Jacob Grimmer (Antwerp circa 1525-1590)
A View of Kiel on the Scheldt with Antwerp beyond
bears signature '**** BRUEG***' (lower right)
oil on panel
42.8 x 51.2cm (16 7/8 x 20 3/16in).
Footnotes:
The present, unpublished, painting is related to the large View of Kiel with Antwerp beyond, dated 1578, in the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp, which measures 121 x 196 cm (47 6/8 x 77 1/8in) (fig.1). Although different in size, the compositions are very similar, but the 1578 painting shows a more elaborate landscape and also a greater variety of staffage. It seems likely that Grimmer received a commission to make a smaller rendition based on one of his masterpieces. The execution of the landscape elements but also the figures in the present painting are typical for Jacob Grimmer. A date in the 1580s is feasible for the present work.

Almost an exact contemporary of Pieter Brueghel the elder, Jacob Grimmer was among the most important 16th century Antwerp landscape painters. His rural landscapes show a clear development moving away from the fantastic panoramas with gigantic rocks of Joachim Patinir, Herri met de Bles and their followers towards a more intimate rendition of the Flemish countryside. Jacob Grimmer was born in Antwerp, the son of Nicolaas and Elisabeth Cops. According to Karel van Mander - in his Schilder-boeck, Haarlem 1604 - Grimmer first learned to paint landscapes from Matthys Cock and later from the unknown Christian van den Queborn. He became a master in the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke in 1547, and the next year later he married Lucia van de Wouwer. Their son Abel, born in the early 1570s, became a landscape and architectural painter in his own right.

The city of Antwerp succeeded in the 15th century in becoming the successor of Bruges, which until then had been the most important mercantile metropolis of western Europe. At the end of the 15th century, when nearly all the Low Countries were united under the Burgundian and Habsburg dynasties, the economic preeminence of Antwerp over Bruges is indicated by the fact that the majority of foreign merchants transferred their residence to Antwerp. It quickly became the leading commercial centre of western Europe, benefiting from the beginnings of colonial trade and stimulated by the great discoveries of the Portuguese and Spaniards. Extensive urbanization plans were developed to lodge the increasing population, who earned their livelihood in trade, transport, and industry.

We are grateful to Dr. Luuk Pijl who endorses the attribution to Jacob Grimmer on the basis of high definition photographs.
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