Gerrit Adriaensz. Berckheyde

Possibly John Rushout, 2nd Lord Northwick (1769-1859), Northwick Park;
George, 3rd Lord Northwick (1811-1887), Northwick Park, by 1864;
Elizabeth Augusta, Dowager Lady Northwick (1832-1912), Northwick Park;
Thence by descent to Captain Edward George Spencer-Churchill (1876-1964), Northwick Park;
His deceased sale (Northwick Park Collection), London, Christie's, 29 October 1965, lot 78;
With Alan Jacobs Gallery, London, by 1975;
Possibly unidentified sale, Zurich, Waterman Auktion, 1977 (sold for SFr 200,000); 
K. and V. Waterman Gallery, 1982.

London, Alan Jacobs Gallery, Winter Exhibition 1975-6. Fine XVII Century Dutch and Flemish Old Masters, 1975-1976, pp. 36-37, reproduced;
Amsterdam, Kunsthandel Waterman, Bedeutende Meister des 17. Jahrhunderts, 15 October - 15 November 1979;
Birmingham 1995, no. 1;
New Orleans 1997, no. 4;
Baltimore 1999, no. 4:
Washington, National Gallery of Art, Pride of Place: Dutch Cityscapes of the Golden Age, 1 February - 3 May 2009.

A Catalogue of the Pictures, Works of Art, &c. at Northwick Park, 1864 (reprinted 1908), p. 39, cat. no. 330 (as in the Saloon – Room O; Berckheyden. Street in Holland: The Bumanky [sic] at the Hague);
T. Borenius, Catalogue of the Collection of Pictures at Northwick Park, London 1921, p. 78, cat. no. 174;
A. Jacobs, 17th Century Dutch and Flemish Painters. A Collector’s Guide compiled by Alan Jacobs, Maidenhead 1976, p. 15, reproduced on p. 202 (listed as "Owned at one time by Alan Jacobs Gallery or Clients");
Advertisement in Weltkunst No. 20, (15 October 1979) p. 2493, reproduced;
I. Gaskell, The Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, Seventeenth-Century Dutch and Flemish Painting, London 1989, p. 301 and note 11;
Ch. Dumas, Haagse Stadsgezichten 1550-1800. Topografische Schilderijen van het Haags Historisch Museum, Zwolle 1991, pp. 670-671, under cat. no. 61, reproduced fig. 5, and p. 673, note 21;
C. Lawrence, Gerrit Adriaensz. Berckheyde (1638-1698) Haarlem Cityscape Painter, Doornspijk 1991, p. 75, note 29c;
New Orleans 1997, pp. 9-11, cat. no. 4, reproduced;
Baltimore 1999, pp. 8-11, cat. no. 4, reproduced;
A. van Suchtelen, A. Wheelock, Dutch Cityscapes of the Golden Age, exhibition catalogue The Hague 2008, pp. 29-30, reproduced p. 30, fig. 14.

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This work has been recently cleaned and retouched. The lining is applied with wax and is probably from 1970s. However, it still seems to be supportive. Apart from the odd crack that has been restored in the sky, the only other restorations are to some cracking between the horse and carriage in the lower left and in the couple standing immediately to the right of the carriage. The condition throughout the remainder of the picture is particularly good for a picture of this period.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

Bathed in golden, warm sunlight under a blue sky, the Binnenhof (or “Inner Court”) in The Hague was painted by Berckheyde in a monumental fashion, a clear statement of its status as one of the most important historical sites of the Netherlands, a role which it has retained to this day (fig. 1).  The building complex, originally a walled castle complex dating from the Middle Ages, slowly evolved into the political center of the Netherlands; comprised of a number of adjacent edifices, it included the Ridderzaal (Hall of Knights) as well as the Stadtholder’s Quarters. The Binnenhof remains the epicenter of modern Dutch government and has been an important historic venue for centuries.  On the right of the composition, the impressive form of the 13th century Ridderzaal rises proudly above all the figures standing in the inner court of the Binnenhof, giving us a view of a prosperous mercantile society.

In the Weldon canvas, Berckheyde has reveled in the multi-textured stonework of this medieval building and the later additions clustered around it, contrasting the smooth brickwork and stone moldings of the Stadtholder’s Quarters (1640) at left, characteristic of 17^th century Dutch architecture, with the older buildings nearby.  The intense sunlight falling in from the right suggests that it is late afternoon; it models the buildings with a soft sfumato and powerful chiaroscuro.   Highlights on the figures standing in the shade--certainly representatives from the various Dutch provinces lobbying each other and discussing business—are painted with great precision. 

