52.3731°N / 4.8925°E · Netherlands
What strikes you first is the half-circle. Four nested arcs of water, from the Herengracht to the Singelgracht, come to rest at both ends on the water of the IJ to the north, while the medieval core stays enclosed within the Singel, the old moat of the city.
You choose the framing, the palette and the words of the caption. The work is drawn from real data, then printed to order in the workshop closest to you.
It reads in three rings: a compact, irregular heart, the regular belt of grachten, then the outer limit of the Singelgracht. And these waters share neither age nor purpose. The Singel is a medieval moat, the Singelgracht a fortification, and only the three inner grachten belong to the residential plan of the belt. Speaking of “seventeenth-century canals” for the whole network is therefore inaccurate.
Two accidents break that regularity and save the drawing from monotony. To the west, the tilted paving of streets in the Jordaan, which aligns with nothing: its streets and canals were laid out along the old ditches and paths of the ground, and it lies outside the belt, and earlier than it in its plot pattern. To the south, the straight weave of Berlage’s Plan Zuid, drawn in 1915, narrow streets and long blocks cut by a few wide axes. And to the north, the station bars the IJ on its artificial islands, and that horizontal bar closes the composition.
A low, cool value for the water, which has to stay the darkest element on the sheet, on a warm ivory ground with a muted brick accent for the buildings. The city has no relief to bring in a third value: its unity comes from red-brown brick set against almost black canals.
Portrait. The belt forms a horseshoe open to the north: the vertical format lets the IJ close the top of the frame as a horizontal bar, then descend through the four arcs to the Amstel and the weave of the Plan Zuid. Both ends of the arcs on the IJ must be held, or the half-circle reads as a mere bundle of curved lines. And the Jordaan has to stay whole on the western edge: it is what gives the sheet its irregularity.
The title, a line beneath it, the coordinates. The name of a gracht, a date, the number of a house: that line is what turns a plan of Amsterdam into your plan of Amsterdam.
Sixteen inks, in the configurator’s order. It is not in the catalogue, but you will find it in the palette library, filed under its material.
Opens the colour workshop with these 16 inks in place: change one, keep the rest.
It will wait in your account, ready for any piece.
It served as the moat around the city until 1585, when Amsterdam expanded beyond it. It runs from the IJ, near the central station, to the Muntplein where it joins the Amstel. It is the innermost of the arcs, and the only one older than the plan: confusing it with the grachten gives the core a century it does not have.
The arcs are arranged in concentric half-circles whose ends rest on the IJ. The north-western sector of the belt was begun in 1613 and finished around 1625; the southern sector after 1664. The three inner canals, Herengracht, Keizersgracht and Prinsengracht, were meant for housing; the outer Singelgracht for defence and water management. So this is not an archipelago: it is a town plan drawn, and then dug.
The central station, opened on 15 October 1889, is built on three artificial islands joined together in the IJ, carried on eight thousand six hundred and eighty-seven piles. Its siting cut the city off from its water and marks the passage from a waterfront city to an inland one. On the map it is the horizontal bar that closes the horseshoe at the top.
Yes. The search covers the whole world, from a capital to a hamlet. For the Sky collection, any date works, past or future: the sky is calculated.
From 21 × 29.7 cm to 84.1 × 118.9 cm, that is A4 to A0, portrait or landscape depending on the material. Every size is shown with its price in the editor.
Four, from the barest to the most dressed.
Allow 1 to 4 working days for making, up to 7 for hand-assembled frames and canvases, then 1 to 6 working days in transit with standard delivery.
Digital editions are available immediately: the file of your piece is emailed to you as soon as you order.
The bridge where you stopped, the gracht you walked along in the evening, the Jordaan street that runs off at an angle. The horseshoe is the same for everyone. Where you stand inside it is not.
Compose my Amsterdam poster
