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Lot Essay
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 repetoire, 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.
The present painting, depicting an as yet unidentified (and perhaps fictive) protestant Gothic church, repeats the left-hand figure group of the mother and her children used in his signed and dated work of 1661 (see I. Manke, Emmanuel de Witte, 1963, p. 116, no. 160, fig. 53, with Garcia Calles, Madrid). He shows the crossing of the same church looking right towards the choirscreen, in the canvas in the Kaiser Friedrich-Museum, Berlin (Manke, op. cit., p. 107, no. 121, fig. 55), in which the intimacy created in the exchange of glance between the figures in the foreground of the present work is sacrificed for an atmospheric view of the congregation listening to a pastor's sermon. He depicts this church a further time in the painting in the Centraal Museum, Utrecht, Inv. no. 1358, taking another viewpoint, looking from the crossing towards the east end of the church and the choir (Manke, ibid., p. 108, no. 126). The present work is a fine example of De Witte's ability in his maturity to impart a sense of immediacy to his compositions through the people and animals in his churches, combined with his ability to enliven gestures and to capture the subtle qualites of light.
The present lot is accompanied by a photocopy of a letter from Marijke de Kinkelder of the Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie confirming the attribution to Emanuel de Witte and dating it to the early 1660s.
The present painting, depicting an as yet unidentified (and perhaps fictive) protestant Gothic church, repeats the left-hand figure group of the mother and her children used in his signed and dated work of 1661 (see I. Manke, Emmanuel de Witte, 1963, p. 116, no. 160, fig. 53, with Garcia Calles, Madrid). He shows the crossing of the same church looking right towards the choirscreen, in the canvas in the Kaiser Friedrich-Museum, Berlin (Manke, op. cit., p. 107, no. 121, fig. 55), in which the intimacy created in the exchange of glance between the figures in the foreground of the present work is sacrificed for an atmospheric view of the congregation listening to a pastor's sermon. He depicts this church a further time in the painting in the Centraal Museum, Utrecht, Inv. no. 1358, taking another viewpoint, looking from the crossing towards the east end of the church and the choir (Manke, ibid., p. 108, no. 126). The present work is a fine example of De Witte's ability in his maturity to impart a sense of immediacy to his compositions through the people and animals in his churches, combined with his ability to enliven gestures and to capture the subtle qualites of light.
The present lot is accompanied by a photocopy of a letter from Marijke de Kinkelder of the Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie confirming the attribution to Emanuel de Witte and dating it to the early 1660s.