Bloemen Heuvel, The Residence of Mr. J. A. Willink, Flatbush
Lithographer George Hayward American, born England
Property owner John Abraham Willink
Not on view
This pastoral view, published in 1842, represents the neoclassical mansion of John A. Willink at Flatbush on Long Island. The house is set on a hill with stables in the foreground and peacocks and deer wandering the grounds. The owner was a New York broker whose father had been an Amsterdam banker, the first European willing to lend money to the fledgling United States. An article in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, published on June 1, 1852, the day after John Willink's sudden death from a carriage accident, noted that "the loan, though not large, was a great relief to the government, and gave a new spring to the courage of the people in that momentous struggle."
