Name: GERRIT ADRIAENSZ. BERCKHEYDE (HAARLEM 1638-1698)
Brand: The Grote Markt, Haarlem, looking south-east, with Saint Bavo's church and the Vleeshal
Price: 45000.00 EUR
Availability: SoldOut

GERRIT ADRIAENSZ. BERCKHEYDE (HAARLEM 1638-1698)
The Grote Markt, Haarlem, looking south-east, with Saint Bavo's church and the Vleeshal
remnants of a signature(?) (lower left)
oil on canvas
47.5 x 42.9 cm. (18³⁄₄ x 16⁷⁄₈ in.)

William Alexander Louis Stephen Douglas, 12th Duke of Hamilton (1845-1895) (according to a note by Max Flersheim), and probably sold in his sale, Christie’s, London, 17 June 1882, lot 69, with dimensions of ’16 x 14 in.’, where acquired for 200 gns. by,
Christopher Beckett-Denison (1825-1884), London; (†) his sale, Christie’s, London, 13 June 1885 [=7th day], lot 913, with dimensions of ’16 x 14 in.’, where acquired for 165 gns. by the following,
with Colnaghi, London.
Max Flersheim, Paris.
Ivar Kreuger; his sale, Svensk-Franska Konstgalleriet, Stockholm, 14 September 1932, lot 30.
with Douwes, Amsterdam, circa 1933.
with P. de Boer, Amsterdam, circa 1935, and by whom sold to,
‘Sonderauftrag Linz’, 1940 (RM 10,000), no. 1526.
Recuperated by the Western Allies and transferred to the Munich Central Collecting Point on 15 July 1945, no. 4320, and returned to the Netherlands on 29 April 1946.
Instituut Collectie Nederland (formerly the Stichting Nederlands Kunstbezit); their sale; Frederik Muller, Amsterdam, 19 March 1951, lot 9.
Private collection.
with Douwes, Amsterdam, 2004, where acquired by the previous owner (€123.000).

G.F. Waagen, Art Treasures in Great Britain, III, London, 1857, p. 294.
C. Lawrence, Gerrit Adriaensz. Berckheyde (1638-1698): Haarlem cityscape painter, Doornspijk, 1991, p. 36, note 35, under j and possibly i.

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Lot Essay

On the eastern end of the Grote Markt, opposite the town hall stands the 'great church' (Grote Kerk) of St. Bavo's. The gothic cathedral was completed in 1550 and dedicated to the patron Saint of Haarlem.

Between 1665 and 1696, Gerrit Berckheyde painted numerous views of the church. This painting corresponds to Berckheyde's favored vantage point from the west, and at a slight angle to show its north elevation. On the other hand, it is one of the few compositions with a vertical format. Similar to a signed and 1683 dated view in the Museum der Bildenden Künste, Leipzig (see C. Lawrence, op. cit., plate 14), the present view shows the foreshortened west façade brilliantly illuminated by the late-afternoon sun. Saint Bavo's bright west front contrasts sharply with the silhouetted stepped façades of the Vleeshal and the houses adjacent to it. Comparable to a 1696 dated view in the Frans Halsmuseum, Haarlem (loc. cit., plate 18), Berckheyde created a more monumental impression by expanding the square in the foreground, and by decreasing the number of figures, which are quite rigidly relegated to positions within the square.

Berckheyde can be considered, along with Jan van der Heyden, as one of the greatest of all Dutch painters of townscapes. He painted several views of Amsterdam and The Hague during the course of his career, but it is for views of his native Haarlem that he is most celebrated. He joined the painters’ guild there in 1660 and later in that decade began to paint views of the city's landmarks, presumably in response to local demand (see W. Liedtke, 'Pride in Perspective: The Dutch Townscape', Connoisseur, CC, April 1979, pp. 264-273). The setting for most of his Haarlem views was the Grote Markt, which, like the Dam in Amsterdam, was the commercial and civic hub of the city. Its principal buildings – the church of St. Bavo's, the town hall and Lieven de Key's Vleeshal (meat market) – represented Haarlem's religious, political and commercial institutions that together embodied the city's identity and source of pride.