Contact gallery for price		Isaac Nickele Active in Harlem, 2nd half 17th century - 1703 A Palace Colonnade Oil on panel 19 1/2 x 27 1/2 inches (49.5 x 69.8 cm) Signed with a monogram Isaac van Nickele born in 1633 was the last architectural painter in Haarlem to work in the style of the Berckheyde brothers and Pieter Saenredam.  During his lifetime he won considerable acclaim for his interior views of St. Bravo and his townscapes of Amsterdam.  His style remained closely reminiscent of various other artists, among them Dirck Maas, Richard Brakenburgh, Jan van der Vinne and Jan van Huchtenburg. In our painting, Nickele has taken a dynamic approach in portraying a predictable landscape subject. The composition seizes the viewer with its bold diagonal line across the left third of the picture, smartly echoed in the lines of the portico floor and roof. A row of pedestals supporting the tall columns march in line with the rectangular floor pattern, a motif repeated in the pilasters along the inside wall of the portico. The foreground architecture relates acute detail, yet it is portrayed in grand scale, allowing the painting to achieve a sweeping expansiveness that speaks to the open space of the landscape in the background. Thus, we notice the arch rib vaulting in the portico ceiling, the laurel wreaths decorating the facade, the delicately ornate capitals and the sculpted pediment above the entryway. Nickele orders the painting's space into a pattern of shapes defined by the graceful arches and lines of the architecture against the landscape, but maintains a remarkable fluidity within the compositional plan.  In addition, the inclusion of two dogs and a pair of figures in the foreground further supports the linear perspective and allows us, as viewers, to orient ourselves with Nickele's visual language.