Nicolaas Johannes Roosenboom

Private collection, Belgium

Sale: Sotheby's, Amsterdam, 24 April 2006, lot 174

Purchased at the above sale by the present owner

By the seventeenth century plans were already in place to drain and reclaim land from the Haarlemmermeer with the use of windmills and an extensive canal system. This project was led by Jan Adriaenszoon Leeghwater amongst others. Challenged by the high investments on one hand and the interests of the fishing industry on the other, the project was not started until the early 19th century. Towards the end of 1836 , several storms had led the water to surge all the way up to the city gates of Leiden and Amsterdam , and in 1837 King William I decided that action needed to be taken to drain the lake. It was decided to rely solely on steam driven pumps for this project, a unique feature at the time. In 1845 the first test steam pump was built, named the 'Leeghwater'. Two other steam pumps came into use in 1849 and the reclamation could finally be started. On the first of July 1852 the project was finally completed.