Het observatorium te Parijs

HERMANUS NUMAN (Ezinge 1744-1820 Amsterdam)

Hermanus Numan’s family owned a prosperous workshop that produced lacquered and painted tinware. Numan was trained in decorative painting by Johannes Franciscus Francé before being apprenticed to Jan Augustini (1725-1773), painter of wall hangings, in Haarlem. In 1768 or 1769 Numan left for Paris, where he improved his skill in the graphic techniques at the studio of Jacques-Philippe Lebas (1707-1783), at the same time that Reinier Vinkeles# was there. Numan’s series of 24 views of country houses, Hollandsche Buitenplaatsen (1797), which were individually hand-coloured, were well-known. Numan was a one of the best watercolorists of his time. Among his most important students was Jan Bulthuis (1750-1801).


390 The Observatory in Paris

Pen, grey and black ink, brush, light-grey and dark-grey ink. Framing line in pen and grey ink, over traces of pencil.
Verso: vague topographical sketch in pencil.
128 x 212 mm.
Inscribed by the artist on the verso, lower left: Het koninglijk Observatorium bij Paris. na t leven getekent door H: Numan (pen and grey ink); inscribed, lower left: No 1362 (pen and black ink, handwriting Jacob Helmolt; cf. L. 2986b; Beck 1993).
Stamped on the verso, lower left, with the mark of the Museum (L. 2392).
PROVENANCE: J.C. Pruyssenaer; his sale, Amsterdam, 27 February 1804 (Lugt 6747), no. L 23, bought by J. Helmolt (f 2:15:-); Jacob Helmolt; sale J.U. van Heijnen & J. Helmolt, Amsterdam, 11 April 1810 (Lugt 7752), no. H 24, bought by Hendriks for the Museum (f 2:10:-).
Inv. 1854: D* 35 ‘het Kon. Observatorium by Paris’.
INV. NO.: W 53a.

Numan probably drew the Observatoire, here seen from the south-west, during his sojourn in Paris around 1768 or 1769. The observatory, commissioned by Jean-Baptiste Colbert, was designed and built by Claude Perrault (1613-1688) in 1667, on the spot of the Paris meridian, then assumed to be the prime meridian (Picon 1989, pp. 197-221). Strikingly, there is no observation dome, since the architect was convinced that this would undermine the harmony of his building; a small wooden structure was erected for the use of astronomers (ibid., cf. figs. 183-85). An observation dome was added to the building in 1845 (ibid., fig. 190).
The drawing entered the collection in 1810, during the period that Martinus van Marum (1750-1837) was director of the Teyler Museum. Van Marum had been appointed member of the Académie des Sciences in Paris in 1783 and kept contact with several famous scientists in that city. Perhaps No. 390 was acquired mainly for its scientific interest rather than its artistic merit; which would explain why the drawing is not listed in the 1864 inventory or in Scholten’s catalogue of 1904.