The main driving forces were a rich diversity in both Dutch society and its painted themes, and the popularity of paintings among the republic’s citizens. Visual art thrived.
Beerstraaten
From major fires lighting the night sky, a vegetable market, the elegant houses of the Golden Bend, City Hall with Atlas above, to the most picturesque synagogue in Europe.
Unusual paintings to add novelty to a collection, with maritimes, river views, cloudscapes, Amsterdam burning, and a couple of distinctive ‘negatives’.
Dramatic paintings of towns and cities on fire, usually at night, were popular during the Dutch Golden Age, and known as brandjes. Examples to well into the 19th century.
From being a sub-genre of landscape painting in the Dutch Golden Age, to recording the catastrophic fire which destroyed most of Moscow when Napoleon occupied the city.
The Eclectic Light Company 