Lot 41: - Emanuel de Witte , Alkmaar circa 1617 - 1691/2 Amsterdam the interior of the oude kerk, amsterdam, from the northern aisle looking west oil on canvas

signed lower left on the gravestone: ...De Witte oil on canvas

measurements note 66 by 55.5 cm.; 26 by 22 in.

The Hague, Koninklijk Schilderijenkabinet Het Mautisthuis, on loan, 1993-1998.

Advertisement in Art Journal, vol. 36, no. 2 (Winter 1976-77), p. 102, reproduced;
W.A. Liedtke, Architectural painting in Delft: Gerard Houckgeest, Hendrick van Vliet, Emmanuel de Witte, Doornspijk 1982, p. 115, no. 237a.

Anonymous sale, London, Christie's, 30 November 1973, lot 134, £21,000 to Johnstone;
With Newhouse Galleries, New York, 1976;
Anonymous sale, London, Christie's, 19 April 1985, lot 25;
Private Collection, The Netherlands;
Anonymous sale, London, Sotheby's, 17 December 1998, lot 4;
With Jack Kilgore and Company, New York;
From whom acquired by the present owner.

THE PROPERTY OF A PRIVATE COLLECTOR
The view is taken from the north aisle of the Oude Kerk, Amsterdam, looking west. With its many chapels, aisles and hidden recesses the Oude Kerk provided De Witte with numerous possibilities and its vast windows provided such stark pools of light on the stonework that he never tired of producing views therein. Manke reproduces twenty-one such viewsυ1 but there are countless more that have since come to light. While many other artists found the Oude Kerk's interior equally as inspiring, such as his pupil Hendrick van Streeck whose depiction of the Oude Kerk's north aisle is in the Bredius Museum, The Hague,υ2 no one could reproduce it with such dramatic effects of light and colour, nor with such anecdotal charm. Another of De Witte's aspects of the north aisle, painted from a few steps further forward, was formerly in the collection of Count Grigorii Orlov in St. Petersburg and sold London, Christie's, 17 December 1999, lot 25.υ3

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 Almaar 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. De Witte's legacy lived on through his pupil Van Streeck but he never reached the pinnacle of achievement attained by his master.

1. I. Manke, Emmanuel de Witte 1617-1692, Amsterdam 1963.
2. Manke, op. cit., p. 144, no. 328, reproduced fig. 113.
3. De Witte however uses his artistic licence with the St. Petersburg view, changing the make-up of the windows.