The oldest art tour of Amsterdam
Open Ateliers Westelijke Eilanden (Western Islands): the oldest and most extraordinary art route in Amsterdam.
On the 7, 8 and 9 of June 2025, between 12:00 PM and 6:00 PM, artists from the ‘Westelijke Eilanden’ will open their doors to the public for this 40 years anniversary edition.
‘Open Ateliers Westelijke Eilanden’ was founded in 1985 and is the oldest art route in the Netherlands. It is a very special art route because in this beautiful, quiet part of the city most artists can be found per area compared to the whole of the Netherlands.
These ‘Westelijke Eilanden’ (Bickers-eiland, Prinsen-eiland, and Realen-eiland) are part of the 3rd city expansion of Amsterdam built around 1615, together with the canals, the Jordaan and the Haarlemmerdijk. The expansion was necessary due to increasing prosperity and busy trade in the famous 17th Century, the Dutch Golden Age.
First a New Harbour was built here in 1610 where the many ships of, among others, the ‘West-Indische Compangie’ (W.I.C.) could moor. Of the total of 900 warehouses in Amsterdam, 100 were built on the Prinseneiland alone. And on Bickerseiland at least 11 shipyards could be found. The much wood that was needed for this was stored at the Houttuinen and all the tar that was needed to build the ships and caulk the seams was stored and processed on the Nieuwe Teertuinen.
Later, in 1832 the islands were closed off from ‘het IJ’ (the harbour) with the construction of the Westerdoksdijk. Over the last couple of centuries many artists, such as the painter George Hendrik Breitner and the photographer Jacob Olie, have lived here and had their studios. Olie is known for his many photographs of cityscapes of Amsterdam around the 19th century and Breitner for his famous painting “Girl with Kimono”.
Now the islands have become a unique and beautiful neighborhood where old warehouses, old industrial buildings and former captain’s houses are still fully present in combination with various social architecture of the past centuries.
Pastels, watercolour, charcoal and graphite on paper.
110 x 80 cm
2023
Signed and dated by the artist Viola Winokan
Ships worldwide safely in a hard tube or flat packaged.
Delivered framed within Europe. Pick up framed at the gallery possible.
