep the north of the Lower Rhine mostly free from Roman influence. The early eighth-century AD is known for the Frisian Kingdom, king Redbad, after incorporation into the Frankish empire, Friesland was divided into three parts. The westernmost part developed at the start of the second millennium into the County of Holland, while the remainder of Frisia had no feudal overlord and that ended when Charles V added Frisia to the Habsburg Netherlands as Lordship of Frisia. Under Napoleon, the department was named Frise, after Napoleon was defeated in 1813, the department became part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands as the province of Friesland. Friesland is the largest province of the Netherlands if one includes areas of water, in terms of land area only, the provinces highest point is at 45 metres above sea level, on the island of Vlieland. There are four parks, Schiermonnikoog, De Alde Feanen, Lauwersmeer. The ten urban areas in Friesland with the largest population are, The province is divided into 24 municipalities, the province of Friesland has an oceanic climate. In 2010, Friesland had a population of 646,305, the years 1880–1900 show slower population growth due to a farm crisis in which 20,000 Frisians emigrated to the United States of America. Since the late Middle Ages, Friesland has been renowned for the height of its inhabitants. Friesland is mainly an agricultural province, the black and white Frisian cattle, black and white Stabyhoun and the black Frisian horse originated here
7.
Dutch Republic
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It preceded the Batavian Republic, the Kingdom of Holland, the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, and ultimately the modern Kingdom of the Netherlands. Alternative names include the United Provinces, Seven Provinces, Federated Dutch Provinces, most of the Low Countries had come under the rule of the House of Burgundy and subsequently the House of Habsburg. In 1549 Holy Roman Emperor Charles V issued the Pragmatic Sanction, Charles was succeeded by his son, King Philip II of Spain. This was the start of the Eighty Years War, in 1579 a number of the northern provinces of the Low Countries signed the Union of Utrecht, in which they promised to support each other in their defence against the Spanish army. This was followed in 1581 by the Act of Abjuration, the declaration of independence of the provinces from Philip II. In 1582 the United Provinces invited Francis, Duke of Anjou to lead them, but after an attempt to take Antwerp in 1583. After the assassination of William of Orange, both Henry III of France and Elizabeth I of England declined the offer of sovereignty, however, the latter agreed to turn the United Provinces into a protectorate of England, and sent the Earl of Leicester as governor-general. This was unsuccessful and in 1588 the provinces became a confederacy, the Union of Utrecht is regarded as the foundation of the Republic of the Seven United Provinces, which was not recognized by the Spanish Empire until the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. During the Anglo-French war, the territory was divided into groups, the Patriots, who were pro-French and pro-American and the Orangists. The Republic of the United Provinces faced a series of revolutions in 1783–1787. During this period, republican forces occupied several major Dutch cities, initially on the defence, the Orangist forces received aid from Prussian troops and retook the Netherlands in 1787. After the French Republic became the French Empire under Napoleon, the Batavian Republic was replaced by the Napoleonic Kingdom of Holland, the Netherlands regained independence from France in 1813. In the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1814 the names United Provinces of the Netherlands, on 16 March 1815, the son of stadtholder William V crowned himself King William I of the Netherlands. Between 1815 and 1890 the King of the Netherlands was also in a union the Grand Duke of the sovereign Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. After Belgium gained its independence in 1830, the state became known as the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The County of Holland was the wealthiest and most urbanized region in the world, the free trade spirit of the time received a strong augmentation through the development of a modern, effective stock market in the Low Countries. The Netherlands has the oldest stock exchange in the world, founded in 1602 by the Dutch East India Company, while Rotterdam has the oldest bourse in the Netherlands, the worlds first stock exchange, that of the Dutch East-India Company, went public in six different cities. Later, a court ruled that the company had to reside legally in a city so Amsterdam is recognized as the oldest such institution based on modern trading principles
8.
