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The Castle Giessenburg, near Gorinchem

Creator

Dutch Artist · 1627–1692

While many Dutch artists of the 1600s included castles in their landscapes, Roghman focused on castles as independent subjects. When he was twenty years old, Roghman began a series of drawings of manors and castles that many of today's scholars consider his greatest achievement. Some mystery surrounds Roghman's other paintings, drawings, and etchings. Roghman rarely dated his work, especially pain

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Date: 1646–1647
Medium: Black chalk, gray wash, brown ink framing lines
Culture: Dutch
Department: Drawings
Institution: Getty Museum

In this peaceful scene set in the Dutch countryside, a canal runs alongside a tall, thin castle. By the 1640s, when Roelant Roghman drew it, this former military building had been converted into a luxurious country house. Signs of its military past are visible in the crenellated roofline, with alternating open spaces from which armed guards could defend the castle and shield themselves. This drawing is typical of Roghman's style in that the primary focus is the castle's architectural presence, while the landscape is secondary. The castle has a monumental quality; its chimney decorations rise to the top of the page. Sharp diagonal lines radiate from the tops of the upper-floor windows, suggesting decorative brick archways above each. Also, the drawing's sharpest details are found in the man-made structures--the castle doorway and the bridge--while the trees nearby and in the distant grove at right appear almost blurred.

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