In Gerrit Berckheyde's painting of the "civic center" of The Hague (c. 1690), the artist erased foreground structures in order to depict the stately buildings along two sides of the Court Pond, including the back of the Mauritshuis itself.

WSJ: de Young Museum: More Than Just the Girl

John Reynolds in the foreground on a stretcher, dying from the head wound he suffered at Herbst Wood, a geographic feature in the center of the painting that was crucial in delaying the Confederate advance.

WSJ: Capturing Gettysburg | Objects of Valor | State Museum of Pennsylvania | By Mark Yost