(Bonas Essay by J. Smit, R. van Beekum; abridged version) Johan David Zocher Jr. (1791-1870) was an extraordinarily prolific architect and garden designer. His clients included city councils of large and smaller Dutch cities, wealthy merchants, bankers and other influential individuals, noble families and even members of the royal family. In addition to several large and well-known works such as the Vondelpark and the Koopmansbeurs in Amsterdam, the singelplantsoenen in Utrecht and Haarlem and Het Park in Rotterdam, he also designed dozens of country houses of wealthy families and carried out smaller commissions for municipalities such as designing cemeteries. Jan David Zocher jr. Jan David Zocher junior was one of the most important propagators of the later landscape style. Remnants of his park designs can still be found. In the cities where he was active, streets or parks are named after him. As an architect of buildings, Zocher was less fortunate: many of his buildings have not survived the change of taste over the years. Zocher Jr. was the most famous architect in his family, but certainly not the only one. His father, architect and garden designer Johann David Zocher Sr. was born in 1763 in Thurgau, Saxony. His father's name was also Johann David and was a gardener. With his parents, Zocher sr. lived in Strasbourg for several years. In 1780, his parents and he came to the Netherlands. Here he came into the service of Johann Georg Michael, who was also from Germany. This Michael had started in the Netherlands as a "boschgardener. He had his own nursery from 1791, at Roosenstein near Velsen, and also worked as an architect. Zocher senior married Michael's daughter, Maria Christina, in 1788. About a year later, he enrolled in the Guild of St. Luke in Haarlem, as the only architect. From then on, he worked independently and became increasingly successful. One of his first works was the public park Het Valkhof in Nijmegen. He purchased two country estates: Vredenrijk and Rozenhagen. Rozenhagen was already in use as a nursery before Zocher Sr. bought it, and he kept it that way. Zocher worked a lot in the landscape style. In 1807, King Louis Napoleon appointed Zocher court architect, although he was supervised by two French colleagues. In the king's service, he laid out the gardens of Soestdijk Palace, Huis ten Bosch and Amelisweerd, among others. He also designed a court chapel for the palace in Utrecht and laid out a Jardin du Roi at Paviljoen Welgelegen in Haarlem. From the moment the Kingdom of Holland was incorporated into the French Empire in 1810, Zocher's status as court architect expired and he faced financial difficulties. However, he continued to receive and complete commissions. During the second phase of the construction of Soestdijk Park, in 1817, he died suddenly. Zocher's son, Johan David Zocher Jr. had been born in 1791, so he was 26 at the time of his father's death. He was commissioned, along with two fellow students, to complete his father's work. It was his first assignment, and not exactly the least. Probably he had gained his first knowledge of the trade from his father. In any case, thanks in part to his father's connections, when he was eighteen he was able to enter a competition launched by King Louis Napoleon. This was the Prix de Paris, designed to give young talent the opportunity to study in Paris. Zocher won, along with two other budding architects. So Zocher left the Netherlands in 1809, to study for two years at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. In Paris, he and the two other prize winners were taught in the studio of the important architect Hippolyte le Bas, who had supervised Zocher Sr. in the Netherlands. In this studio he was taught a thorough knowledge of classical architecture. During his stay, he won another prize, the Prix de Rome, which enabled him to go to Rome to study the ruins from Roman times up close. In 1817, Zocher settled in Haarlem, in part to take care of the dilapidated Rozenhagen nursery he had inherited from his father. Between his time in Rome and Haarlem, Zocher probably lived with his sister Maria Magdalena, who had lived in Leeuwarden since 1811 and had married a confectioner there. Here he carried out his first building commission, a stately building on the Nieuwestad. After the death of his friend Penninck Hoofd, Zocher jr. married his wife's widow, Amy May van Vollenhove, in 1819. Together with Amy May's daughter, they continued to live at Penninck Hoofd's country estate, Haarlem's Akendam. In 1820, their son Louis Paul was born. From this early period of his career, in addition to the park at Soestdijk, date, among other things, the tomb cum watchtower for Van Nellesteyn at Leersum, and part of the canal park in Haarlem, which Zocher began working on in 1821. Commissions initially came only from the Haarlem area, but gradually from all over the country. Zocher did not carry out everything himself: assignments in a far-flung province such as Zeeland he probably entrusted to his younger brother Karel Georg. In 1828, Akendam had to be furnished as a cemetery because of the new Royal Decree, which prohibited burials within the built-up area. Zocher then moved with his family to the Grote Houtstraat in Haarlem, and immediately