Cornelis de Kruyff, View of Soestdijk Palace, 1784 - 1828 by Atelier Liesjes

About "Cornelis de Kruyff, View of Soestdijk Palace, 1784 - 1828"

by Atelier Liesjes

About the artwork

Palace Soestdijk is a palace on the Amsterdamsestraatweg 1 in Baarn. The originally 17th-century building is named after the Soestdijk river along which the hamlet of Soestdijk arose. From 1937 to 2004 it was the residence of Crown Princess and later Queen Juliana of the Netherlands (1909-2004) and her husband Prince Bernhard van Lippe-Biesterfeld (1911-2004). From late 1970 to 2017 it was owned by the Dutch state.

Around 1650 Cornelis de Graeff, one of the mayors of Amsterdam, had a country house built on the road between Baarn and Soest (the Zoesdijc): the Hofstede aen Zoestdijck. In the years 1655-1660 De Graeff was busy bringing up William III of Orange (1650-1702), as appears from his letters to the States General and Johan de Witt written at Soestdijk.

During the Batavian Revolution and the subsequent French invasion, Soestdijk Palace was confiscated by the French Republic as war booty in 1795 and subsequently donated to the Dutch people. The Batavian Republic confirmed this gift in 1796. In 1799 it was rented out and used as a residence. King Louis Napoleon, brother of the French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, occupied the palace in 1806.

He used it until 1810, after which it became one of the palaces of Napoleon, who made the Netherlands part of the French Empire that year.

After the restoration of Dutch independence in 1813, the palace remained marginally managed for some time. After the establishment of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands in 1815, it was