Haerlempjes

It is used most often to refer to Jacob van Ruisdael's panoramic views of the city, but the term is derived from mentions in Haarlem archives as a type of painting included in household inventories.

[1] The diminutive suffix "pje" would denote a small, cabinet-sized painting, but even the largest landscapes may be referred to as Haerlempjes today.

Haarlem is a bustling city today that makes up part of the Randstad area of the Netherlands, so it helps when looking at these old paintings to orient oneself according to old maps.

[4] Though fantasy cityscapes were popular in the Netherlands throughout the 17th-century, these seem to be more often pastiches of southern harbours or italianate landscapes, rather than places that artists had conceivably visited.

Today, for example, it is assumed that Jacob van Ruisdael worked in Bentheim because he painted many accurate views of the castle there.

In 1997 Pieter Biesboer wrote a short article explaining the viewpoints of some of these paintings based on old maps, most notably the Bleaching Fields to the North-Northeast of Haarlem in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Early Haerlempje from the 1630s by Reyer Claesz Suycker
View of Haarlem from the North during the siege of Haarlem , historical print from 1628
Even the genre painter Jan Steen produced some dune landscapes in Haarlem in the 1640s, though it is unknown whether he painted any Haerlempjes
View of Haarlem with Bleaching Fields , viewpoint somewhat higher in the air than the highest point of Het Kopje , by Jacob van Ruisdael, c.1665
So-called Bleaching Fields to the North-Northeast of Haarlem , actually showing bleaching fields in Heemstede to the south of Haarlem, by Jacob van Ruisdael, 1670s
This watercolor from 1763 by Cornelis van Noorde shows how high the dunes of Bloemendaal used to be. This is a view of the Kleverlaan from the perspective of the Huis ter Kleef. "Clercq and Beeck", still owned by the De Clercq family a century later, is here on the left.
The Goldweigher's Field , by Rembrandt , 1650-1651