Hendrick Cornelisz. van Vliet

Possibly Galerie K, Petrograd (Saint Petersburg);
Anonymous sale (but probably part of a consignment from the above listed on the title page of the sale catalogue), Stockholm, Konstauktionshuset Hoving & Winborg, Konstnärshuset, Smålandsgatan 7, 23-25 September 1918, lot 116 (as depicting the Oude Kerk, Delft), where bought by the great-grandfather of the present owner. 

 

"The following condition report has been provided by Sarah Walden, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This painting has a comparatively recent lining and stretcher. It appears to have been folded at one time and has quite old, discoloured and crackled filling and retouching along the horizontal line of the fold, across at a level of the upper base of the columns. This slightly irregular line has been quite evenly lined, although the filler and old retouching is uneven. The surface texture with its beautiful minute craquelure is finely intact. Further retouching some time ago along the fold has also darkened, but the painting was not cleaned at the time, and there is fairly thick, old yellowed varnish. A narrow band of retouching runs along the top and base edges, with occasional touches at the side edges in the windows but not elsewhere. The characteristic enamelled surface and subtle tones seem to have been preserved in fine unworn condition almost throughout, with few traces of past interventions, and no other accidental damages. The old varnish is opaque to ultra violet light but a few minor darkened superficial touches can be seen down the shadowed side of the near column on the right, with one or two other little dark touches on the rear column to the right and on the rising arch at upper left. The tracery of the lower central window may also have been slightly strengthened, and it is possible that a patch of blue in the upper stained glass is reinforced. However such delicate details of tracery against the light are always vulnerable, and being originally so fine the exact condition of such areas is hard to see through the present varnish. Equally it is possible that there may be a few touches in the darks of the hatchments and organ shutters, although the lovely velvet tone of the darks seems to be finely preserved. The blue coat of the central figure seems slightly crystallised but this also may be superficial blanching, and the overall condition is remarkably beautiful and intact, having suffered unusually little past interference. 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."

The greater part of Van Vliet's output consisted of architectural portraits of the interiors of the two great churches in his native Delft: the Oude Kerk (Old Church) and the Nieuwe Kerk (New Church).  The present picture however seems to be a capriccio, with similarities with the interiors of the Oude Kerk in Delft, and the Oude Kerk in Amsterdam. 

The same view, with some differences to the detail, was depicted in a work by Emanuel de Witte, which is now in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.¹ The principal difference in the architecture is in the window in the far distance, which De Witte paints as one single pointed top window.  De Witte's work is generally dated to circa 1680, well after Van Vliet's death in 1675, and the greater likelihood is that De Witte used a work by Van Vliet, probably the present picture or one very like it, as his prototype.  This would by no means be the only example of a work by De Witte taking its composition from an earlier painting by Van Vliet.²

The present  picture is likely to be a late work, dating from well after 1660.

1. See I. Manke, Emanuel de Witte, Amsterdam 1963, pp. 101-2, cat. no. 102,  reproduced fig. 94, & W.A. Liedtke, Architectural Painting in Delft, Doornspijk 1982,  reproduced fig. 94.
2.  See Liedtke, op. cit., pp. 86-7.