Maurice, Prince of Orange
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Maurice of Orange was stadtholder of all the provinces of the Dutch Republic except for Friesland from 1585 at earliest until his death in 1625. Before he became Prince of Orange upon the death of his eldest half-brother Philip William in 1618, Maurice spent his youth in Dillenburg in Nassau, and studied in Heidelberg and Leiden. He succeeded his father William the Silent as stadtholder of Holland and Zeeland in 1585, and became stadtholder of Utrecht, Guelders and Overijssel in 1590, and of Groningen in 1620. As Captain-General and Admiral of the Union, Maurice organised the Dutch rebellion against Spain into a coherent, successful revolt, Maurice set out to revive and revise the classical doctrines of Vegetius and pioneered the new European forms of armament and drill. During the Twelve Years Truce, a dispute broke out in the Republic. After the Truce, Maurice failed to achieve more military victories and he died without legitimate children in The Hague in 1625, and was succeeded by his younger half-brother Frederick Henry. Maurice was a son of William the Silent and Princess Anna of Saxony and was born at the castle of Dillenburg and he was named after his maternal grandfather, the Elector Maurice of Saxony, who was also a noted general. Maurice never married but was the father of children by Margaretha van Mechelen. He was raised in Dillenburg by his uncle Johan of Nassau, together with his cousin Willem Lodewijk he studied in Heidelberg and later in Leiden where he met Simon Stevin. The States of Holland and Zeeland paid for his studies, as their father had run into problems after spending his entire fortune in the early stages of the Dutch revolt. Only 16 when his father was murdered in Delft in 1584, he took over as stadtholder. The monarchs of England and France had been requested to accept sovereignty and this had left Maurice as the only acceptable candidate for the position of Stadtholder. He became stadtholder of Holland and Zeeland in 1585, of Guelders, Overijssel and Utrecht in 1590 and of Groningen, protestant Maurice was preceded as Prince of Orange by his Roman Catholic eldest half-brother Philip William, Prince of Orange, deceased 1618. However, Philip William was in the custody of Spain, remaining so until 1596 and he was appointed captain-general of the army in 1587, bypassing the Earl of Leicester, who returned to England on hearing this news. Maurice organised the rebellion against Spain into a coherent, successful revolt, the Eighty Years War was a challenge to his style, so he could prove himself a good leader by taking several Spanish Outposts. In 1597 he went on an offensive and took Rheinberg, Meurs, Groenlo, Bredevoort, Enschede, Ootmarsum, Oldenzaal. These victories rounded out the borders to the Dutch Republic, solidifying the revolt and they also established Maurice as the foremost general of his time. Many of the generals of the succeeding generation, including his brother Frederick Henry
9.
Franeker
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Franeker is one of the eleven historical cities of Friesland and capital of the municipality of Franekeradeel. It is located about 20 km west of Leeuwarden on the Van Harinxma Canal, as of 1 January 2006, it had 12,996 inhabitants. The Eisinga Planetarium from around the year 1800 is located in the city, Franeker was founded around 800 as a Carolingian stronghold. The name probably derives from Froon-acker, meaning country of the king, beginning around the 11th century, Franeker developed into the administrative center Westergoa. Franeker received city rights in 1374, in the 15th century, Albert, Duke of Saxony established himself in Franeker. The city appeared for a time to be growing into the city of Friesland. During the period of the Dutch Revolt, the town sided early on with William I, from 1585 to 1811, the city housed the University of Franeker, which was the second Protestant university in the Netherlands. It was closed shortly after the incorporation of the Kingdom of Holland into the French Empire, a successor institution, the Rijksatheneum, was founded in 1815, but in 1847 it, too, closed. The Krystkongres, usually held in Franeker, is the convention for Frisian students living in Dutch student towns. Franeker is located at 53°12′N 5°32′E in the municipality of Franekeradeel in the west of the province of Friesland in the north of the Netherlands and it is east of the city of Harlingen and about 20 km west of the provincial capital Leeuwarden. It is situated on the Van Harinxma Canal, as of 1 January 2006, the city of Franeker had a population of 12,996. The Eisinga Planetarium and the Museum Martena are museums located in the city, the Planetarium is an orrery built by a local wool carder to explain a conjunction of the planets and to help mitigate local fears of what would happen during the planets alignment. Built in Eisingas own living room, it is one of the oldest operating orreries in the world, the Museum Martena, opened in 2006, is housed in a manor house built in 1498 and is devoted to the history of the city and the region. The windmill Arkens is a hollow post mill which has been restored and it originally stood in Arkens and was moved in 1972. It is the windmill in the Netherlands equipped with Vlinderwieken. Since 1852 Franeker is the home of the PC. the most important tournament in Frisian handball, Franeker is a regular host of the Frisian draughts competitions. Being one of the Frisian cities, Franeker is also on the route of the 200 kilometres Elfstedentocht, in August 2014, Jeffrey Peereboom, a student from Franeker, introduced an idea of the speed limits for bicycles in order to make biking in the city safer. Franeker railway station is a station on the NS line between Leeuwarden and Harlingen and it also had a station on the North Friesland Railway which was the terminus of a branch from Tzummarum
10.
