Emanuel de Witte

G. Arnot, London;
From whom bought in July 1939 by B. de Geus van den Heuvel, Amsterdam and Nieuwersluis;
His sale, Amsterdam, Sotheby Mak van Waay, 26 April 1976, lot 83, where bought by the present owner.

Rotterdam, Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Schilderijen uit particuliere verzamelingen in Nederland, 1939-40, no. 60 (reproduced in the catalogue plate XXIX);
Schiedam, Stedelijk Museum, 1951-2, no. 90;
Delft, Stedelijk Museum Het Prinsenhof, 1952-53, no. 85;
Utrecht, Centraal Museum, Nederlandse architectuurschilders 1600-1900, 1953, no. 113;
Zurich, Kunsthaus, Holländer des 17. Jahrhunderts, 4 November-20 December 1953, no. 181;
Rome,  Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Mostra di Pittura Olandese del Seicento, February 1954, no. 183;
Milan, Palazzo Reale, Mostra di Pittura Olandese del Seicento, April 1954, no. 179, (reproduced in the catalogue, fig. 53);
Rotterdam, Museum Boymans van Beuningen, Kunstschatten uit Nederlandse Verzamelingen, June-September 1955, no. 140 (reproduced in the catalogue plate 114);
Arnhem, Gemeente Museum, 1960-1, no. 81 (reproduced in the catalogue fig. 70).

E. Trautscholdt, in F. Thieme & U. Becker, Allgemeines Lexikon der bildende Kunst, vol XXXVI, Leipzig 1947, p. 125;
I. Manke, Emanuel de Witte, Amsterdam 1963, pp. 80-81, no. 13, reproduced plate 71;
H.S. Nienhuis (ed.), Collectie B. de Geus ban den Heuvel, Amsterdam 1963, vol. I, p. 57, no. 83, reproduced in colour vol. II, plate 83;
W.A. Liedtke, Architectural Painting in Delft, Doornspijk 1982, p. 126 (under Appendix V), no. XIII, reproduced in colour plate XIII;
J. Ingamells, The Wallace Collection.  Catalogue of Pictures, vol. IV, Dutch and Flemish, London 1992, p. 439, under no. P254.

 

This report was provided by Sarah Walden, and independent expert and not an employee of Sotheby's. This painting has quite an old lining and stretcher, and a recent restoration. It has clearly always been well protected and maintained, with no sign of any early brittleness along the stretcher bar lines and even the base edge has minimal trace of rubbing or damage. With no accidental damage at all the beautiful overall condition is testament to its enduring technique as well as the care with which it must always have been surrounded. A few small strengthening touches can be seen under ultra violet light in the most vulnerable blacks of the costumes in the foreground. Slight thinness around the preacher has also been lightly strengthened, and there is some retouching at upper right near the pentiment of another flag in the chancel. Another pentiment of a chandelier at lower right also has some minor retouching, as has the brightest white of the column at upper centre right where slightly denser paint may have lead to minute powdering on the crests of the canvas. However these are minor imperfections in a remarkably intact painting, with all the magnificent play of light and shade beautifully preserved. This report was not done under laboratory conditions.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

De Witte painted a number of views of the Oude Kerk in Delft throughout most of his career, and each one differs to a varying degree in the architecture, and in each the staffage is different.  The first of this type of view of the Oude Kerk, from the south aisle past the pulpit to the crossing and the north-east during the preaching of a sermon, and also De Witte's earliest dated church interior, is the one in the Wallace Collection, London, signed and dated 1651, which is seen from slightly closer to the pulpit, omits the fictitious organ shutters to the left and the view to the right of the second column.¹  As both Manke and Liedtke noted, the present picture, painted in Amsterdam 18 years later, derives from it.²  A later version, in Brussels, circa 1653-5 by Liedtke and circa 1656 by Manke, is a horizontal composition which cuts off the upper parts at the capital of the nearest column, and is seen from a little to the left of the present viewpoint, looking down the body of the church.³  In both of these, but not the present picture, the architecture of the wooden rood screen is the same.  While this might suggest that the present higher, pedimented structure was constructed between the mid-1650s and 1669, the date of this work, it is more likely that it was, like the organ shutters to the left, an invention of the artist, perhaps to reflect more the classicizing fashion in architecture in Amsterdam in the late 1660s.  The present picture has numerous smaller detailed changes, characteristic of De Witte's working practice later in his career.  De Witte carried on painting this view until late in his career: one such work, dated 1682, is in a Dutch private collection.⁴  

B. de Geus van den Heuvel was one of the most distinguished Dutch collectors of the 20th Century.  He made most of his acquisitions of Old Masters in the 1930s, and was a most generous lender to exhibitions in the post-war period.  His collection was unusual in that it balanced 16th and classic 17th Century Dutch and some Flemish pictures with a large collection of 18th, 19th and early 20th Century works by Dutch painters.  Mr and Mrs Geus van den Heuvel lived with their pictures in an 18th Century house, Lusthof Rupelmonde, on the river Vecht at Nieuwersluis, which they acquired after the war.

1.  London, The Wallace Collection, inv. P254, oil on panel, 60.5 by 44 cm.; see Ingamells under literature, pp. 437-9, reproduced.
2.  See under literature.
3.  Brussels, Musée des Beaux-Arts, no. 770, oil on canvas, 40 by 55 cm.; see Manke, op. cit., p. 81, no. 17, reproduced fig. 30.
4.  See M.C.C. Kersten & D.H.A.C. Lokin, Delft Masters, Vermeer's Contemporaries, exhibiton catalogue, Delft 1996, p. 69, reproduced fig. 53