Both Gerrit and his brother Job Berckheyde were among the leading topographical artists of the 17th century, and worked in Haarlem, Amsterdam and The Hague. Before settling in Haarlem in 1660 they had travelled to Germany to work for the Elector Palatine at Heidelberg.  As indicated by Ariane van Suchtelen in her book accompanying the exhibition Dutch Cityscapes in 2008-2009,¹ Berckheyde’s Hague scenes (in contrast to his cityscapes of Haarlem and Amsterdam) often include fashionable hunting parties or expensive coaches, like the one which can be seen here on the left.  Unlike other cities in Holland, The Hague was not a commercial hub, but rather a small town with a princely court teeming with foreign envoys and other high-ranking officials. By 1690, at about the time Berckheyde produced this painting, the Stadtholder’s Quarters--the moated complex on the Hofvijver built in the 13th century for the Counts of Holland--had been the administrative center of the Dutch Republic for more than a century. In 1578 the States of Holland had decided to make The Hague their meeting place, and Prince Maurits was the first Stadtholder to make it his residence (from 1585 onwards). In 1587 the States General of the republic moved its seat permanently to the Stadtholder’s Quarters. It was not until late in his career, from circa 1685 onwards, that the artist chose The Hague as the subject of a series of cityscapes, painting views of the area around the Binnenhof and Buitenhof from various vantage points. These pictures also attest to Berckheyde’s continued inventive approach to the genre of the cityscape during the final decade of his career. Five other versions of this scene by Berckheyde are known, none of them dated (see Lawrence, under Literature); one of these versions is in the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid. ²

As Van Suchtelen mentions,³  it has been suggested that the demand for depictions of the Binnenhof was prompted by the renewed popularity of the House of Orange, and by the blossoming of court life in The Hague after Prince Willem III’s assumed the stadtholdership in 1672.  The latter had put an end to the First Stadtholderless Period (1650-1672).  That same year, poignantly referred to by the Dutch as the “Rampjaar” (“Disaster Year”), France, England, and the Bishops of Münster and Cologne simultaneously invaded the Netherlands.  The Dutch economy stagnated, and construction in cities slowed. But soon after, commerce rebounded and the demand for cityscapes like the Weldon canvas flourished again, particularly after 1678 when the Treaty of Nijmegen ended the war with France.  Cityscapes such as these - focusing on The Hague’s main political structure and its inner court - would have appealed enormously to local burghers, who were well known for their strong sense of civic pride (as, indeed, they still are). All life in The Hague centered around the Binnenhof, and in his depictions of it Gerrit Berckheyde, more than any other artist, has preserved its distinctive character for posterity.

The most important edifice in this picture, the Ridderzaal, has an illustrious history going all the way back to the Middle Ages, when in the early 13^th century, Floris IV, Count of Holland acquired a piece of land next to a small lake.  His grandson, Floris V, later had the Ridderzaal erected on the site as his manorial hall. Over time, government buildings developed around this lake, the Hofvijver, and incorporated the Ridderzaal. The hall was restored between 1898 and 1904 to serve its present functions, including the state opening of Parliament by the Dutch monarch every year in September on Prinsjesdag. It is also used for official royal receptions, and interparliamentary conferences. The central part of the Ridderzaal, the large Gothic hall, still forms the main part of the building and has maintained its original appearance, with magnificent stained glass windows depicting the coats-of-arms of Dutch towns; particularly fine is the central rose window with the arms of the principal noble families of the Netherlands.  An important meeting  of the States General was held there in 1651 giving us a good idea of the impressive interior of the hall at about the time Berckheyde painted its exterior. Although most of the original 13^th century structure has now been significantly altered, much of the 17^th century architectural work in and around the Binnenhof remains. 

A curious historical motif seen in this picture is the inclusion of a pair of whale jaws hanging on the exterior wall of the entrance to the Ridderzaal on the right.  These hung there for almost 200 years until the end of 18^th Century, and it is said by tradition that they originated from one of three sperm whales that were washed up on the beach of Scheveningen in 1577. ⁴ The function and meaning of these whale bones on such an important building is not completely clear even to this day; in the 17^th century, whales were the stuff of legend, giant and barely known creatures of the deep. The jaws could have been displayed to suggest a connection between the largest known animal on earth--the whale—with the might of civic government.  An alternative explanation is that the whale jaw (‘kaak’ in Dutch) refers to the saying ‘aan de kaak stellen,’ meaning publicly displaying/shaming someone, often a criminal.  Buildings which displayed whale jaws were often judicial courts, a function which the Ridderzaal sometimes fulfilled. Another example of such whale jaws hanging on an official building can be found in a painting by Saenredam of the Former Amsterdam City Hall, in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (fig. 2). Today a whale bone still hangs in the interior of the Haarlem City Hall; it was gifted by Jan Huygen van Linschoten who made the treacherous journey to Nova Zembla in the Arctic Sea with Willem Barentz in 1594.

 

1. Van Suchtelen, under Literature p. 94.
2. Gerrit Berckheyde, The Binnenhof, The Hague, signed, oil on canvas, 54.5 by 63.5 cm.; Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, inv. no. 1955.5.
3. Van Suchtelen, op. cit.
4. As attested in: Adriaen Coenen, Het Visboeck, Scheveningen 1577-1581, pp. 112-117; see also F. Egmond, Het Visboek. De wereld volgens Adriaen Coenen 1514 – 1587, Zutphen 2005.