Watermark: letters, among others, C and P flanking a heart, within a cartouche, only partly legible.
Van der Meulen, official history painter to Louis XIV, accompanied the king on nine military campaigns including the voyage de Cambray in 1677.
Inscribed at upper center, presumably by the artist, in brown ink, "porte de nostredamme", and at upper right margin, 'porte de Cambra[ai]"; at left margin, in a different hand, in darker brown ink, "L'écluse dans La ville"; at upper margin, possibly in the same hand, in dark brown ink, tops of some of the letters cropped, "Veue De Valenciennes Du coste De La porte de Nre Dame. N.4". On verso, at center, in a calligraphic hand, in dark brown ink, "No. 4 / veue de valenciennes du Coste delaphorte nostre da[me]:, at upper right, in yet another hand, in brown ink, "numéro 17".
Chennevières, Philippe de, 1820-1899, former owner.
Engelhard, Charles W., Mrs., donor.
Stampfle, Felice, with the assistance of Ruth S. Kraemer and Jane Shoaf Turner. Netherlandish Drawings of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries and Flemish Drawings of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries in the Pierpont Morgan Library. New York : Pierpont Morgan Library, 1991, p. 134, no. 289, repr.