ndly with Constantijn Huygens, and together they designed a new house for Huygens. Even after Van Campen's death, his work greatly influenced Johan Maurits van Nassau-Siegen, the designer of the Kleefse gardens (the gardens of Cleve), and on Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg. The latter owned a book by Van Campen regardless of the expense. The city hall and city palace of Potsdam owe a debt to ideas by Van Campen. Van Campen's first known building was the Coymans house built in 1625 in Amsterdam. In the 1630s, Van Campen and Pieter Post designed the Mauritshuis in The Hague, a palace that is now home to a Royal Picture Gallery, and Van Campen alone designed the Netherlands' first theatre, Amsterdam's Stadsschouwburg. About 1645 Van Campen designed the Nieuwe Kerk in Haarlem, a church that influenced Christopher Wren. His best-known work is probably the large Town Hall of Amsterdam (begun 1648), now the Royal Palace in Dam Square.[

1] Van Campen worked as an architect, a painter and a designer of decorative schemes, like that for the church organ in Alkmaar. His art also influenced sculpture. He was assisted in his work by Pieter Post, Daniël Stalpaert, Matthias Withoos, Philips Vingboons, Artus Quellinus, Tielman van Gameren and Rombout Verhulst. During the building of the city hall, Van Campen lived in very expensive lodgings in the nearby Kalverstraat and he spent freely. In 1654 Van Campen (and Willem de Keyser left after an argument, probably in connection with the design of the barrel vaults. Stalpa