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Gerrit Berckheyde
Dutch, 1638 - 1698
Brother of Job Berckheyde. Gerrit specialized in a particular type of architectural subject, the Townscape. His painted work shows a debt not only to Pieter Saenredam’s conception of the building portrait but also to Saenredam’s refined draughtsmanship and dispassionate attitude; these qualities mark Berckheyde as a classicist and akin to Vermeer. Berckheyde favoured views of monuments on large open squares, a choice that distinguishes him from the other great Dutch townscape painter, Jan van der Heyden, who preferred views along canals in which clarity was sacrificed for pictorial effect.
Gerrit’s Dutch views are invariably topographically correct, but this is not true of those of Cologne (e.g. Street in Cologne with the Church of the Holy Apostles; Schwerin, Staatl. Mus.). Although individual elements are accurately depicted, their juxtaposition is frequently capricious. This suggests that they were not executed from life in the 1650s, as has been claimed, but were painted later in his Haarlem studio, using sketches and drawings made by him in Cologne, and possibly some by other artists as well.
Gerrit’s works from the 1660s record the landmarks of his native city, and he repeated these subjects throughout his career. While his portraits of the Town Hall (Haarlem, Frans Halsmus.) indicate his early dependence on Saenredam, he introduced several devices of his own: for instance, he retained Saenredam’s limited staffage but placed his figures in a way that enhanced the structural components of the architectural backdrop. He was also more adventurous in his use of light, creating strong contrasts that organize the compositions as well as convey atmosphere and mood. He used this method in his depictions of the Grote Markt with the Church of St Bavo (Leipzig, Mus. Bild. Kst.); like his brother Job, Gerrit also painted several interior views of the church (Hamburg, Ksthalle). These suggest a debt to Emanuel de Witte’s lush and evocative lighting schemes.
Following the completion of Amsterdam Town Hall in the mid-1660s, Gerrit painted several formal portraits of it (e.g. three different versions, 1672, 1673 and 1693; Amsterdam, Rijksmus.) as well as panoramic views of The Dam, the large public square on which it stood (Antwerp, Kon. Acad. S. Kst.). He also painted scenes along the canals in the old city centre, some of which were composed as if from a bridge or boat: these include the Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal (Amsterdam, Hist. Mus.), the Singel (San Francisco, CA, de Young Mem. Mus.), the Kloveniersburgwal and the Grimburgwal (Amsterdam, Hist. Mus.). In the 1670s Gerrit began producing views of the palatial houses built along the extension of the Herengracht (Amsterdam, Rijksmus.) and the Binnen Amstel (Amsterdam, Col. Six).
Several of Gerrit’s townscapes from the early 1670s have dramatic foreshortening and oblique angles that suggest the influence of Daniel Vosmaer ( fl Delft, 1650–1700). Two works from this group, the Church of St Bavo in Haarlem and the Town Hall in Amsterdam (both Cambridge, Fitzwilliam), were created as pendants, one of several such pairs in Gerrit’s oeuvre. Views of the Grote Markt in Haarlem (London, N.G.) and The Dam (Amsterdam, Hist. Mus.) pointedly juxtapose Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque buildings and thus reveal Berckheyde’s sensitivity to period styles. Other Haarlem views include the Spaarne with the Weigh House (Douai, Mus. Mun.) and the City Gates (Antwerp, Mus. Smidt van Gelder); he also painted the nearby country houses of Egmont (Amsterdam, Rijksmus.), Heemstede and Elswout (Haarlem, Frans Halsmus.).
Berckheyde’s scenes of the Hofvijver with the Binnenhof in The Hague (Salzburg, Residenzgal.) date from the 1680s and 1690s, reflecting the contemporary popularity of the House of Orange Nassau. His depictions of the royal residence recall Hendrick Pacx’s (1602/3–?c. 1658) canvases showing the Princes of Orange parading with their families and retinues around the Hofvijver. Gerrit represented this site from all angles, producing views of the Gevangenpoort (The Hague, Mauritshuis), the Korte Vijverberg (The Hague, Gemeentemus.) and the Mauritshuis. He also painted portraits of the Ridderzaal (Madrid, Mus. Thyssen-Bornemisza). While some of these views in The Hague have robust forms painted in saturated colours, others have more attenuated figures and paler tonalities that anticipate the Rococo. Gerrit also produced a small number of Italianate landscapes with ruins, pastoral subjects and hunting scenes (e.g. Strasbourg, Mus. B.-A.).
Several figure studies in red or black chalk have been attributed to Gerrit, some of which are connected with paintings. These include the Study of a Little Boy with a Basket (Amsterdam, Rijksmus.) and the Study of a Woman Seated Beside a Barrel (Brookline, MA, Gordon priv. col., see 1977 exh. cat., no. 11, as Bega), both of which are preparatory for the Oriental Market Hall (ex-Munich, Gebhardt, 1971); two others, including Seated Man with a Pipe (Berlin, Kupferstichkab.), are inscribed with his name. Like other draughtsmen of the so-called Haarlem school, Berckheyde drew in a highly consistent chalk style, using regular parallel hatching to shade the figures. Many of his drawings have been confused with those of Cornelis Bega, to whom most have been traditionally ascribed.
From 1666 to 1681 Gerrit was a member of the same Haarlem society of rhetoricians, De Wijngaardranken, as his brother; he also served as an official of the Haarlem Guild of St Luke in 1691–5. Although he had no formal shop or students, his works influenced such later townscape specialists as Timotheus de Graaf ( fl 1682–1718), Jan ten Compe and Isaac Ouwater. He is known to have worked with Jan van Huchtenburg (1647–1733), but the question of his collaboration with Nicolas Guérard (d 1719), Dirk Maas and Johannes Lingelbach remains open. On returning home from a cabaret on 10 January 1698, Gerrit fell into the Brouwersvaart and drowned; he was buried in the nave of St Jan’s four days later.
Cynthia Lawrence. "Berckheyde." In Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online, http://www.oxfordartonline.com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/subscriber/article/grove/art/T008029pg2 (accessed May 3, 2012).
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