Interior of the Oude Kerk, Delft

c. 1680

Emanuel de Witte
Dutch, c. 1617–1691/2

Having been stripped of their images and whitewashed by Protestant reformers in the 16th century, Holland’s large Gothic churches offered an excellent subject for the exploration of light, shade, and volume. Emanuel de Witte was one of a small group of painters who specialized in church interiors. Before he moved to Amsterdam in about 1652, he worked in Delft, a city whose artists were particularly fascinated by light and perspective. In this late painting, somewhat loosely based on one of the chief churches of Delft, the angles of the nave and transept converge on the preacher high in his pulpit; an organ and genealogical panels memorializing the dead provide the only decoration.

On View: European Painting and Sculpture, Gallery 213

Artist: Emanuel de Witte
Title: Interior of the Oude Kerk, Delft
Origin: Holland
Date: 1675–1685
Medium: Oil on panel
Inscriptions: Illegible traces of signature and date at lower right below dog.
Dimensions: 24 3/8 × 19 5/16 in. (62 × 49.2 cm)
Credit Line: Charles H. and Mary F. S. Worcester Collection
Reference Number: 1941.1038

Daniel Catton Rich, Catalogue of the Charles H. and Mary F. S. Worcester Collection, Chicgago, 1937, no. 47, pl. 33.
Frederick A. Sweet. “A Church Interior by Emanuel de Witte,” Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago 36 (1942), pp. 65-67 (ill).
E. S. Siple. “Art in America – Museum Problems and Acquisitions,” Burlington Magazine 82 (1942), p. 25, pl. IIA.
Art Institute of Chicago, Paintings in the Art Institute of Chicago. A Catalogue of the Picture Collection (Chicago. 1961), p. 485, ill p. 190.
Timothy Trent Blade. “Two Interior Views of the Old Church in Delft,” Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 8 (1971), pp. 37-50, fig. 3.
Ilse Manke. Emanuel de Witte 1617-1692 (Amsterdam, 1963), p. 81, cat. no. 14, fig. 102.
J. S. Gudlaugsson. “Een kerkinteriur van Hendrik van Streeck,” Kunsthistorische Mededelingen 1 (1946), p. 51.

Indianapolis, John Herron Art Institute, Dutch Paintings, Etchings, Drawings, Delftware of the Seventeenth Century, Feb. – April 1937, cat. 74.
Appleton, Wisconsin, Worcester Art Center, Exhibition of the Worcester Collection, June 1950, no. cat.

Gebruder Douwes, Amsterdam [according to Manke 1963]. Karl Haberstock, Berlin [according to email of July 15, 2002 from Lynda McLoed, Christie’s, Haberstock was the consignor of lot 71 at the sale cited below]; sold, Christie’s London, 12 July 1935, lot. 71 for 126 pounds to Charles Duits [see email cited above; though no Christie’s stencil (which would be 137 GC), is now visible, the identity of the picture with lot 71, suspected by Manke 1963, is confirmed by the Duits stockcard at the Getty Research Institute Library, email of July 12, 2002 from Mark Henderson]; sold by W. E. Duits Ltd. to Charles Worcester, Chicago, 1 October 1935 [Duits stockcard cited above]; given to the Art Institute, 1941.

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