The Valkhof at Nijmegen, with a coach and horses on a ferry on the River Waal

The Valkhof, an ancient fortress in the city of Nijmegen, was one of the most iconic buildings on the Waal river, the main Dutch waterway connecting Rotterdam to Germany. The castle had first been constructed under Charlemagne in the eigth century. Rebuilt in the mid-twelfth century following its partial destruction by the Vikings, it remained an important structure in the city until its demolition by Napoleonic troops. Nijmegen, and the Valkhof in particular, assumed an important place for the ideology of the Dutch state during the mid-seventeenth century. The city had been a stronghold of the ancient hero Claudius Civilis who had led the Batavians (from whom the Dutch claimed direct lineage) in revolution against the oppression of the Roman Empire. Finding clear symbolic resonance with the recent rebellion against Spanish oppression in the Netherlands, the Valkhof and its cultural status as an emblem of Dutch independence, and the struggle for it, made the site a popular subject for painters and patrons. Indeed, van Goyen frequently depicted the view throughout his career, with his earliest dated version painted in 1633 (Moscow, The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts). Many of van Goyen’s views were probably based on drawings he made during his frequent journeys across the United Provinces, and the present composition appears to have found its origin in a drawing made ‘naer het leven’ (from the life) in the early 1630s (Private collection).

The present view is one of a number of such pictures painted by van Goyen during the 1640s. During this period, the artist increasingly moved away from the more colourful ‘tonal’ landscapes which had typified his practice in the preceding decade, and instead focused his palette on softly modulating monochromatic tones of warm browns and greys.

We are grateful to Ellis Dullaart of the RKD, The Hague, for her assistance in the cataloguing of this lot.