The encampment at Lincent

Constantijn Huygens II became secretary of Stadtholder Willem III of Orange in the rampjaar (disaster year) 1672. From his appointment until 1678, when the Treaties of the Peace of Nijmegen brought peace to the Netherlands, Huygens accompanied the Stadtholder on his numerous military campaigns. During these campaigns Huygens kept diaries and made a great number of drawings that documented his travels. These historically important documents allow us to follow the Stadtholder's secretary on his campaigns.

In 1675 the stadtholder's army marched to the Southern Netherlands. On 24 September the army arrived at Lincent, where Huygens made two views of the town, one on 27 September, now in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (inv. 1888 A 1628; J.F. Heijbroek et al., op. cit., no. 74) and the present drawing on 1 October. Both drawings show the town from the north with the Sint Pieterskerk in the background. The evening before Huygens made the second view of Lincent he showed the drawings he made during the campaign to the Stadtholder; 'Le soir je fis voir a S.A. les petits desseins que j'avois faits durant la champagne qui me les avoit demandés le jour presedent et y prit quelque plaisir'. Almost fifty of these 'petits desseins' from the 1675 campaign are still known today.