EMANUEL DE WITTE | INTERIOR OF A GOTHIC CHURCH LOOKING DOWN THE AISLE TOWARD THE CHOIR, WITH A FAMILY BEGGING FOR ALMS

Anonymous sale, New York, Christie's, 15 October 1998, lot 60;

Where acquired.

Around 1660, Emanuel de Witte began painting imagined churches based on real examples, and he repeated certain figures and motifs such as the woman begging for alms at left. Although fabricated, De Witte's scenes evoke a particular moment in time, enlivened by additions like the dog relieving itself at lower right. Ilse Manke describes a very similar view toward the choir, with the same begging woman and the same dimensions, but with an organ in the background [1]. Marijke de Kinkelder of the RKD confirmed the attribution in 1997 and dated the painting to the 1660s. 

1. I. Manke, Emanuel de Witte, 1617 - 1692, Amsterdam 1963, p. 112, no. 144.