By combining his expertise as a
cartographer with his skill as a
watercolourist, he produced watercolours of coastal cities, ports, and trading regions in Asia, Africa, and the Americas, based on reports and sketches gathered through
VOC and
GWC networks. He made city elevations, plans, coastal profiles and
sea charts, combining them until he had produced a unique series of images that gave an accurate image of a large part of the world then known to Dutch trade. For many of these areas, his are the earliest images. Vingboons's work was highly valued in its own time and collected by private individuals. The largest batch, a series of 130 watercolours bound in three atlases, was bought in 1654 by queen
Christina of Sweden. After her death these atlases came into the possession of
Pope Alexander VIII, and now rest in the library of the
Vatican. The next largest collection, more than a hundred works, is in the possession of the
Nationaal Archief in
The Hague. A small number of watercolours are in the
Medici library in
Florence. Four signed
parchment world maps form part of the collection of the
Nederlands Scheepvaartmuseum in Amsterdam. A large part of his work were on show from 27 January to 15 April 2007 at the exhibition "Land in zicht! Vingboons tekent de wereld van de 17e eeuw" (Land ho! Vingboons draws the world of the 17th century) in the
Kunsthal in
Rotterdam, organized in cooperation with the Nationaal Archief. The majority had never been exhibited before and never will be again, because of the images' vulnerability and small size. The three bound atlases left the Vatican papal library for the first time for the exhibition. ==References==