View of the De Drie Leliën Brewery at Haarlem and Velserend Manor

The Haarlem artist Jacob Matham made this large pen painting for his prominent fellow citizen Johan Claesz Loo, several times burgomaster and also a brewer. With pen and ink on a prepared panel, as if it were a large engraving, the artist depicted two of Loo’s possessions. In the foreground is his brewery ‘De Drie Leliën’ on the River Spaarne – one of the dozens of breweries in Haarlem at the time.
In the background stands Loo’s small estate with his house ‘Velserend’. In reality it was much further away, near the ruins of Brederode Castle (shown in the distance) in Santpoort. Loo probably figures twice in this work: at the entrance to the brewery, and on the road in front of the house. Matham must have learnt this unusual pen painting technique from his stepfather Hendrick Goltzius, who was extremely accomplished in it.