erckheyde Gerrit Adriaensz.
(Haarlem 1638 - Haarlem 1698)
A View of the the Haarlemmerhout, Haarlem
Biography
Gerrit Berckheyde was born in 1638 in Haarlem. He was apprenticed as a painter to his elder brother Job (1630 – 1693), who in turn had been apprenticed to Jacob de Wet (c.1610 – c.1675). Despite their predilections for cityscapes, neither of the brothers had studied under a specialist in architecture.
In the 1650s, Gerrit and his brother undertook a journey up the Rhine, as far as Heidelberg, supporting themselves by painting small pictures. In 1660, Gerrit returned to Haarlem, where he became a member of the Guild of St. Luke, and proceeded to make a name for himself as a painter of cityscapes. In 1698, when returning home from a tavern, he fell into the Brouwersvaart canal and drowned.