Gerrit Adriaenszoon Berckheyde

Gerrit Adriaenszoon Berckheyde (1638 – 10 June 1698) was a Dutch Golden Age painter, active in Haarlem, Amsterdam, and The Hague, who is best known today for his cityscapes.

Biography

Berckheyde was born and died in Haarlem. Christened as an infant 6 June 1638, he was the younger brother (by eleven years) and student of the painter Job Adriaenszoon Berckheyde. Golden-age historian Arnold Houbraken claimed that Job had been trained as a bookbinder by his father, and could not discover who taught him to paint. Gerrit, in turn, learned from his older brother. He was followed by the painter Adriaen Oudendijck.

Works According to the Netherlands Institute for Art History (RKD), he was a painter known for his Italianate landscapes as well as portraits and cavalry pieces. His influences include Pieter Saenredam's style (for church interiors), refined draughtsmanship and dispassionate attitude—in short, the qualities of "Dutch Classicism", akin to Vermeer. Berckheyde favoured views of monuments on large open squares, rather than giving up clarity for the sake of pictorial effect by painting views along canals as the other great Dutch cityscape painter, Jan van der Heyden, did.