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Lot Essay
This painting constitutes a notable rarity within the more than 150 known cityscapes that Jan van Goyen painted between 1633 and 1655. Only four of these paintings depict identifiable views of cities in the Southern Netherlands: three of Brussels (Beck, op. cit., II, nos. 407, 411 and 418) and one of Antwerp (Beck, op. cit., II, no. 408). Three of these paintings bear dates of either 1648 or 1649, while Beck read the indistinct date on the last view of Brussels as ‘1652’.
Van Goyen travelled extensively in the Netherlands, recording his impressions of its landscape and cities in numerous chalk sketches. In 1648, he visited Antwerp and Brussels via the mouth of the River Scheldt. Preparatory sketches for this painting and a similar view dated to the previous year in the White Parlour at Chequers Court, Buckinghamshire, are found in the so-called Dresden Sketchbook of circa 1648 (fig. 1; Beck, op. cit., I, nos. 846⁄49 and 846⁄50).
This panoramic view of Brussels depicts – from left to right – the Convent of the Annonciades, the Basilica of Saint Gudula, the Palace (absent in the Chequers Court version), the Church of Saint Catherine, the Church of Saint Nicholas and the Town Hall. These buildings were clearly identified by the cartographer Jean Boisseau in 1648 in the Profil de la ville de Bruxelles, siège et résidance [sic] des ducs de Brabant engraved by Hugues Picart, which van Goyen may well have known.
Van Goyen travelled extensively in the Netherlands, recording his impressions of its landscape and cities in numerous chalk sketches. In 1648, he visited Antwerp and Brussels via the mouth of the River Scheldt. Preparatory sketches for this painting and a similar view dated to the previous year in the White Parlour at Chequers Court, Buckinghamshire, are found in the so-called Dresden Sketchbook of circa 1648 (fig. 1; Beck, op. cit., I, nos. 846⁄49 and 846⁄50).
This panoramic view of Brussels depicts – from left to right – the Convent of the Annonciades, the Basilica of Saint Gudula, the Palace (absent in the Chequers Court version), the Church of Saint Catherine, the Church of Saint Nicholas and the Town Hall. These buildings were clearly identified by the cartographer Jean Boisseau in 1648 in the Profil de la ville de Bruxelles, siège et résidance [sic] des ducs de Brabant engraved by Hugues Picart, which van Goyen may well have known.