View of Antwerp

The archives tell us that in 1635, on the joyous entry of the Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand of Austria, the city magistrate commissioned Jan Wildens to produce two views of Antwerp, one of the roadstead and the other of the city walls as seen from the east. On "View of Antwerp" signed and dated 1636, kept at the Middlebourg town hall, is seemingly a replica of the second part of this order. The Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium hold another copy; a third copy was sold by Christie's in London on 28 April 1972. (Véronique Bücken in "Le peintre et l'arpenteur" [The Painter and The Surveyor])