Possibly
in the Dutch Stadholder’s quarters in the 17th-century
Princess Henriette Catharina
of Orange-Nassau (1637-1708), who married Prince Johann Georg II of Anhalt-Dessau in
1659 and thence by descent,
latterly at Schloss
Ballenstedt
Confiscated by the Nazis
during World War II
Restored to the heirs of the
late Duke of Anhalt in August 2003
With Johnny Van Haeften
Limited, 2004
Private collection, Guernsey,
2004-2021
Jeremy Howarth, The Steenwyck Family as Masters of Perspective, Turnhout, 2009, p. 149, cat. no. II.B7, illustrated in black and white, p. 432.
On display at Schloss Moritzburg, Landesgalerie Sachsen-Anhalt, after 1945
Hendrick van Steenwyck and his father were the two best known church interior painters in Flanders at the beginning of the 17th Century, closely followed by Pieter Neefs and his son Pieter Neeffs the Younger who were perhaps more prolific. This painting, which is on copper and remarkably well preserved, may well have been in the Dutch Stadholder’s collection in the 17th Century as it later belonged to Princess Henriette Catharina of Orange-Nassau. It remained in Germany until confiscated by the Nazis during the Second World War since when it was restituted to the heirs of the Duke of Anhalt. Steenwyck’s architectural studies are extraordinarily precise and of the highest quality, and this is a fine example.