Wyllie travelled in both Holland and Belgium. In 1874 he exhibited an oil painting of Antwerp Cathedral at the Dudley Gallery, which may suggest a dating for this small, rapid drawing of the St Nicholas Church in Ghent. The particular viewpoint chosen by Wyllie, with the church seen rising in the light above the shaded street, suggests that he was familiar with the lithographs of topographical picturesque artists working in Europe in the 19th century, such as David Roberts, Clarkson Stanfield and James Duffield Harding.