Description
The interior of the Oude Kerk, Delft, with a sermon in progress signed and dated 'E.De.witte/Ao 1682' (lower left) oil on canvas 24 x 18 5/8 in. (61 x 47.5 cm.) PROVENANCE Peter Arrell Brown Widener (1834-1915), Lynnewood Hall, Elkins Park, nr. Philadelphia, by 1900. J. Vavasseur; Christie's, London, 23 April 1919, lot 150. Edward Speyer, Ridgehurst, Shenley, Hertfordshire; Christie's, London, 27 June 1930, lot 153. With J. Goudstikker, Amsterdam, 1930-1. A.J.M. Lips, Dordrecht, 1938. With Borghouts, Utrecht, 1950-4. J.C.H. Heldring, Oosterbeek; Sotheby's, London, 27 March 1963, lot 26. Sidney J. van den Bergh, Wassenaar; Christie's, London, 11 July 1980, lot 65 (to Cramer on behalf of Dreesmann). Dr Anton C.R. Dreesmann (inventory no. A-42). LITERATURE H. Cook, Catalogue of Paintings forming the private collection of P.A.B. Widener, II, London, 1900, no. 283. H. Jantzen, Das Niederl„ndische Architekturbild, Leipzig, 1910, p. 237, no. 524 (?), as 'Attributed to Hendrik Streek'. H. Schneider, in W.G. Constable, ed., A Commemorative Catalogue of the Exhibition of Dutch Art, London, 1930, etc., p. 154, pl. LXXXII; 1947 edn., p. 125. Dr. D. Hannema, Catalogue Raisonn‚ of the Pictures in the Collection of J.C.H. Heldring, Rotterdam, 1955, no. 34. I. Manke, Emmanuel de Witte, Amsterdam, 1963, p. 81, no. 15, fig. 101. A.B. de Vries, Verzameling Sidney J. van den Bergh, Wassenaar, 1968, p. 110. EXHIBITION London, Burlington Fine Arts Club, 1920-1, no. 14. London, Royal Academy, Exhibition of Dutch Art, 1450-1900, 1929, no. 341. Amsterdam, Gallery Goudstikker, 1930-1, no. 86. Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans-van Beuningen, Meesterwerken uit vier Eeuwen 1400-1800, 1938, no. 164. Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans-van Beuningen, Kunstschatten uit Nederlandse Verzamelingen, 1955, no. 139. Arnhem, Gemeentesmuseum, Collectie J.C.H. Heldring, 1958, no. 36, pl. 43. Utrecht, Centraal Museum, Pieter Jansz. Saenredam, 1961, no. 244. Haarlem, Nederlandse Orgelpracht, 1961, no. 89. Leiden, Stedelijk Museum 'De Lakenhal', 17e eeuwse Meesters uit Nederlands Particulier Bezit, 1965, no. 50. Notre Dame, Indiana, The Snite Museum of Art, A Dutch Treat, 17 October-26 December 1982, no. 13, illustrated. NOTES Acknowledged as one of the greatest architectural painters of the seventeenth century, Emanuel de Witte joined the Guild of Saint Luke in Delft in 1642, moving to Amsterdam in 1652. Sometime after 1650 he abandoned the depiction of historical themes and began painting lofty church interiors. Once he adopted the theme of architectural perspectives, his stylistic development became a 'steady refinement of visual effects' rather than a search for new challenges. After circa 1660 he increasingly painted 'realistic imaginary churches' and repeated figure types that were already part of his repertoire, using them in the depictions of existing churches (W. Liedtke, Architectural Painting in Delft, 1982, p. 93). He described the same church interiors, sometimes from a new angle or viewpoint, but he always enlivened them with differing anecdotal content. Furthermore, his mature works from the 1660s, among which the present painting can be placed, until his untimely death in 1692, are characterized by his growing ability to describe the varying qualities of light. De Witte here returns to one of his most succesful early compositions, that employed for his Interior of the Oude Kerk in the Wallace Collection, London, dated 1651. The view is painted as though from the southern aisle, looking to the north-east; beyond the pulpit (built in 1548) and the main choir is the wood-vaulted Mariakoor (Mary's Choir). The area seen beyond the Mariakoor is the Joriskapel (Saint George's Chapel) where several years later the tomb of Admiral Maerten Tromp was installed. Running across the middle of the church is the choir screen. De Witte is known to have adapted his interiors to suit the overall composition, and, although it is largely true to life, there are some slight alterations in the present work - for example the brick-edged archway framing the west end of the Mariakoor has been simplified, in order to harmonize with the design and palette of the whole. De Witte advanced the art of architectural painting in Delft through his exploration of the effect of light. Previous artists such as Houckgeest had concentrated on the depiction of perspective and depth; de Witte, on the other hand deliberately softened the spacial recession in his pictures, allowing the more distant architectural features to fill in the picture field. The archways, figures and church furniture that Houckgeest would have used to create a sense of depth are used by de Witte to form a continuous horizontal barrier. Instead, he employs carefully placed patches of light and dark to create space, at the same time allowing the soft light to create a sense of tranquility that echoes, or even anticipates, the work of Delft artists such as de Hooch and Vermeer. The present picture was formerly in the exceptional collection of pictures assembled by P.A.B. Widener. Widener was the son of a bricklayer who rose to become one of the great industrial tycoons of American history. His collection, built up in the second half of the ninenteenth century, included the key group of pictures and works of art that formed, with those of Andrew W. Mellon, the original core of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. These include works of the calibre of Constable's The White Horse, Cuyp's Horsemen and Herdsmen with Cattle, Gerard David's Saint Anne Altarpiece, El Greco's Saint Martin and the Beggar, two portraits by Frans Hals, three landscapes by Hobbema, De Hooch's The Bedroom and Woman and a Child in a Courtyard, Murillo's Two Women at a Window, Potter's Farrier's Shop, four Rembrandts including The Mill and three Turners including his Keelmen heaving in Coals by Midnight.
