Lot 50: Daniel de Blieck (Middelburg c. 1630-1673)

The interior of a Gothic Cathedral with a stonemason carving an inscription on a tombstone and other figures signed 'D D BLIECK [F?]' (lower left) oil on panel 23 5/8 x 33 1/8 in. (57.4 x 84.2 cm.) PROVENANCE Anon. Sale, Brussels, 28 October 1928, lot 17. Anon. Sale, Christie's, Amsterdam, 9 November 1998, lot 74 (74,958 guilders). NOTES Although records of Daniel de Blieck's birthdate no longer exist, it is likely that he was around 20 years old when he joined the painter's guild of Middelburg in 1647-8. His earliest known paintings date from the 1950s. As Walter Liedtke noted, despite his relative isolation in Zeeland, he was well aware of the latest developments in Delft and Rotterdam (W. Liedtke in the catalogue for the Otto Naumann Gallery, Inaugural Exhibition of old Master Paintings, 1995, p. 95, no. 19). A version of the present picture, signed and dated 1651, is in the Bayerische Staatsgem„ldesammlungen, Munich (H. Jantzen, Das Niederl„ndische Architekturbild, 1979, p. 220, no. 78, fig. 53). The composition follows the engraving by Jan Londerseel, after Hendrick Aerts ( ibid., p. 217, no. 2, fig. 17). The artist's practice of drawing from sketchbook models can be illustrated by the figure of the stonemason in the foreground, who also appears in de Blieck's Interior of the Laurenskerk in Rotterdam, of 1652 ( ibid., p. 204, fig. 54 c) and A church interior by candlelight with figures conversing, sold, Christie's, New York, 26 January 2001, lot 48 ($110,000).