Attributed to Jan van der Heyden (Gorinchem 1637-1712 Amsterdam)

Although this drawing has been called both Berckheyde and Beerstraaten in the course of its history, there are in fact close comparables in the work of Jan van der Heyden. Similar figures appear in the lower left corner of his picture View on the Oude Kerk in Amsterdam (Mauritshuis, The Hague; see Hollandse Stadgezichten uit de Gouden eeuw, exhib. cat., The Hague, Mauritshuis, and Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art, 2008-09, no. 24). A sheet of studies by van der Heyden in the KOG collection at the Rijksmuseum, showing firemen and two studies of a head, is also very close (Dutch Figure Drawings from the seventeenth century, exhib. cat., Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, and Washington, National Gallery of Art, 1981-82, no. 39).