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Lot Essay
De Lorme's date of birth is unknown and he is first recorded in Rotterdam in 1627, when he acted as a witness for his teacher, Jan van Vucht. He married in Rotterdam in 1647 and died there in 1673. His earliest known picture dates from 1639 and shows a church interior that is derived from, although not identical with, the St. Laurenskerk in Rotterdam. Throughout the 1640's he painted only imaginary church interiors such as the present painting, and in these he was influenced by the work of his teacher, van Vucht, as well as by Bartholomeus van Bassen. Around 1652 de Lorme painted his first real view of the interior of the St. Laurenskerk and thereafter almost all his oeuvre consists of paintings of that church (see, for example, the painting sold at Christie's, London, 16 April 1999, lot 42 for £270,000 = $430,000. While he was influenced by the Delft painters of church interiors such as Gerard Houckgeest and Hendrick van Vliet, the influence of Pieter Saenredam was of paramount importance to him throughout his lifetime.
De Lorme made something of a specialty of painting capriccios of classical churches at night, other examples of which are at the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rennes (see W. Liedtke, Architectural Painting in Delft, Groningen, 1982, pp.126-27, plate 110); sold, Sotheby's, London, 3 July 1997, lot 90 (£95,000 = $160,000); sold, Christie's, London, 9 December 1988, lot 104; and in the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin (H. Potterton, Dutch Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Paintings in the National Gallery of Ireland. A complete catalogue, Dublin, 1986, p.85, no.516). In all of these paintings the staffage appears to be the work of Anthonie Palamedes (1601 - 1673), who is recorded by A. von Wurzbach, Niederländisches Künstler-Lexikon, 1963, II, p.67, as having collaborated with de Lorme in the 1640s.
De Lorme made something of a specialty of painting capriccios of classical churches at night, other examples of which are at the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rennes (see W. Liedtke, Architectural Painting in Delft, Groningen, 1982, pp.126-27, plate 110); sold, Sotheby's, London, 3 July 1997, lot 90 (£95,000 = $160,000); sold, Christie's, London, 9 December 1988, lot 104; and in the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin (H. Potterton, Dutch Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Paintings in the National Gallery of Ireland. A complete catalogue, Dublin, 1986, p.85, no.516). In all of these paintings the staffage appears to be the work of Anthonie Palamedes (1601 - 1673), who is recorded by A. von Wurzbach, Niederländisches Künstler-Lexikon, 1963, II, p.67, as having collaborated with de Lorme in the 1640s.