Jacobus Storck, A Capriccio of a city along the Rhine

17th century Dutch old master painting, Jacobus Storck, A Capriccio of a city along the Rhine
 
Jacobus Storck (Amsterdam, September 8, 1641 - there, after 1692) was a Dutch painter from the period of the Golden Age. He was most notably known for his waterscapes, a combination of river and city views of which many were capriccios (as our painting).
 
Storck was part of an artist family. He was one of three sons of the painter Jan Jansz. Sturck. The father later changed his name to Sturckenburch, which was also used at first, but later they changed their name to Storck. As far as is known, no works of the eldest son, Johannes (ca. 1630 - 1673), have survived. The youngest son was Abraham Storck (1644 - 1708) and Jacobus and Abraham both shares an apparent preference for depicting ships and also worked in the same studio. 
 
Dr. Fred Meijer has studied our painting and writes: "The church or cathedral with two towers, but without the spire on the roof, is seen from behind in a river view with a view of a city on the left bank (Jacobus Storck, oil on canvas, 59,6 x 83,7 cm. Art market, 1979). The fortified tower with little turrets on each corner behind it appears as the central tower of a fortress on an island in another painting (Jacobus Storck, signed, oil on canvas, 60,4 x 84,3 cm. Art market, 2003), while the large gate tower in the distance appears in the foreground on two painting that are said to represent the fort Ehrenbreitstein near Koblenz in the background. Details, also of the gate tower in the foreground differ between the two paintings, however. They show that Storck by no means strove for a completely faithful representation of buildings he had seen and drawn studies of. Many of these studies he must have made on a trip along the Rhine in c.1670 ... While your painting can be characterized as a view from the Rhine of an imaginary city, the church in the centre looks decidedly Dutch". 
 
The total dimensions are ca. 110 by 87 cms and the canvas alone measures 86 by 60 cms.
 
We would like to thank Dr. Fred Meijer for studying our painting and confirming the attribution and dating it to after 1671.
 
Provenance: Private German Collection