Emanuel de Witte

Anonymous sale, Monaco, Sotheby’s, 2 July 1993, lot 72;

Anonymous sale, Paris, Tajan, 19 June 2001, lot 37;

Where acquired by the present owner.

A. Wallert and I. Steeman, in Emanuel de Witte (1616/17–1691/92): Meester van het licht, exhibition catalogue, Zwolle 2017, pp. 138-139, reproduced figs. 8.11.C.

These freely executed figure studies are rare surviving examples of Emanuel de Witte’s preparatory oil studies. They were each executed in 1684 as highly worked up studies for A church interior with elements of the Oude Kerk and Nieuwe Kerk in Amsterdam, the epitaph of Cornelis Johannes de Haan to the right (fig. 1, sold New York, Sotheby’s, 30 January 2014, lot 277). That composition, also dated 1684, combines elements from both the Oude and Nieuwe Kerk, Amsterdam, a practice of amalgamation common in de Witte’s oeuvre. The subdued palette with flamboyant red details in the present studies is characteristic of his works produced after 1665. During his career, the artist reused stock figures, incorporating them in numerous works and each time with subtle modifications. For example, the man with his back to the viewer and his cloak thrown over his shoulder, was one of his most successful figure types and already appears in numerous earlier works including The Interior of the Portugese Synagogue, Amsterdam, dated 1680 and The Tomb of Michiel de Ruyter in the Nieuwe Kerk, Amsterdam, dated 1683. These paintings both belong to the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (SK-A3738 and SK-A1642). This pair of sketches are the only known preparatory studies in oil by the artist and show us how the artist enlivened his church interiors with anecdotal content.

De Witte is rightly acknowledged as one of the greatest architectural painters of the seventeenth century in Holland. All his Amsterdam views were painted after his move there from Delft in the winter of 1651-2. His explorations of the effects of light advanced the art of architectural painting in Holland where previously the depiction of perspective and depth had been the principal concern. De Witte felt free to ignore the stringent requirements of linear perspective if they obstructed his creativity. Few details are known of his life, there being little documentary material to draw on, but he was certainly born in Alkmaar and joined the guild there in 1636. Six years later he joined the Delft guild of St. Luke and subsequently was married with two daughters. Late in 1691 De Witte suddenly disappeared and eleven weeks later his body was discovered in a frozen canal, a rope tied around his neck; it was thus generally assumed that he committed suicide. De Witte's legacy lived on through his pupil Hendrick Van Streeck but he never reached the pinnacle of achievement attained by his master.