Johannes Hilverdink artwork • painting • for sale The rupture of the 'Grebbedijk' on March 5th 1855

Johannes Hilverdink was born in Groningen in 1813. Soon after his birth the family moves to Amsterdam, where Johannes is taught by J.A. Daiwaille and then applies for the Tekenacademie. As a painter he then specialized in romantic landscapes and seascapes. The subject of this painting from 1855 is the dramatic dike breach in the Grebbedijk between Rhenen and Wageningen on March 5, 1855, in which part of the Gelderland valley (including Veenendaal) was flooded. The flood came after a severe winter when the Dutch rivers were still frozen and the water from Germany could not escape. The ice began to settle and the dikes collapsed. The hole in the Grebbedijk was 150 meters wide. In the painting by Hilverdink we see the devastating power of water and drifting ice, in the background the church tower of the village Opheusden. Members of the artists' association Arti et Amicitiae made an album with lithographs that can be found in the collection of the Atlas van Stolk in Rotterdam.