This drawing, the earliest known by Jan Brueghel the Elder, records the city of Heidelberg seen from the west across the Neckar River. The castle appears as it did before additions were made between 1590 and 1592. Brueghel's sketch dates from about 1588-89, when the artist traveled from Antwerp to Italy, arrriving in Naples in 1590. The definition of forms with a combination of short, vertical lines in fine pen, which in places are blurred, and the broadly applied translucent washes are characteristic, as is the composition. Brueghel made several drawings of Heidelberg and used motifs from these travel sketches in paintings such as the Allegory of Spring of 1611 (private collection, Scotland), which shows Heidelberg castle as it appears in a copy after a drawing by Brueghel in the Kurpfalzisches sketchbook (Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart).

Inscription: Verso: at lower left, inscribed "P.Brugel" in graphite by a later hand

Reiner Willem Petrus de Vries (Amsterdam, 1841–1919)14 Dec. 1911, lot 1278 (?); Robert von Hirsch ; Sotheby's, London, June 20, 1978, vol. I, lot 29; Kate Ganz, Ltd.(1991); Sotheby's, AmsterdamNovember 17, 1993, lot 87; Vendor: Kate Ganz, Ltd.

Edmund Schilling Handzeichnung alter Meister aus Deutschem Privatbesitz. Edited by Georg Swarzenski, Frankfurt, 1924, cat. no. 33, XV, ill.

Matthias Winner Zeichnungen des Älteren Jan Brueghel in the Jahrbuch der Berliner Museen. Jahrbuch der Berliner Museen, Berlin, 1961, fig. no. 14, pp. 204, 206, 21, ill.

Ludwig Münz The Drawings of Bruegel Complete Edition. London, 1961, cat. no. A35.

Gisela Bergsträsser "Jan Brueghel the Elder: View of Rome" In Master Drawings. 3, New York, 1965, pp. 262-263.

Sotheby's, London The Robert von Hirsch Collection Old Master Drawings, Paintings and Medieval Miniatures. 1, 1978, cat. no. 29, ill.

Graphische Sammlung der Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart Zeichnungen des 15. bis 18. Jahrhunderts Graphische Sammlung Staatsgalerie Stuttgart. Stuttgart, 1984, p. 23.

Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe Die Renaissance im Deutschen Südwesten zwischen Reformation und Dreißigjahrigem Krieg. 1986, p. 363.

Karel G. Boon The Netherlandish and German Drawings of the XVth and XVIth centuries of The Frits Lugt Collection. Collection Frits Lugt-Fondation Custodia, 1, Paris, 1992, p. 433.

Sotheby's, Amsterdam Dutch, Flemish amd German Drawings Including the H.R. Bijl Collection. 1993, cat. no. 87, ill.

The Morgan Library & Museum The Thaw Collection Master Drawings and New Acquisitions. New York, 1994, p. 36.

"Recent Acquisitions, A Selection: 1994-1995" in the Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, no. 2, 53, Fall 1995, p. 34, ill.

Kurpfälzisches Skizzenbuch Ansichten Heidelbergs und der Kurpfalz um 1600. Edited by Hans Hubach, 1996, fig. 1, pp. 11, 13, 25, ill.

An Zwollo Pieter Stevens: Nieuw Werk, Contact met Jan Brueghel, Invloed op Kerstiaen de Deuninck Leids Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek. 1982, p. 96.

Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna Pieter Breughel der Jüngere - Jan Brueghel der Ältere: Flämische Malerei um 1600. Tradition und Fortschritt. 1997-1998, cat. 146, pp. 39, 426-427, ill.