Jan Goeree was the son of the Middelburg bookseller Willem Goeree (1635-1711) and Elisabeth Janssonius van Waesbergen (1643-1683). He was born in Middelburg, but soon moved to Amsterdam. Initially he focused on painting, assumably as a student of Gerard de Lairesse(1641-1711). But he is best known for his engraving skills, depicting mostly emblematic and history scenes. In 1705 he was commissioned by the Mayor of Amsterdam to design the drawings for the ceiling paintings of the grand hall of the city hall, which were then painted by Jan Hoogzaat (1654-c.1740) and Gerrit Rademaker (1654-1711). He died January 4, 1731.
The present drawing may have been partly inspired by engravings of Theodor de Bry (1528-1598), notably the illustrations to Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues’ account of Laudonnière’s famous voyage to Florida, the Brevis Narratio (Frankfurt-am-Main, 1591), e.g. the illustration for chapter XXXII of this book, Navis ex S. Vincentii Insula Adventans, de Statu Meo Scicitatur, sed Responsum Frigidum refert.
The attribution to Jan Goeree was suggested by Dorine van Sasse van IJselt. Mrs Van Sasse van IJselt suggested that the present drawing is probably the design for one of the many illustrations that Goeree made for J.L. Gottfried’s compendium of accounts of the voyages of the great explorers, published in Amsterdam by Pieter van der Aa in many parts, from 1700 on.
