'Town Hall Leiden, front side' Oil on panel 80 x 60 cm
This painting shows the facade of the City Hall of Leiden. It is the left front panel which takes part of a dubble diptych Bert has made of the City Hall. The present City Hall (‘Stadhuis’ in Dutch) of Leiden is not a building from 1596. The old town hall, which had a Renaissance facade by Lieven de Key fronting a medieval building, was destroyed by a huge fire in 1929. Architect Cornelis Jouke Blaauw (1885-1947) reconstructed the long gabled facade on Breestraat using the remains of the old façade, and erected a completely new brick-covered concrete building in traditionalist style behind it.
