Lot 1282 Dα

In the 1650s, Gerrit Berckheyde travelled up the Rhine to Cologne with his brother Job, and then further to Mainz and Heidelberg, where he probably became court painter for Elector Karl-Ludwig. Following his return to Haarlem in 1660 he became a member of the Guild of St. Luke.
He often used motifs from his trip along the Rhine in his fantastic and realistic depictions of cities. For example the present work, which realistically depicts the romanesque Church of St. Pantaleon in Cologne and combines it with a covered walkway and a staircase in the left of the piece.