Lot 30: EMANUEL DE WITTE

EMANUEL DE WITTE ALKMAAR CIRCA 1617 - 1691/2 AMSTERDAM THE INTERIOR OF THE OUDE KERK , AMSTERDAM signed centre right: E. De. Witte. oil on canvas 64.1 by 71.5 cm.; 25 1/4 by 28 1/8 in.

Rotterdam, Museum Boymans Van Beuningen, Vermeer, oorsprong en invloed Fabritius, de Hooch, de Witte, 9 July - 9 October 1935, no. 116;
Rotterdam, Museum Boymans Van Beuningen, Tentoonstelling van schilderijen, beeldhouwwerken en teekeningen uit particuliere verzamelingen in Nederland : onder auspiciën van de "Stichting Museum Boymans", December 1939 -January 1940, no. 59;
Atlanta, High Museum of Art, Masterpieces of the Dutch Golden Age, 24 September - 10 November 1985, no. 60, p. 132-3;
Hamburg, Kunsthalle, In Blickfeld: Holländische Kirchenbilder, 1995/96, no. 20.

A. Noach, Het Material tot de Geschiedenis der Oude kerk te Amsterdam, Amsterdam 1937, p. 81;
E. Trautscholdt, in U. Thieme and F. Becker, Allgemeines Lexikon der Bildenden Künstler, vol. 36, Leipzig 1947, p. 125;
I. Manke, Emanuel de Witte, Amsterdam 1963, p. 92, no. 62, reproduced fig. 31;
F. Duparc et al., Masterpieces of the Dutch Golden Age, exhibition catalogue, Atlanta 1985, p. 132-3, no. 60, reproduced;
H.R. Leppien, In Blickfeld: Holländische Kirchenbilder, exhibition catalogue, Hamburg 1995, pp. 56-7, 66-8, no. 20;
Kunst & Antiekjournaal, December 1997, p. 16.

Abraham Dijkman, Amsterdam;
His deceased sale, Amsterdam, de Bosch/ Yver, 17-18 July 1794, lot 47;
Anonymous sale, London, Foster, 25 March 1931 (as 'unknown');
Acquired at the above sale by Asscher & Welker, London;
With D. Katz, Dieren;
Dr. A. Welker, London, 1935;
With J.D. Klaasen Jr., Rotterdam;
P.M. Kerdel, Scheveningen, 1963;
With Hans Cramer, The Hague;
From whom acquired by the present owner in 1998.

De Witte spent his formative years in Alkmaar and Delft, and in the latter he explored numerous aspects of both the Oude Kerk and Nieuwe Kerk. By 1652 he had moved to Amsterdam and there he was deeply inspired by the interior of the Oude Kerk, in particular by the extraordinary effects of light achieved via its monumental windows, and it served as the subject for more than thirty of his paintings. This work, painted in circa 1657-58, is a wonderfully atmospheric depiction of the northern transept taken from a viewpoint in the southern ambulatory, with the epitaph for Admiral Cornelis Johannesz. de Haan to be seen on the pier to the right. Although he has constructed the painting using a limited palette of greys and browns, with just a single flash of colour in the gentleman's cloak, De Witte is able to achieve astonishing effects of filtered, reflected and refracted light which imbues the scene with a warmth and realism that does away with any need for a richer palette. While many other artists found the Oude Kerk's interior equally as inspiring, such as his pupil Hendrick van Streeck whose depiction of its north aisle is in the Bredius Museum, The Hague,υ1 no one could reproduce it with such dramatic effects of light and colour, nor with such anecdotal charm.

De Witte is rightly acknowledged as one of the greatest architectural painters of the 17th century in Holland. All of his Amsterdam views were painted after his move there from Delft in the winter of 1651-2. His explorations of the effects of light advanced the art of architectural painting in Holland where previously the depiction of perspective and depth had been the principal concern. De Witte felt free to ignore the stringent requirements of linear perspective if they obstructed his creativity. Few details are known of his life, there being little documentary material to draw on, but he was certainly born in Alkmaar and joined the guild there in 1636. Six years later he joined the Delft guild of St. Luke and subsequently was married with two daughters. Late in 1691 De Witte suddenly disappeared and eleven weeks later his body was discovered in a frozen canal, a rope tied around his neck; it was thus generally assumed that he committed suicide.

1. See Manke, under literature, p. 144, no. 328, reproduced fig. 113.