A Hunting Party near the Hofvijver in The Hague, seen from the Plaats

The gate on the right is the Gevangenpoort, the prison gate of The Hague, with the lion of Holland on a plaque under the word Holandia. On 20 August 1672 a crowd dragged Johan de Witt, for almost 20 years the leading statesman of the Dutch Republic, and his brother Cornelis out of this jail and killed them on the Plaats, the square where the painter stands. Around 1690 Berckheyde shows the same spot at peace. A hunting party of Dutch aristocrats rides past with servants, hounds and falcons, the puddles still wet after rain. Across the Hofvijver pond the sun catches the buildings of the Binnenhof and, far off, the Mauritshuis itself. Berckheyde mostly painted Haarlem and Amsterdam, so he put a stork, the emblem of The Hague, on a chimney of the old gatehouse.