Jacob Grimmer – The Church of Our Lady across the Dyle in Mechelen

by Atelier Liesjes

A wide stretch of water has been depicted using fine pen lines and light brown washes, in which the houses and the sky are faintly reflected. On the left is a row of houses with steep, tiled roofs; from the façade of the front building, a hoist beam juts out at an angle and a small wooden balcony hangs from it. On the right is a quay with a stone staircase leading down to the water, and a round boulder lies in the corner. In the centre of the picture stands the Gothic church of Our Lady of the Dijle: a tall nave with pinnacles, a crossing tower and a slender spire topped with a cross. A small boat carrying two figures is sailing on the water. The drawing is executed on cream-coloured paper, with an old number in pencil in the top right-hand corner. The water is indicated by a few horizontal lines, the banks by short, diagonal hatching. Grimmer used no colour here, but achieved everything with line and diluted ink: the houses are rendered with short hatching to suggest tone, the sky remains almost empty, and the washes create a sense of depth and dampness. This lends the cityscape a fleeting quality, like a sketch made on the spot. The style is that of sixteenth-century Flemish topographical drawing, in which cityscapes were recorded as building blocks for paintings and prints. The subject is the skyline of Mechelen, with the church at its centre and the River Dijle as its mirror. The composition is that of a study: quick, open at the edges, with all the emphasis on the major forms. Jacob Grimmer (Antwerp c. 1525 – Antwerp c. 1590) was a Flemish landscape painter who built on the work of Pieter Bruegel the Elder. He painted village scenes, seasons and landscapes featuring small figures, and his cityscapes and village views were disseminated by printmakers. His work can be found in various European museums. An exquisitely drawn view of Mechelen, appealing to enthusiasts of early topography and Flemish drawing.