# Blockhouses on the Amstel outside Amsterdam [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [VELDE, Willem van de, the Younger]() - Date: 1651-1700 - Technique: Oil on canvas, 32 x 45 cm ## Commentary This view shows the blockhouses on the Amstel outside Amsterdam, with three men in a rowing boat approaching a barge in the foreground. In July 1650, Prince Willem II of Orange made a failed attempt to invade the city of Amsterdam. In order to prevent any such future attack it was decided that defences should be erected, including two blockhouses on the Amstel just outside the city. Built of timber and oak piles, they were completed in the summer of 1651. They proved to be an impediment to river commerce and were removed in 1654 after only three years. ## Related artworks - [A Dutch Ship at Anchor]() - [A Kaag and a Smalschip at Anchor]() - [A States Yacht and Other Vessels in Light Air]() - [An Indiaman in a Gale off a Rocky Coast]() - [Calm - Dutch Smalschips and a Rowing Boat]() - [Calm: Dutch Ships Coming to Anchor]() - [Calm Sea]() - [Calm Sea]() - [Calm Sea]() - [Entrance to a Dutch Port]() - [Marine Landscape]() - [Shipping in Heavy Seas]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()