delivered the design for the new cemetery. He was already a highly regarded architect by then. Zocher's wife Amy May died in 1846. Three years after her death, Zocher remarried Johanna Jacoba Ratelband, fifteen years younger and the daughter of an Amsterdam shopkeeper. This was not the first marriage for her either: she was the widow of broker Pieter de Waal Malefijt of Haarlem. At this time, Zocher began a partnership with his son Louis Paul. In 1843, Louis Paul had been apprenticed to his father. Zocher's career was at its peak at that time, and he was receiving commissions from all over the country. That meant he was away from home a lot and traveling all over the country. Therefore, it is almost impossible to imagine that he designed all of these commissions entirely by himself. Louis Paul probably took on a significant part of the designing fairly early on. However, it is difficult to say exactly when the collaboration between father and son began, but in any case, from 1850 onward, all designs were signed "Zocher" or "J.D. and L.P. Zocher" instead of "J.D. Zocher Jr. Louis Paul thus did not become a full-fledged collaborator until 1850. In his final years, Zocher left most of the work to his son, but was still active himself: for part of the Vondelpark in Amsterdam and for cemetery Zorgvlied, he and his son designed in 1864. Zocher died on July 8, 1870, in his hometown of Haarlem. He was buried in cemetery Akendam in Haarlem, which he had designed himself and where he had lived before the cemetery was built. Louis Paul is also buried here. Zocher's ideal was to design building and landscape as one. Not surprisingly, Zocher worked on both the park and the house at many country estates. One always served as an embellishment of the other and they could not be separated. In the Netherlands in the nineteenth century this was very unusual: people were used to drawing a building in the form of a stand, plan and section. Abroad, perspective drawings were found increasingly attractive in the nineteenth century, especially for competitions. So Zocher probably adopted this idea from foreign sample books, but perhaps also from his training in Paris and his travels abroad. Other Dutchmen were often afraid of distracting attention from what was actually at stake, namely clarity of design. It wasn't until about 1840 that other Dutch architects adopted the custom. Most of the buildings designed by Zocher are neoclassical. The French Academy at which he trained favored this style. The style can be recognized by its simple and symmetrical layout, which contrasted with the busy classicism of the eighteenth century. The style was an excellent fit for the landscape parks that Zocher laid out, as the white, austere buildings contrasted brightly with the surrounding plantings. Furthermore, Zocher had a predilection for the neo-Gothic and chalet styles, which were especially popular for small houses and garden buildings during much of the nineteenth century. Zocher's gardens are often recognizable by their water features. He preferred to lay out water features that were reminiscent of a slow-flowing river. He always tried to make it look like the water was infinite, even though it was in a small area. In small parks, he often laid out the water in a hook shape. This is one of the most characteristic features of Zocher's work. This shape made the course of the water more indistinguishable, making it seem infinite to the walker. This effect was reinforced by the meandering course of the water, and the installation of groups of trees and other plantings at strategic points, such as at the beginning and end of the water feature. If a park or garden already had several ponds, Zocher always made sure to connect them. To decorate the water and embellish the view, he used bridges, single trees and occasionally a garden building. By the way, these garden buildings often had a function, unlike the buildings of the early landscape style, which were intended only as decoration and were often no more than a mere facade. Zocher's little buildings served as, for example, gardeners' houses, coach houses or teahouses. Compared to designs by other garden architects, Zocher's designs were very artistic: he was very good at bringing unity and tension to his compositions and had an eye for detail. The designs were simple in design and harmonious. He never allowed forest edges to end abruptly, pond banks disappeared into the planting, the paths had curved lines and he applied relief where possible. Along the walks were solitary trees, shrubs and groups of trees which, together with the grassy areas, provided a clear light-dark effect. By leaving long stretches unplanted, Zocher created sight lines to, for example, a nearby village, church or - as a reference to the ideal image of the classics - a classicist garden building. Education: Architecture Paris/1809-1811;Architecture Rome/1812-1813 Additional positions: Trou must Blijcken/member/1834;Royal Netherlands Institute of Science, Literature and Fine Arts Amsterdam/member of the Fourth Class/1835;Royal Institute of British Architects/member/1838;Society for Arts and Sciences Utrecht/member/1840;Society for the Advancement of Architecture/member/1842 Honors: Knight of the Order of the Dutch Lion/1845