Govert Flinck
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Govert Teuniszoon Flinck was a Dutch painter of the Dutch Golden Age. Here Flinck was joined by Jacob Backer, and the companionship of a youth determined like himself to be an artist only confirmed his passion for painting. Amongst the neighbours of Jacobszon at Leeuwarden were the sons and relations of Rombertus van Uylenburgh, other members of the same family lived at Amsterdam, cultivating the arts either professionally or as amateurs. The pupils of Lambert probably gained some knowledge of Rembrandt by intercourse with the Ulenburgs, for many years Flinck laboured on the lines of Rembrandt, following that masters style in all the works which he executed between 1636 and 1648. With aspirations as a painter, however, he looked to the swelling forms and grand action of Peter Paul Rubens. Flincks relations with Cleves became in time very important and he was introduced to the court of the Great Elector, Friedrich Wilhelm I of Brandenburg, who possessed the Duchy and who married in 1646 Louisa of Orange. He obtained the patronage of John Maurice of Nassau, who was stadtholder of Cleves in 1649. In 1652 a citizen of Amsterdam, Flinck married in 1656 an heiress, Sophie van der Houven, Flinck died in Amsterdam on 2 February 1660. The earliest of Flincks authentic pieces is a portrait of a lady, dated 1636 and his first subject picture is the Blessing of Jacob, in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam. Both are thoroughly Rembrandtesque in effect as well as in vigour of touch, the four civic guards of 1642, and the twelve musketeers with their president in an arm-chair, in the Stadhuis, Amsterdam, are fine specimens of composed portrait groups. Flinck here painted his own likeness to the left in a doorway, the mannered period of Flinck is amply illustrated in the Manius Curius Dentatus eating Turnips before the Samnite Envoys, and Solomon receiving Wisdom, in the Palace on the Dam at Amsterdam. Here it is that Flinck shows most defects, being faulty in arrangement, gaudy in tint, flat and shallow in execution, Flinck was unable to finish more than the sketches. After his death Rembrandt was asked to one of the commissions, and produced his last great history picture, the Conspriracy of Claudius Civilis. In the same year he received an acknowledgment from the town council of Cleves. Of several pictures which were painted for the Great Elector, none are preserved except the Expulsion of Hagar in the Berlin museum. Flinck at WGA Works and literature on Govert Flinck at PubHist This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh
11.
Amstel
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The Amstel is a river in the Netherlands which runs through the city of Amsterdam. The rivers name is derived from Aeme-stelle, old Dutch for water-area, namely, the well-known bridge Magere Brug in Amsterdam crosses the river, as do the bridges Blauwbrug, Hoge Sluis and Berlagebrug. The Stopera city hall and opera house and Carré theatre are located on the banks of the river. A nationally televised concert is held on the every year on Bevrijdingsdag. The rowing races Head of the River Amstel and Heineken Roeivierkamp are held on the river annually, the river also forms part of the route of the Canal Parade, Amsterdams annual floating gay pride parade. Amstel beer is named after the river, the Amstel brewery, as many other breweries, was situated close to the Amstel river because river water was used to produce the beer. The river originally began where two rivers, the Drecht and Kromme Mijdrecht, joined together, a little south of Uithoorn. After the construction of a canal, the Amstel-Drecht Kanaal, the river now begins where the Drecht and another canal, tributary rivers are the Kromme Mijdrecht, Bullewijk and Waver. The rivers outlet is in Amsterdam, where it meets the IJ bay, however, during 1936 the last part of the river was filled in, so the river now ends near Muntplein square, although it remains connected to the bay through subterranean pipes. The river contains one island, Amsteleiland, at 52°17′15″N 4°53′15″E. The only road leading to it belongs to the village of Ouderkerk aan de Amstel and it has an area of about 0.05 km². Amsterdam took its name from the river, the city developed from a small fishing village named Amstelredam, built during the 13th century alongside a dam at the mouth of the river. The town was granted city rights about 1300, the hamlet developed into the small town Amsteldam, which later became Amsterdam. The area through which the river passes is known as the Amstelland, the city and municipality of Amstelveen, the municipality of Ouder-Amstel, the towns of Ouderkerk aan de Amstel and Nes aan de Amstel are all named for the river as well. Amsterdam has a street named Amstel, a square named Amstelveld, in the former Dutch colonies in North America, a town was captured from the Swedes in 1655 and renamed Nieuw-Amstel. It is now known as New Castle, Delaware, the river has been depicted by many artists, including, Aert van der Neer Rembrandt Willem Witsen George Hendrik Breitner Piet Mondrian Media related to Amstel at Wikimedia Commons
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