Urban Planning and Politics in the City Center: Frederik Hendrik and The Hague Plein

Jans van Call,  View of the Huygenshuis, Mauritshuis, and the Ne, ca. 1690, Collection Haags Gemeentearchief (Netherlands)

In 1631 Frederik Hendrik, Prince of Orange and stadhouder of the United Provinces, became involved with an urban planning project for The Hague which survives in a series of twelve drawings today in the Nationaal Archief. The drawings tell an intriguing story of negotiation, deal-making, and the exertion of power at the center of the city. They also illustrate how the fabric of The Hague’s urban center became a locus for conflicting visions of what the city should be. The eventual implementation of a design based on the Prince’s principles provides insight into his visual and aesthetic ideas as well as his political vision.

DOI: 10.5092/jhna.2013.5.2.7

Acknowledgements

I offer this article with gratitude for Egbert Haverkamp Begemann’s unstinting generosity as a mentor and friend. This article derives from my longstanding research project on the art patronage of Prince Frederik Hendrik, which originated in an exam question Egbert assigned me years ago. Though I might not have thanked him at the time, I would do so now, not just for introducing me to a deep and complex topic, but also for his rigorous training to help me grapple with it. And I would add my gratitude for his exhaustive knowledge of the field, his vision of the future of the discipline, his humanity, and his steady faith in the potential of his students – all of which have sustained me at different times in my career.

I would like to thank Deborah Hutton, Sean Weiss, and Susan Taylor for their astute comments on an earlier version of this article, and Stephanie Dickey for her editorial expertise.

Unless otherwise indicated, translations are mine.

Imprint

Review: Peer Review (Double Blind)
DOI: 10.5092/jhna.2013.5.2.7
License:
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation:
Rebecca Tucker, "Urban Planning and Politics in the City Center: Frederik Hendrik and The Hague Plein," Journal of Historians of Netherlandish Art 5:2 (Summer 2013) DOI: 10.5092/jhna.2013.5.2.7