Collection Online
The Town Hall, Amsterdam
Medium
oil on canvas
Measurements
52.8 × 62.6 cm
Inscription
inscribed in brown paint l.l.: Gerrit Berckhëyde 1690 (dot above y)
Accession Number
1050-3
Department
International Painting
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Felton Bequest, 1920
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of Digitisation Champion Ms Carol Grigor through Metal Manufactures Limited
Gallery location
17th Century & Flemish Paintings Gallery
Level 2, NGV International
About this work

The sixth of seven children born to a butcher and his wife in Haarlem, Gerrit Berckheyde developed into one of the Golden Age’s most distinguished painters of city views. In the mid-1660s, Berckheyde began systematically to paint the architectural landmarks of both Haarlem and Amsterdam. While remaining a resident of Haarlem for his whole life, Berckheyde found it easy to travel the 19 kilometres that separated his home town from Amsterdam, probably using the hourly barge service that then connected the two cities. His many paintings of city views of Amsterdam were presumably created in the calm of his Haarlem studio, utilising drawings sketched during frequent trips to the capital.

Frame: Reproduction, 2005, based on a Dutch frame from 1695

Subjects (general)
Cityscapes Human Figures
Subjects (specific)
Amsterdam (inhabited place) Netherlands (nation) pedestrians public buildings (governmental buildings) royal palaces squares (open spaces) street scenes town halls
Frame
Reproduction, 2005, based on a Dutch frame from 1695

Frame

The former framing of Berckheyde The Town Hall, Amsterdam, 1690, acquired 1920, was a nineteenth century, gilded composition frame in a loosely French eighteenth century style.
The proposal to reframe the painting came with the cleaning of the painting in 2005.
The forward ogee profile frame in the manner of Dutch frames from the seventeenth century, was made from coachwood (pink sycamore) and stained to an ebonised finish.
The frame was fitted to the painting in 2005.

Framemaker
Reproduction - crafted by the NGV
Date
2005
Materials

Ebonised coachwood (pink sycamore)