Eleven Cities

From 2018, thirteen works by Hans Wilschut can be seen in the Fries Museum in Leeuwarden. On behalf of the museum, the landscape photographer took photos of the Frisian eleven cities and Drachten and Heerenveen. Wilschut was inspired by old sketches and drawings from the collection of the Fries Museum. These old prints and drawings can be seen together with the photos in De Eleven Cities. In the 17th and especially in the 18th century, draftsmen walked through Friesland to put the appearance of cities, villages, streets and important buildings on paper. Until the advent of photography, the urban landscape was captured in this way.

The drawings and paintings offer an image of how the cities grew over time. With the Fries Museum’s commission to photographer Hans Wilschut to portray the cities of Friesland, this tradition is revived. Wilschut presents a contemporary view of today’s thirteen Frisian cities. And he offers a distinctive perspective. Literally, because many of his photographs are taken from above. Figuratively, because from that vantage point he focuses above all on places of transformation. Alongside the traditional eleven cities, he also portrays Drachten and Heerenveen, places that can hardly still be called villages.