A courting couple outside a building, an arcade and a garden beyond

Although records of Daniel de Blieck's birth date no longer exist, it is likely that he was around 20 years old when he joined the painter's guild of Middelburg in 1647-8. His earliest known paintings date from the 1650's. As Walter Liedtke noted, despite his relative isolation in Zeeland, he was well aware of the latest developments in Delft and Rotterdam (W. Liedtke in the catalogue for the Otto Naumann Gallery, Inaugural Exhibition of old Master Paintings, 1995, p. 95, no. 19). As pointed out by H. Jantzen, Das Niederldndische Architekturbild, 1979, the artist was trained as an architect, which is reflected in many of his works, such as the present lot.