Franciscus van Gulik specialized in painting cityscapes. The most important city portraitist of Romanticism, Cornelis Springer, inspired him the most . Van Gulik however painted also other subjects: there are some landscapes and beach scenes from his hand. The artist was born in Maastricht, and moved to Rotterdam at the age of 15, where he probably followed his education as an artist. City views of the Maas city are therefore frequently found in his oeuvre.