Frans de Groen - Molen a/h Oostplein R'dam (vooroorlogs Rotterdam) 039-FG - Sold

Frans de Groen does not appear in the well-known overviews of Dutch visual artists. Yet many of his etchings are known, especially of cityscapes of pre-war Rotterdam and Schiedam.
Frans de Groen worked in a romantic realistic style. His annotations are not always entirely correct; there are known etchings by him with different annotations, even different locations. Almost all of his known etchings are signed and annotated in pencil. Some etchings also with monogram or signature in the print

The work depicted is an etching from the "Rijnmond Toen" collection .
The etching depicts the Mill on Oostplein in pre-war Rotterdam.
The Korenmolen De Noord was a tower mill on the Oostplein in Rotterdam. The mill was built in 1711 to replace a post mill. From its construction until the nineteenth century, the Noord was used as a malt mill; later they switched to grinding grain for animal feed.
Demolition threatened in 1919, which could barely be prevented by the intervention of the city council. De Noord was restored and rented out to the Kluit family from Goidschalxoord.
During the bombing of Rotterdam in May 1940, the area was ablaze. The millers turned the blades to prevent the fire from spreading to the mill. The mill survived the war.
But in the night of 27 to 28 July 1954 the mill burned down for unknown reasons. The mill hull, which was too bad to be used for rebuilding, was demolished in the autumn of the same year. A rebuilding plan was rejected by the city council.

Annotation in pencil lo in the margin: "Molen a/h Oostplein Rdam"
Signed in pencil ro in the margin
Signed ro in the plate
dim. image 260 x 191 mm
dim. blade: 356 x 237 mm
dim. passe-partout 360 x 265 mm