Van Goyen executed a sheet of two sketches of Rupelmonde Castle in the sketchbook that he used during a journey to Antwerp and Brussels in circa 1648 (today in the Kupferstichkabinett, Dresden; fig. 1).1 These sketches were evidently used for the present picture and for a smaller variant dated 1650.2 Another view of the Castle, from a different position and dated 1646, was sold in these Rooms, 16 December 1999, lot 27.3

Fig. 1 Jan van Goyen, Two views of Rupelmonde Castle, page 60, from The Dresden Sketchbook, c. 1648, black chalk, 139 x 204 mm. Dresden, Kupferstichkabinett.

Rupelmonde Castle is the largely destroyed castle of the Counts of Flanders; it is named after the river Rupel – it lies directly opposite the confluence of that river and the river Scheldt.

1 See H.-U. Beck, Jan van Goyen 1596–1656, Amsterdam 1972, vol. I, p. 277, no. 846/60, reproduced.

2 Beck 1973, p. 319, no. 701, reproduced: https://rkd.nl/explore/images/107425

3 https://rkd.nl/explore/images/42644