A View of a Tower and Houses abutting the Eastern Part of the Town Walls of Hamburg (recto); A View of an unidentified Village, a river beyond (verso)

Anthonie Waterloo executed a number of drawings of the town walls of Hamburg and its surrrounding area, all very different from each other, which betray his passion for drawing 'naer het Leeve' [after nature] (Stubbe, op. cit., p. 44). This particular drawing belongs to a group of some 33 small, sometimes double-sided drawings of similar size and technique (Stubbe, op. cit., figs. 2-23 and 26-35), many of which carry a similar unidentified collector's number (see Provenance). They probably come from a sketchbook that Waterloo used during his journey to North Germany in circa 1660. The verso of the present drawing could show Altona or Blankenese with the River Elbe.