Artwork
The city wall of Haarlem in the winter
The city wall of Haarlem in the winter is an oil painting by the Dutch Golden Age artist Nicolaes Pieterszoon Berchem. It dates from 1647 and is held in the collection of the Rijksmuseum.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
The painting shows a winter scene outside Haarlem's city wall, featuring the Gasthuistoren tower on the left, the Kleine Houtpoort in the background, frozen canals with a horse and men loading beer barrels onto a sled, two doves on the wall, and kolf players to the right, while ships appear near the harbor mouth. It is regarded as a pendant to another Berchem winter landscape of equal size, though this connection remains uncertain due to divergent provenance and no explicit pairing elsewhere. The work is signed and dated 'CBerghem / 1647' on the lower left support and entered the Frans Hals Museum collection in 1958 through a loan from the Rijksmuseum, with earlier ownership traced to the Kabinet van Heteren Gevers collection acquired in 1809.
Technique & Style
Nicolaes Pieterszoon Berchem executed The City Wall of Haarlem in the Winter in 1647 using oil paint applied to a panel support.
Nicolaes Pieterszoon Berchem executed The City Wall of Haarlem in the Winter in 1647 using oil paint applied to a panel support. The work measures 39.5 cm in height and 49.5 cm in width, depicting a winter landscape outside the Haarlem city walls. The composition features a frozen moat where figures load beer barrels onto a sled near a horse, with the Gasthuistoren and Kleine Houtpoort visible in the background.
Two pigeon lofts hang on the wall, while kolf players appear on the right side. The painting is signed and dated 'CBerghem / 1647' on a buttress to the left. It is frequently considered a pendant to another Berchem work of identical dimensions and subject, though this pairing remains unconfirmed by provenance records.
History & Provenance
Nicolaes Pieterszoon Berchem created the oil-on-panel painting The City Wall of Haarlem in the Winter in 1647, as indicated by the signature and date on a buttress in the lower left. The work entered the collection of the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam in 1809, though records differ on the specific acquisition path: some sources attribute it to the purchase of the entire Kabinet van Heteren Gevers collection on June 8, 1809, while a 1903 catalog suggests it was acquired from the sale of Jan Bernd Bicker's collection on July 19, 1809. It was later identified in early 19th-century catalogs as Wintergezigt aan een' Stads Wal.
In 1958, the Rijksmuseum transferred the painting on loan to the Frans Hals Museum in Haarlem, where it remains part of the Kabinet van Heteren Gevers holdings.
The painting is held by the Frans Hals Museum in Haarlem, where it has been on long-term loan from the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam since 1958, transferred through the former Dienst voor 's Rijks Verspreide Kunstvoorwerpen (now the Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed).
Its earlier provenance is traced to the collection of Jan Bernd Bicker, sold at auction on 19 July 1809, and it is also recorded as having belonged to the Kabinet van Heteren Gevers, which was acquired in its entirety by the Rijksmuseum on 8 June 1809. The work is listed as part of the holdings of the Rijksmuseum, the Frans Hals Museum, and the Kabinet van Heteren Gevers.
The painting was included in the exhibition "Blik op Haarlem."
Legacy
The painting has been cited as a pendant to another Berchem winter scene of identical dimensions, though the relationship remains unconfirmed, and its provenance traces to the collection of Adriaan Leonard van Heteren Gevers before acquisition by the Rijksmuseum in 1809, with later attributions linking it to works documented in 1809 catalogues; the work is housed in the Frans Hals Museum and was described in a 1958 loan arrangement involving the Rijksmuseum and the Dutch Cultural Heritage Service, and it was featured in the exhibition 'Blik op Haarlem'
Overview
Nicolaes Pieterszoon Berchem painted The city wall of Haarlem in the winter in 1647 using oil on canvas. The work records a wintry view of Haarlem’s defensive wall, a horse and a small group of figures moving along a muddy track, with a distant castle and waterborne vessels visible on the horizon.
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Artist & collection
Artist
Nicolaes Pieterszoon Berchem (1 October 1620 – 18 February 1683) was a highly esteemed and prolific Dutch Golden Age painter of pastoral landscapes, populated with mythological or biblical figures, but also of a number of allegories and…
