Beschrijving
Large-format etching of 1912 showing the Coolsingel in Rotterdam — one of Rensburg’s best-known Rotterdam views. He lived in the city from 1902 and from about 1908 systematically built up a topographical archive of it; the Coolsingel with the corn mill De Hoop was among his most repeated motifs, and the Rotterdam City Archives hold several prints of this view by his hand, including versions likewise dated 1912.
What was then a record of a modernising city took on new meaning after the bombardment of May 1940: the old cityscape around the Coolsingel did not survive the war, and sheets such as this became the memory of a destroyed city centre. Precisely this documentary value made Rensburg’s Rotterdam work the subject of a series of exhibitions in 1940.
A hand-coloured version of this etching is also documented. In 1921 Rensburg offered an etching of the mill De Hoop at De Onafhankelijken for ƒ50 unframed and ƒ75 framed — a catalogue asking price, not proof of sale, but a rare contemporary market indication.
Provenance: documented through auction results since 2014 (kunstveiling.be) — gallery documentation.
