Hand-coloured aquatint view of the royal palace Paviljoen Welgelegen near Haarlem, originally built for the banker Henry Hope (1735-1811). The building was converted into a palace under King Louis Bonaparte and later become the property of the Dutch royal family and used as the residence of the King's mother. After her death in 1820, Welgelegen was unused until 1838 when it became a museum for contemporary art.
The palace was drawn by Cornelis de Kruyff (1774-1828), who is primarily known for several drawings of Amsterdam. In 1824 he exhibited two drawings of the royal palaces of Het Loo and Soestdijk at the art exhibition in Amsterdam. The firm of Buffa and sons would publish prints after drawings by De Kruyff of several royal palaces in the 1820s, first as smaller engravings in Vues choisies dAmsterdam et ses environs (1824-1825) and later as larger aquatints.
Christiaan Frederik Bierweiler (1783-1831) was an Amsterdam-born engraver who spent most of the first quarter of the 19th century abroad. Only returning to Amsterdam in 1827, it is probably that he prepared the current print between 1827 and the year of his death 1831.
In good condition with a few stains. For Bierweiler: Scheen 1981, p. 42; for De Kruyff: Scheen 1981, p. 294; Van Eijnden & Van der Willigen III, p. 160 & IV, pp. 205-206; cf. Atlas van Stolk 5924; Landwehr, Coloured plates 339.