Town Hall, Cologne on the Rhine after W.L. Leitch, Steel Engraving, circa 1840

The square in front is busy with figures. A woman in a tall headdress walks toward the viewer carrying a basket, a man sits on the steps of the loggia, and at lower left townspeople gather around market wares and stone fragments on the ground. An archway and old stepped gables close the view at left.

The lettering reads Town-Hall, Cologne, on the Rhine, and credits the drawing to William Leighton Leitch, the Scottish landscape painter, and the engraving to T. Turnbull. No publisher's line appears on this impression. The loggia, added to the medieval town hall in the sixteenth century, is one of the best known Renaissance works in Germany. Leitch places the viewer close beneath its arches, so the ornament of the columns and friezes can be read in detail.

It is a steel engraving, finely cut, with the stone of the loggia rendered in close, silvery line and the sky in soft graduated tones.

An elegant architectural view for a study or a hallway, it pairs well with other Rhine views in matching frames, or hangs equally well on its own above a desk or console table.

This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed.