Besoet (Iven)

interesting for the printmaker’s dramatic alteration of the image’s state, this plate depicts the theatrical illuminated colonnade designed by Pieter de Swart, court architect to the Stadtholder, William IV, Prince of Orange and Nassau, for the first night of public celebrations, on 11th June 1749, of the Peace Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (Aachen) which ended the war of Austrian Succession in October 1748. This was staged on the Hofvijver, a large ornamental lake in the centre of the Hague. Besoet first engraved the spectacular firework display that took place two nights later, on 13th June 1749, the result of which can be viewed in the Rijksmuseum collection here https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/nl/collectie/RP-P-OB-85.622 . As described in ‘Rariora’, the catalogue of printed rarities collected by John Eliot Hodgkin F.S.A., Besoet then reworked the plate to remove the fireworks from the sky and the foreground water, and bit more deeply into the outlines of town houses that form the backdrop to the scene, to represent the preceding spectacle of the night of the 11th. Traces of the fireworks in the original state can still be defined in the sky, as can the minor rewording in the title,

engraving, 495 x 705 mm. (19 1/2 x 27 3/4 in), slightly unevenly trimmed on, or just within, the plate mark, but well outside the image, a central vertical fold, and a faint horizontal one, other more minor handling creases, a few repaired tears at sheet edges, [Rariora: being notes of some of the printed books, manuscripts, historical documents, medals, engravings, pottery etc., etc., collected (1858-1900) by John Eliot Hodgkins F.S.A.’, vol. III, p.74 (126), Samson Low, Marston & Co, 1902],