Goeree-Overflakkee , van oude mensen de dingen die voorbijgaan

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About Goeree-Overflakkee , van oude mensen de dingen die voorbijgaan

This photo-group is set up for pictures with or without stories of people who were living once on the Dutch former island of Goeree-Overflakkee in days long , lóng past .....

Deze foto-groep is bestemd voor foto's met of zonder verhalen van Flakkeênaars uit inmiddels lang vervlogen tijden , geportretteerd op het eiland of (ver) daarbuiten .

> In oude schoenendozen en koektrommels treffen we soms nog antieke foto's aan waarvan we alleen nog maar kunnen vaststellen dat de geportretteerden een Flakkeese achtergrond moeten hebben - ook déze Flakkeese kiekjes uit (over-)grootmoeders en -vaders tijd kunnen een plaats krijgen in deze foto-groep , zodat ook deze , vooralsnog onbekende en naamloze ex-Flakkeênaars , naast een gezicht ook nog een naam en identiteit kunnen verkrijgen , wellicht .....



'HET LAANTJE VAN MIDDELHARNIS'

> A photograph , better and more beautiful than this picture painted just outside the village of Middelharnis in the Netherlands , is hardly thinkable .

This view of Middelharnis , a classical landscape painting , one of the most famous Dutch pictures from the 17th century , is called 'Het laantje van Middelharnis' , meaning : 'Alley of Middelharnis' - it was painted by Meindert Hobbema .

Meidert Hobbema started his career as a trainee of an other very famous Dutch painter of landscapes : Ruijsdael . In the 18th century Hobbema served as an example for British landscapists and painters of aquarelles .

Hobbema painted 'Het laantje' in the second part of the 17th century (probably in the year 1669 or 1689) . When we look at the picture we get a clear image of how small the village of Middelharnis (a place on the then island of Goeree-Overflakkee) still was by the end of the 17th century .

The municipal of Middelharnis must have bought this picture in the year 1782 for 25 guilders and 50 cents ('those were the days ...') , bút exchanged it later for two únimported paintings ( and they really must have thought then that two pictures for the price of one was a very good bargain .....) .

Nowadays 'Het Laantje' is part of the collection of the National Gallery in London ánd is of incalculable value ......

Slowly the village of Middelharnis expanded over the years , and the alley (which was called then 'den Steenwegh') with its trees (looking like poplars , but they should be ash-trees) became the 'Steneweg' , a street with dozens of houses on both sides , where once , a long time ago now , all of those impressive tall trees were growing and showing off ......

And in that very street my aunt Ida together with her husband and son were living , on number 108 , something I can still remember by heart , since my parents and I , still being a little child at the time , used to visit them frequently , though I never knew and never cóuld have thought then that at least once a year I found myself on such special art-historical sacred ground .........