Lot Essay
Although Gerard Houckgeest joined the guild in The Hague in 1625, his earliest dated painting (Charles I and Henrietta Maria Dining in Public, in the collection of H.M. The Queen, Hampton Court, London; for which see W.A. Liedtke, Architectural Painting in Delft, 1982, fig. 8) is dated ten years later, in the same year that the artist was first mentioned in Delft. The present painting is characteristic of the type of architectural fantasies, often with historical staffage, (compare, for example, Imaginary Architecture with the Judgement of Solomon, signed and dated 1647, Schloss Dessau) that the artist produced in the tradition of Vredeman de Vries and in the style of Bartholomeus van Bassen prior to circa 1650/51 when he pioneered the new, more naturalistic architectural painting style for which the Delft School is renowned.
Houckgeest painted the same church interior from the same viewpoint, with minor differences, on at least one other occasion (formerly with R. Noortman, B.V., Holland, 1975; advertised in the Connoisseur, March 1975, p.22).
Houckgeest painted the same church interior from the same viewpoint, with minor differences, on at least one other occasion (formerly with R. Noortman, B.V., Holland, 1975; advertised in the Connoisseur, March 1975, p.22).