In delicate yet firm pen lines of brown ink, with some subtle hues of watercolor, Jan Brueghel the Elder (commonly known as Velvet Brueghel) rather grandly depicted the ruined Castle Merxem near Antwerp. In all likelihood, the work was done from nature. The castle, which no longer exists, probably had been under recent attack, as the Netherlands was still at war with Spain. During this period, attention to the ruins of an important house or castle is encountered with greater frequency among the works of various Netherlandish artists, such as Roelandt Savery, Hendrick Goltzius, and Jacob Matham.

Jan, a son of Pieter Bruegel the Elder and a brother of Pieter Brueghel the Younger, was appointed as court painter, in 1609, to Archduke Albert and Isabella, the infanta, at Brussels. A friend and collaborator of Peter Paul Rubens, he enjoyed celebrity and fame as a landscapist during his own lifetime.