The small Fish Market on the Corner of the Brouwersgracht and Singel, Amsterdam

About this artwork

Gezicht op de kleine vismarkt op de hoek van de Brouwersgracht en het Singel te Amsterdam op het moment dat een regenbui valt. In het midden de overdekte markt, rechts op de brug een man met een kruiwagen en een man met een paraplu. Op de achtergrond een ophaalbrug, een toren en de masten met zeilen van de schepen in de haven.

Art Historical Context

Johannes Jelgerhuis 1826 oil on canvas captures a fleeting moment of everyday life in Amsterdam. The scene centers on the small fish market at the busy intersection of the Brouwersgracht Singel canals, where a sudden shower sends vendors and passers into motion. A covered market stall anchors the composition, while figures on the bridge—one pushing a wheelbarrow, another shielding himself with an umbrella—add a sense of immediacy to the bustling waterfront. The modest scale (41 × 51 cm) invites close viewing, allowing visitors to appreciate how Jelgerhuis renders the wet cobblestones, the rippling reflections on the canal, and the masts of harbor ships rising behind a drawbridge and tower. Painted during a period when Dutch artists continued the tradition of detailed city views, the work records both the city’s commercial vitality and its changeable weather with quiet precision. Now housed in the Rijksmuseum, the painting offers a window into early-nineteenth-century Amsterdam, preserving the rhythms of trade and street life along its iconic canals.

About the Artist

Johannes Jelgerhuis · 1770–1836

Johannes Jelgerhuis (1770-1836) was a multifaceted Dutch artist who achieved distinction both as a painter and as an actor, representing the interconnection between visual and performing arts in early nineteenth-century Netherlands. Born in Leeuwarden in 1770 and dying in Amsterdam on October 6, 1836, Jelgerhuis pursued parallel careers that enriched each other, bringing a theatrical understanding...