The ‘Golden Bend’ in the Herengracht, Amsterdam, Seen from the West

The Golden Bend is the stretch of the Herengracht where Amsterdam's richest families built their houses, and when Gerrit Berckheyde painted it from the west in 1672, many of these facades were still new. He recorded them with almost mathematical precision, window by window, cornice by cornice, down to the stone steps at the front doors. He did change one thing. In reality a row of young trees lined the quay, and he left every one of them out, so the houses stand bare and complete along the water. In 1940 the panel belonged to the Amsterdam art dealer Jacques Goudstikker, who fled the German invasion that May and died on the journey. In 1952 the painting passed from the Dutch state to his widow Dési, and the Rijksmuseum bought it from her in 1980.