Dirck van Delen
Dutch, 1604/5 - 1671Elegant Figures in a Courtyard
On view
Oil on panel
Dimensions36 3/8 × 61 3/4 in.
Museum purchase with funds from the Jill Ford Murray Irrevocable Trust in memory of her parents, Carlotta Espy Ford and George Ross Ford, Jr., and her grandparents, Grace Miller Ford and George Ross Ford, 2011.6
Dirck van Delen was born in 1604 or 1605 in Heusden, a small village near Hertogenbosch. The earliest works by van Delen are dated 1626 and 1627 and already address his favorite architectural subjects, views of palaces and church interiors. Most of his paintings from the 1620’s feature dark, rather rigid and angular, Renaissance-style architecture and usually include a vanishing point exactly in the middle of the painting. The majority of his mature paintings are scenes of palaces and church interiors, often with courtyards and grand loggia.
