Brinkman Fine Real Estate – Home at Singel 60, Amsterdam.
Brinkman Fine Real Estate has been based at Singel 60 in Amsterdam since 2021. Our expertise within the property sector, particularly as real estate agents, rests with architecturally significant buildings, historic residences, and heritage properties in the Netherlands and far beyond.
An essential element of our sales campaigns is the unveiling and description of the architectural and historical aspects of our projects. All the more reason to tell you a little more about our own home base in Amsterdam.
Stucco relief featuring an alliance coat of arms at Singel 60, believed to be that of Johannes Laan and Anna Hagen, who were married in 1739. Attributed to Jan van Logteren. Photograph: Gloria Palmer.
Singel 60
This part of the Singel formed part of the city’s first major expansion, carried out between 1585 and 1586. Although the city was founded in 1275, most of the older houses date from after 1600. In earlier times, houses in Amsterdam were built predominantly of wood, almost all of which were destroyed in three major city fires during the Middle Ages. The last of these devastating fires occurred in 1597. After that, the construction of wooden houses in the city centre was prohibited, and only brick buildings were permitted.
Singel 60 belongs to a group of houses that were extensively remodelled during the first half of the eighteenth century. The three houses at Singel 56, 58, and 60 present themselves as a cohesive ensemble dating from around 1740–41. Originally, there were four houses of the same type. With a façade width of 5.6 metres, the property conforms to the standard layout of the Amsterdam canal house: a front house, an intermediate section with a courtyard, and a rear house, followed by a garden.
The latter is exceptional, as gardens were scarcely found along the Singel during the 1585 expansion. The plots between the Singel and the Langestraat — and further along, between the Singel and the Herengracht — were generally developed in their entirety. Many residents on this side of the Singel therefore owned a coach house on the Langestraat, which became known as a street lined with coach houses. Only at numbers 58 through 64 was space preserved for gardens, screened from the Langestraat by a blind wall.
Front reception room of our office at Singel 60. Photograph by Gloria Palmer.
Architecture and Ornamentation
The door surround and the crowning of the façade are distinguished by the lavish crème chantilly-like ornamentation characteristic of the Louis XIV style, or Baroque. This decorative language continues into the hallway in the form of stucco work, which already reveals the first asymmetrical flourishes of the Rococo.
The stucco decoration on the hallway ceiling was likely executed by the Husly brothers. Noteworthy is the deliberate choice of the Louis XIV style, even though Rococo elements are already visible elsewhere in the interior.
A particular highlight is the staircase, with its beautifully carved balusters. At the lower-ground level, the handrail begins with a strikingly carved lion’s head — a reference to the historic name of the house, De Rooleeuw (The Red Lion), which appears in the 18th-century deed of transfer.
A stucco figure of the Maiden of the City, her midriff exposed, holding two keys. Presumably a reference to the alliance coat of arms, and thus to the union of two families. Photograph: Gloria Palmer.
Johannes Laan and Anna Hagen
Above the double doors in the stairwell is a stucco relief featuring the coats of arms of the couple Johannes Laan and Anna Hagen, who married in 1739. The alliance coat of arms (see main image) is held aloft by two putti in the unmistakable style of Jan van Logteren. It is considered to be among the very last works executed by his own hand. Johannes had purchased the house in 1738 and had it remodelled in honour of their marriage.
The Studio of Jan van Logteren
The stucco work and the crowning of the façade are attributed to Jan van Logteren (1709–1745) and his studio, sculptors, and stucco artists active in eighteenth-century Amsterdam. The execution possesses the bold and full-bodied sculptural quality that is characteristic of works from his atelier.
Notably, all four houses in this ensemble were embellished around 1741 to designs by Jan van Logteren. The hallways of numbers 56 and 58 also feature fine reliefs, stucco ceilings, and woodcarving. Together, the group forms a striking example of how Van Logteren and his studio bestowed a cohesive aesthetic upon an entire neighbourhood.
Library in our office at Singel 60. Photograph: Gloria Palmer.
Sources: Diderik van Bottenburg en Karel Loeff. Tussen Weelde en Woningwet. Wonen aan de Amsterdamse grachten. Volkshuisvesting van noord tot zuid. Amsterdam, 2001 (Open Monumentendag), p. 11-12; P.M. Fischer. Ignatius en Jan van Logteren. Alphen aan de Rijn, 2005: p. 464-468; Paul Spies, e.a. Het Grachtenboek. Den Haag, 1991: p. 101.