Jan van der Heyden. Jan van der Heyden was a Dutch Baroque-era painter, glass painter, draughtsman and printmaker.
Van der Heyden was one of the first Dutch painters to specialize in townscapes and became one of the leading architectural painters of the Dutch Golden Age. He painted a number of still lifes in the beginning and at the end of his career.
Jan van der Heyden was also an engineer and inventor who made significant contributions to contemporary firefighting technology. Together with his brother Nicolaes, who was a hydraulic engineer, he invented an improvement of the fire hose in 1672.
He modified the manual fire engine, reorganised the volunteer fire brigade and wrote and illustrated the first firefighting manual. A comprehensive street lighting scheme for Amsterdam, designed and implemented by van der Heyden, remained in operation from 1669 until 1840 and was adopted as a model by many other towns and abroad.
Jan van der Heyden was born in Gorinchem, the son of a mennonite father and the third of eight children. His father was by turns an oil mill owner, a grain merchant and a broker. The family moved to Amsterdam in 1646 and van der Heyden's father acquired local citizenship. Jan van der Heyden himself would never acquire Amsterdam citizenship. Jan van der Heyden may have received his initial artistic training in the studio of a relative, perhaps his eldest brother, Goris van der Heyde
Van der Heyden was one of the first Dutch painters to specialize in townscapes and became one of the leading architectural painters of the Dutch Golden Age. He painted a number of still lifes in the beginning and at the end of his career.
Jan van der Heyden was also an engineer and inventor who made significant contributions to contemporary firefighting technology. Together with his brother Nicolaes, who was a hydraulic engineer, he invented an improvement of the fire hose in 1672.
He modified the manual fire engine, reorganised the volunteer fire brigade and wrote and illustrated the first firefighting manual. A comprehensive street lighting scheme for Amsterdam, designed and implemented by van der Heyden, remained in operation from 1669 until 1840 and was adopted as a model by many other towns and abroad.
Jan van der Heyden was born in Gorinchem, the son of a mennonite father and the third of eight children. His father was by turns an oil mill owner, a grain merchant and a broker. The family moved to Amsterdam in 1646 and van der Heyden's father acquired local citizenship. Jan van der Heyden himself would never acquire Amsterdam citizenship. Jan van der Heyden may have received his initial artistic training in the studio of a relative, perhaps his eldest brother, Goris van der Heyde
Wikipedia ...