Dutch School, 17th century, Monogrammist C.S.G.

Although the identity of the artist who painted this panoramic view of Delft remains to be identified, the panel is signed in the lower right with the monogram CSG . This anonymous artist seems to have been active in the mid-late seventeenth century possibly around the region of Rotterdam. Another panel similarly monogrammed CSG but showing the River Maas with a view of Rotterdam is today in the collection of the Rotterdam Museum.¹

This particular view of Delft looks northeast from an area along the Delftse Schie. Rising from the center is the Nieuwe Kerk, just to the left of which is the Delft City Hall (Stadhuis) followed by the Oude Kerk. The present view is similar to that recorded in a print by Joost van Geel of about 1666 that was published as part of a series of maps recording the Maas River and the cities along it, entitled Rotterodamum Hollandiae urbs celeberrima et situ portibusque mercaturae opportunissima.²  

1. Inv. no. 10822, oil on panel, 71 by 107.8 cm.

2. See an example in the Rijksmuseum, inv. no. RP-P-OB-67.676.